“China likely cares very little about whether its sailors have access to education opportunities or whether their marine spouses are able to transfer their work skills from one location to another,” wrote Marine veteran Dakota Wood.

By Aaron Kliegman    September11,2022

As America faces a range of growing security threats from abroad, concerns are mounting that the Pentagon’s senior leadership is too focused on priorities other than deterring and preparing for war.

For some experts, a recent 1,141-word message to the Navy and Marine Corps crystallizes this issue.

The message, penned by Secretary of the Navy Carlos del Toro, was meant to tout his accomplishments after one year of being in charge of the Navy Department. He highlighted the Navy’s progress on several issues: sexual harassment, mental health, education, housing, keeping personal costs down, child care, spouse employment, and the Exceptional Family Member Program.

Del Toro’s one-year status report “talks about everything … except sea power,” wrote Heritage Foundation senior fellow and Marine veteran Dakota Wood. “He missed an opportunity to reflect on why we have a Navy in the first place, and the purpose, importance, and value of serving as sailors and Marines.”

The message didn’t address that China has the world’s largest navy or that China is expected to have more aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships based in the Pacific than the U.S. by 2025.

The U.S. Navy has also faced maintenance backlogs, ship collisions, and training accidents caused in part by strain on the current fleet to keep up with deployments. According to analysts, the service isn’t well positioned to reorient the Marine Corps with new and more ships to face the military threat posed by China.

“Del Toro said nary a word about any of this in his ‘year in review,'” wrote Wood. “The naval services must be prepared for war so that, when called upon, they will be able to defeat enemy forces in battle. China likely cares very little about whether its sailors have access to education opportunities or whether their marine spouses are able to transfer their work skills from one location to another. But they are increasing their warfighting capabilities at a rapid pace while the U.S. fleet dwindles.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. Pacific Air Forces, which is tasked in part with deterring and preparing for conflict with China, has ordered its senior leaders and commanders to stop using gender pronouns such as “he” and “she,” the Washington Free Beacon reported.

The military command also banned references to age and race, saying the language shift would help with “lethality” and “competition against near-peer adversaries,” a term referring to China and Russia.

“We must embrace, promote, and unleash the potential of diversity and inclusion,” read an email sent in May to senior leaders and commanders at the Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, which operates under the Pacific Air Forces.

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