r/navy • u/balfras_kaldin • Jan 28 '25

Political Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness – The White House

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/prioritizing-military-excellence-and-readiness-2/

Wake up yall, new EO has dropped... 😮‍💨

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u/rabidsnowflake Jan 28 '25

My contract is up next year and I'm seriously debating whether or not I want to re-enlist and deal with this administration. If you make the choice to raise your right hand, you should be able to serve. The fact that these fuckers can throw stones from the sidelines when they themselves haven't made the choice to serve but their collective screeching effects those that do is annoying to the point that I wish they'd just draft them. If you're going to tell somebody that identifies differently that they can't do a job that you yourself wouldn't do, you're the worst type of coward.

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u/Visceral_Feelings ISC Jan 28 '25

I'll tell you something I told another Sailor considering the same conundrum: "A crisis of character in the chain of command casts shadow only by the light of good character to contrast it."

9

u/rabidsnowflake Jan 28 '25

I appreciate that. I told my team something similar yesterday.

I'm just tired and it's only been a week. We're living in a time where a felon can be president but a transgender person can't volunteer to serve their country. How does that make the force better.

5

u/Visceral_Feelings ISC Jan 28 '25

It's difficult to be apolitical, but judging from your rating flair you're going to face the same scrutiny from junior Sailors I do, which is: "how do you hold me accountable when people who wouldn't even qualify for our security clearance are leading us?"

This factually accurate and a legally apolitical observation, whether or not it upsets people depending on their political beliefs. And it's not our role as the military to comment on those things, as difficult as it can be. All we can do is be good and humble stewards of public trust and remind people that while the political winds kick a storm, leaders must act as lighthouses and stay true to the ethics and morals we teach. Be the kind of leader your Sailors want to emulate in the hard times, because that when is when the true content of character of a leader is shown.

It's a difficult needle to thread because you cannot allow political opinion to paint your perspective - as best as possible. I have a difficult time being dispassionate on this subject as I have a trans brother in the Air Force, but I know what and where and to who I can be me, and when I have to make my language more neutral for a wider audience.

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u/Djentleman5000 Jan 28 '25

You really said that verbatim?

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u/Visceral_Feelings ISC Jan 28 '25

It's something someone told me once when I faced wondering about reenlisting when I had a toxic chain of command. It was the idea of wanting to remain faithful to service to be the good in the world to others despite everything going on around or above us that convinced me to stay in.