Caucus calls for more minority four-stars
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Oct 2, 2007 16:28:04 EDT

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, disappointed when the Joint Chiefs of Staff sent their deputies to a Tuesday meeting about minority officer issues, vowed to continue pressing for better career opportunities for African Americans, Hispanics and women in uniform.

Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., who organized the Pentagon meeting to talk about why only one four-star officer currently on the rolls is a minority, said he and his colleagues came away from a meeting with Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, the service vice chiefs and Pentagon personnel officials believing the military won’t do anything to increase minority officer representation unless they are pushed.

“I don’t there has been acceptance [that] they have a problem,” Meek said, adding that the decision by the Joint Chiefs to send their deputies at the last minute to meet with the caucus delegation is “unacceptable.”

Meeks, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said he was “disappointed” by that move, but remains undeterred in trying to change the military’s policy. If the military isn’t interested in cooperating, he said, the caucus will turn to the House Armed Services Committee to investigate military recruiting and promotion policies with an eye toward change.

One idea is for the committee to hold a hearing on minority representation in which retired military officers testify about the hurdles they faced in their careers and what might have helped them rise higher in rank and stay in uniform longer.

Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., said the military seemed to be doing a better job in this area for many years. From 1975 until about 2000, the percentage of minority officers increased, as did their relative rank.

“Then, things leveled off,” Lee said.

Pentagon statistics show that about 8.6 percent of officers recruited into the force are black, with the highest percentage in the Army and the lowest in the Marine Corps. Blacks also make up about 8.6 percent of the overall career force of active-duty officers, which appears to show they are retained in about the same numbers in which they join.

For the caucus, the fact that the military’s senior black officer, Army Gen. William “Kip” Ward, is head of the newly established U.S. Africa Command is not something to be celebrated.

Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Tex., said she has a “sense of rage and outrage” at the fact that Ward is the only black four-star in all of the services.

Jackson-Lee said caucus members asked the Pentagon to come up with a list of senior black officers who might be in line for four-star rank. She said she expects a list of five candidates to be delivered to the caucus within three months.

Meek and Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., another armed services committee member, said they want a complete review of military promotion law and procedures to see if there is a way to make military careers more attractive.

Many ambitious young military officers — and not just minorities — don’t want to stay in the ranks because it takes so long to move up, Johnson said.

And moving up can be harder, or at least perceived as harder, for minorities if they do not have many role models and mentors.

Johnson also complained that minority officers may be missing out on some key assignments and duties delegated by their commanders early in their careers, which could end up holding them back as they try to rise in rank.

Having an institutional mentor program, in which every new minority officer is assigned a senior officer to help his or her career, might help keep more people in, Johnson suggested.

Ellie