To the editor: In my previous, I served aboard a destroyer on the “entrance line” within the South China Sea. I’ve seen sailors of all genders and races climb beneath fuel generators, deal with traces with small boats, fireplace machine weapons, sit at consoles and push buttons or stand on the bridge and provides orders. Did all of them do equally effectively? After all not. Each particular person is totally different and their different abilities, backgrounds and experiences made the ship, and Navy, stronger.
At a time when the navy suffers a disaster of recruitment and retention, telling half the inhabitants and a good portion of the remaining half they aren’t valued for who they’re makes our navy weaker and nation much less secure (“Trump and Hegseth declare an finish to ‘politically appropriate’ management within the U.S. navy,” Sept. 30).
Michael Smallberg, San Diego
