Feb. 3 (UPI) — Task Force One Navy, formed in July to address U.S. Navy diversity, submitted its final report on Wednesday, calling for equity and inclusion in its ranks.
The 142-page report to the Culture of Service Governance Board listed nearly 60 recommendations, after 285 interviews with active and reserve Navy members and Navy civilians around the world, and nearly 900 suggestions.
The report focuses on four areas — recruiting; talent management and retention; professional development; and innovation and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
The Navy highlighted several key findings from the report.
These include expansion of tracks for enlisted sailors to become officers; better evaluations for sailors’ potentials; stipends for officers in the delayed entry program, development of metrics to measure standards of diversity, equity and inclusion; expansion of diversity data and an increase in scholarships targeting underrepresented communities.
“As a Navy — uniform and civilian, active and reserve — we cannot tolerate discrimination of any kind, and must engage in open and honest conversations with each other and take action,” said Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday in the report.
“That is why we stood up Task Force One Navy, to identify and remove racial barriers, improve inclusion efforts, create new opportunities for professional development, and eliminate obstacles to enter the Navy,” Gilday said
The U.S. military began diversity initiatives in June 2020, including the crowdsourcing project used for the report.
Then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper ordered the removal of photographs of applicants to promotion, school, and command selection boards in June, amid a summer of protests against racial injustice in many U.S. cities and a renewed national conversation about race.
For the Pentagon, this has included directives to ban racist symbols from military installations and discussion about changing the names of some installations.
On Feb. 2, the U.S. Air Force announced a permanent Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
This followed a review that noted that Black men in the Air Force experience disproportionately negative outcomes at nearly every level, including more frequent courts martial and fewer opportunities for professional development.
Tawanda Rooney, a career member of the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service, will serve as acting senior adviser on diversity and inclusion.
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