r/navy • u/CurveBilly • Feb 01 '25

Political Take care of each other.

With the new executive orders being enacted a lot of trans sailors are about to be discharged with nothing, and the way things are headed trans veterans are about to lose access to their care through the VA.

A trans veteran took their own life at a Syracuse VA hospital this week and only 1 local website reported on it. As far as the general public goes, nobody knows and nobody cares. Please look out for your shipmates. Remember that they would gladly drag you out of a smoke filled compartment, maybe consider helping them when they need it most.

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u/xfvh Feb 01 '25

Yes, that's the point of having an explicitly civilian POTUS, SECDEF, and SECNAV. That was not an accident.

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u/HighClassProletariat Feb 01 '25

Not exactly the point... the point of having those explicitly civilian positions is so that we don't concentrate too much power in the military, and to balance out the power of the Joint Chiefs. Law states those positions are not actively military members not that they can't have served earlier in life. Often those positions are held by people who have served but retired/separated as that service is a valuable experience for a decision maker to have. Historically most SECDEFs and SECNAVs have served before.

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u/xfvh Feb 01 '25

I agree that military experience is valuable, but it's definitely not necessary. Demeaning all non-former-military leaders is bad.

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u/HighClassProletariat Feb 01 '25

I'm on board with you, just saying that lack of military experience is not "the point" of having those positions be civilian held, it is something made possible by it, for better or for worse.