A 'woke' military? Don't forget the messy race relations that got us here

Recent Republican moves to limit diversity training and transgender rights and other hot-button controversies stemming from the annual defense authorization bill remind me of my own days in uniform back when some of those diversity policies were being created

- Clarence Page

Lucky me, I was drafted in 1969, a dark time that some military officials called the “time of troubles” in the late 1960s and early ’70s. It was a time when the armed forces were facing military defeat in Vietnam and racial strife, poor morale, and reports of urban riots back home, where the war had grown increasingly unpopular — and not just among radical activists.

In just two years, 1969 and 1971, the Defense Department recorded more than 300 racial incidents, including “race riots” and other unrest on military bases and other outposts, including two Navy aircraft carriers, according to military reports.

Among other problems, one study found, Black service members were more likely to be assigned to combat than technical operations and were promoted more slowly — even controlling for test score differences.

The Defense Department, facing transition to an allvolunteer force, took aggressive steps to improve communications, including establishing “equal opportunity councils” in major units and goals and timetables for affirmative action, military-style.