A Complicated, "Perfect" Storm?
The President vowed, yesterday, to "step up our game" on sexual harassment in the military; in wake of the latest Air Force incident. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-05-07/air-force-sex-assault-prevention-chief-accused-of-sexual-battery
My readers know that I am an Air Force, service-disabled veteran. I served as an officer for 20 years. The first officer in the Air Force to treat me as a fellow human being was a female officer. The year was 1962, and both she and I were on the "front line" in battles to integrate the Air Force.
For the first ten years of my twenty-year career, the major issues were "race wars" in the military. (I was later congratulated by General Benjamin O. Davis, for continuing the struggles he and his fellow Red Tails began a decade or more before I was commissioned).
Over the 20 year period that I served, conditions inside the military changed drastically. Because the top leadership at the time I entered included soldiers with World War II and Korea experience, the racial issues were handled effectively; mostly under control by the mid-70's. The numbers of women in the services were miniscule in numbers until 1979; when enlistment rules were made the same for men and women; with women limited to non-combat roles.
By 1979, officers who had experienced the earlier racial conflicts were assuming command positions. They were markedly more "political" than those who came before them. In two important aspects, the personnel changes were important, as I look back. The Hatch Act was ignored; and the services all adopted "administrative procedures" for handling retention issues. No longer did the officers "dirty" their hands with disciplining enlisted members. They issued administrative discharges in droves to get rid of "problems". As the number of women increased, new problems concerning "hardship" issues arose. These were mostly family matters that interfered with assignment orders. New "administrative procedures" were developed to handle those also. As a recently divorced, single parent, I was also impacted; prompting my decision to retire, rather than risk having to leave my children un-attended. "Judicial" procedures under the UCMJ were also brought to bear in many cases. As a Court Member, I was more than once "voir dired", unsuccessfully, by prosecuting JAGs, because I questioned their "facts" in trial.
It was increasingly clear as I left the Air Force that the military, like the total nation, was shifting politically toward the "hard right". The changes in the "climate" in the military between 1962 and 1982, were "stark".
Stay Vigilant! Systemic Change May be Required.
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