Pride Month morale patch gains approval at Air Force base in South Korea

Discussion in 'Warfare / Military' started by Lil Mike, Jun 21, 2024.

  1. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    This seems new

    Pride Month morale patch gains approval at Air Force base in South Korea

    OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — Airmen stationed on this installation 30 miles south of Seoul are authorized to wear a Pride morale patch this month.

    A May 20 memo from 51st Fighter Wing commander Col. William McKibban approved the “Osan+” patch on Fridays and at special events.

    The patch’s circular design features the Progress rainbow flag at the center bordered by a black ring with “Osan+” on top and “Osan Air Base ROK” at the bottom. ROK is the acronym for Republic of Korea, the formal name for South Korea.

    “The Osan+ patch is the approved morale patch in honor of Pride month, which takes place in June,” wing spokeswoman Capt. Michelle Chang told Stars and Stripes by email Thursday. “The patch represents the advancement of the Air Force’s commitment to diversity, inclusion, dignity, and respect within the mission.”


    My guess is that Colonel McKibban has just figured out how to make general
     
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  2. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    I'm saying it right now, I'm nearing the end of my career. Multi war vet, Iraq and Afghan combat tours, years of experience, broken body due to years of service but I can still go.

    Soon I will be sitting on my back porch or on my boat smoking a cigar and drinking whisky. All of my buddies who are just like me will soon be doing the same.

    The military doesn't want people like me anymore, we are not the target demographic and they are choosing to cater to what they know is unpopular to old grumpy battle hardened vets like me.

    So when all hell breaks loose, do not call me.
     
  3. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    Narrator: They will call you.
     
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  4. Pro_Line_FL

    Pro_Line_FL Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    You think they have an opinion based "target demographic" given the fact that they are short on recruiting?

    Target demographic = Recent high school graduates
     
  5. Farnsworth

    Farnsworth Banned

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    Anybody who doesn't believe our entire society should devote 100% of its efforts to pandering to a tiny demographic of mentally ill sexual fetishists and their whims is a bigot and a H8ter n stuff.
     
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2024
  6. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    Yeah they do, look no further than their recruitment advertisements and the new mandated policies across the DoD. The military across all branches used to advertise itself specifically to young men who acted like men. Now they've shifted focus to DEI policies and recruiting which is alienating their previous and largest target demographic. Some folks aren't going to like hearing this and say it's bigoted or whatever but thats fine. The reality is by adopting progressive ideology in the DoD the military has alienated it's core demographic because those in that core demographic by and large do not accept this stuff and want no part of it. The Navy choosing to have an open drag queen as a spokesperson is not catering to traditional young men. The Navy Special Warfare Center choosing to put a rainbow pride post on Twitter for June is not catering itself to traditional young men who would normally aspire to be Navy SEALs. In fact it's pissing them off making them want no part of it. The Air Force allowing pride patches is not catering to traditional young men neither are Army recruitment ads with a chick talking about how she has two mommies.

    They are absolutely choosing who they are targeting for recruitment. That or they are the most out of touch clowns on the planet who think doing this stuff is an adequate way to recruit the general pool of "recent high school grads". In spite of what the tiny progressive part of society has been so desperately trying to convince everybody of for years, most people don't actually like this stuff. Young men who are the military's target demographic especially don't like this stuff. Those currently serving in the military by and large don't like this stuff either.
     
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  7. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    I'm sure they will try. Unfortunately for them my fuel tank of motivation and patriotism that currently keeps me going in spite of some pretty significant injuries is going to run out when I retire. I've been getting offered full medical retirement for years at this point but due to my rank and status and job I have the ability to tell the docs no and keep going. I will not be fighting the docs to convince them I am fit for duty again once I hang these boots up. Due to my medical history I would be the very last batch of Soldiers they would attempt to recall after retirement even if all hell broke loose. And at that point if they are trying to pull from my pool of retired disabled troops then something has went horribly wrong and we're all probably screwed anyway.
     
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  8. Pro_Line_FL

    Pro_Line_FL Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Recruitment ads are for all to see on TV during sports events and I don't know what you are talking about.
     
  9. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    After 9/11, I recall a 68 year old retired psychiatrist who was recalled because he was one of the few who had an expertise in PTSD. Somehow, I think things really could get bad enough that they recall people with a disability rating.
     
  10. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    This is my point unfortunately. Not sure how in tune you are with whats currently going on within the military or how the recruitment campaign is being run. But so as not to speculate I will use my father as an example instead. My father is a vet, retired in the late 90s, his entire view of the military is based on his multiple decades of service from the 70s to the 90s. Whenever I talk to him about whats going on his response is always something along the lines of "thats not true" or " there's no way". He thinks Im exaggerating because in his mind the "military" is what he experienced during his time and simply cannot fathom that they could possibly be doing the things I'm describing to him now. A lot of vets of years past think like this, hell even I have a hard time accepting that the military seriously is doing a lot of the stuff they are doing. I honestly never thought I'd see it while I was in.

    I could sit here and list dozens of policies and examples but for the sake of time I will list one. My father could NEVER believe that the US Army had a mandated class to where male Soldiers were forced to wear a female body suit in order to "experience what their fellow female Soldiers go through during pregnancy in order to build empathy and strengthen bonds". I couldn't believe it until I walked upstairs to the class and saw it with my own eyes. My father couldn't believe it until I showed him the picture I snapped and showed him. Many members of this very forum couldn't believe it or thought I was exaggerating until I posted the very picture directly on here for all to see. It's in this sub forum.

    This crap is going on now, that wasn't an isolated incident this happens monthly throughout the force. This is the new military and yes it is very real. Hopefully that sheds at least a little insight into what I'm talking about.

    And as far as the recruitment ads my point is the recruitment ads are trash and not exactly encouraging young men to want to join. Young men want to see cool **** like tanks blowing stuff up or troops shooting machine guns or assaulting a town. These kids grew up shooting people in the face all day in Call of Duty. No they are not going to be encouraged to join the Army if they see an ad with a chick half assing the obstacle course talking about how shes so strong because she had two mommies growing up. No young man looks at that and says "cool I'd like to do that". Sure they may have opened the door to show that little lesbian chicks are now welcome in the Army, but for every little lesbian chick they just recruited they just turned off 10 young men who saw that ad and laughed and said hell no.
     
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  11. Pro_Line_FL

    Pro_Line_FL Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The recruiting ads are not a secret, - everyone who watches TV sees them. Maybe you can provide some examples of the ones you are referring to.
     
  12. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    I literally provided an example in the previous post...
     
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  13. Pro_Line_FL

    Pro_Line_FL Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Someone must have removed the link from your post. Did you watch the Stanley Cup playoffs? Plenty of good recruitment ads, and none of the types you refer to.

    Army ad
     
    Last edited: Jun 27, 2024
  14. 19Crib

    19Crib Well-Known Member Donor

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    In Vietnam most of our E-5,6 and up were (voluntary, afaik) recalled Koreawar vets.
     
  15. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    Yeah over the past 6 months or so the Army decided to revert back to normal ads instead of the overly progressive ones. That ad posted was in fact ridiculed all over Twitter with thousands of folks saying things like "oh look a normal Army ad again featuring nothing but white men, must be a war coming", etc.

    I for one am glad the Army has seemingly ditched the progressive advertising agenda for the time being, however, the damage was already done. Back in 2021 the Army published an advertisement campaign called "The Calling" which was targeted at LGBT.


    The Army has since terminated that entire ad campaign and delisted it from the internet in an attempt to hide what they did but the damage was done and it will take years of targeted effort to repair the reputation of the Army as well as a full 180 degree course reversal by the DoD overall.
    https://www.military.com/daily-news...outube-after-years-of-political-blowback.html

    Right now the sentiments from many in society is that the military no longer wants young conservative men to join based on so many terrible ads and policies the Army has implemented over the past few years. The Army needs to work extremely hard to repair that and figure out how to get them back. Just publishing normal ads again isn't going to cut it, folks remember what the Army tried to pull and aren't too quick to forget it.
     
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  16. Pro_Line_FL

    Pro_Line_FL Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    LOL. Whatever makes you happy. The rest of us have seen "normal ads" all this time.
     
  17. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    Sorry but the raw data shows that you don't in fact speak for the "rest of us". Social media has been absolutely roasting the US Army at every turn over their progressive ad campaigning over the past year or so which directly contradicts the claim of how "the rest of us" have been seeing normal ads the entire time. So apparently plenty folks have indeed seen these progressive Army ads and have a problem with it. You can go look on Twitter yourself right now if you like, even when the Army posts "normal" ads now a huge chunk of the comments are of folks trashing the Army for it's "wokeness". Where are these people getting this information from if the Army hasn't actually been promoting and implementing progressive policies? Are they all just collectively making it up for no reason to stir the pot?

    Or perhaps it's actually true and those of us who are actually in the Army and can speak directly about whats currently going on can confirm it. It is true indeed and no amount of head burying in the sand or gaslighting is going to change that fact. The Army and the DoD as a whole screwed the pooch big time with it's progressive policy implementation and advertising and are trying desperately to now reverse course and go back to normal to little avail. The damage is done and it's going to take a massive course reversal and a lot of time to repair that which is a huge chunk of the reason why the Army is currently having a massive recruiting and retention crisis at the moment. In layman's terms the bottom line is simple, the Army pissed off it's primary recruiting pool with this nonsense, young conservative men, and they aren't quick to forgive or forget that.
     
  18. Pro_Line_FL

    Pro_Line_FL Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Well, if people in social media say so, then it must be so :rolleyes:

    I'm sure there are some ads people don't like, but it doesn't mean that:
    1. They are not running traditional ads anymore, because they are, and have been
    2. The world didn't end because a bad ad caused people to complain in the social media

    They are trying recruit people who are already in the Army, and they use gay ads to do it? Well, them things are bad indeed.
     
    Last edited: Jul 3, 2024
  19. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    The problem is the people complaining about it on social media are the military's primary recruiting demographic....It wouldn't matter too much if a bunch of boomer's or Gen X complained about it online, the problem is that it's the actual target demographic, Gen Z, who are complaining about it. Gen Z are who the military is targeting for recruitment, it's been the same age block forever. So when the military has a huge chunk of it's primary target recruiting demo turning it's back on it then they have a problem which is directly reflected in the low recruiting numbers throughout all branches.

    The other problem ties directly into the sentiments of those currently serving. Among current recruits approximately 70% reported having a family member who served and 30% have parents who served. Prior or current service family members are one of the largest unofficial recruiting managers the DoD has to get new recruits. When those currently serving or have previously served take issue with the direction the military is going that will have a direct effect on whether they advocate for their children or other family members to join. So pissing people off who are currently in the military will have a direct negative effect on future recruits as well. And the Army is absolutely pissing people off who are currently serving. The number of active and veteran military members who would recommend service to others dropped from 75% in 2019 to 63% in 2021 to 58% in 2024. Why is that number dropping and continuing to drop year after year? Because the military's policies are pissing off those currently serving causing them to not recommend service to others which is directly tied to low overall recruiting numbers as well.

    The question is what changed from 2019 to today to where we went from 75% to 58% recommending service to others? These polls can't address certain things because they are often official government DoD surveys. I get them all the time in my email at work. They usually include things like healthcare, quality of life, money, stability, etc and publish those numbers and try to tackle those issues. Which goes back to the OP of this thread. That's the elephant in the room. I'll answer my own rhetorical question of what changed since 2019? Healthcare has been the same in the DoD in the past 4 years, quality of life continues to actually improve in the Army at least, pay goes up every year and bonuses are increasing for more MOS's, more duty station stability has actually been implemented since 2019 to where you can stay in place longer if you like. So what is going on? Progressive policies. Progressive policies ramped up 10 fold starting in 2020 with the new Administration and Secretary of Defense pushing mandatory DEI and LGBT training and all sorts of other progressive ideology. This stuff just flat out isn't popular among service members and the direction the military is going is not popular either. The government CAN'T directly ask that question like they can ask if you like your healthcare or pay because it's off limits. But read the "write in" comments on these surveys they put out and see what current Soldiers are writing in as to why they are upset. I can see the surveys, and I can and do also talk to the large number of co-workers I have who are also obviously in the Army. So I'll say once again, the DoD knows exactly what the problem is but they aren't allowed to say it out loud so they are doing their best to address every other secondary concern while beating around the bush because it's against societal law in 2024 to openly say the military doesn't support DEI or LGBT or other hot button social justice issues. They can keep beating around the bush and trying to address other issues all they want but it's not working. No amount of bonus money or duty station stability incentives are going to make the majority of the military OK with folks putting gay pride patches on their uniforms.
     
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  20. Pro_Line_FL

    Pro_Line_FL Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I appreciate you taking the time with these responses. If they screwed up with a stupid approach (woke ads), I'm sure they'll be able to learn from the mistake and correct it. They do need the numbers after all. Fortunately the Gen-Z is the largest generation ever, and many are still way too young to enlist (as young as 12). IMO they will figure out what works.
     
  21. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    The good thing is they do seem to have learned from that mistake and are attempting to correct it, well some branches seem to have, I don't know what the hell the Navy is thinking. It's just going to take time for the military's reputation to organically rebuild and the public image of it to change back to normal. They could fix it virtually overnight but it would take a bold move and would receive massive backlash from the small contingent of woke society with the loudest mouths as well as the left leaning media. I'm talking akin to what Tractor Supply just did recently by completely backtracking 100% and openly posting a letter of apology for supporting DEI and pride policies because they got boycotted by their primary consumer base and lost a couple billion dollars. The primary consumer (recruiting) base for the US military are young conservative men who are for all intents and purposes boycotting the military right now, at least a large chunk of them are which is directly reflected by the low recruiting numbers. An open letter of apology from the Pentagon for what they did coupled with a promise to reverse course completely would go a long way in repairing that relationship. It'll never happen under our current governing body though because the LGBT community is the single most protected class of folks in the United States by a long shot and turning your back on them for any reason whatsoever is a mortal sin in modern society. Same with if the military were to openly say they are abandoning DEI and want to revert back to equality over equity and they only want the best qualified for certain ranks or positions. Mortal sin, can't do that.

    I do believe that the first step to even beginning to repair this will be an Administration change in November. Folks may balk at that but whatever, but as long as Democrats remain in control these progressive policies are not going to stop in the military regardless of the damage it's causing. Republicans will kill this stuff off at least while they are in power. I know that because it happened in 2016. This progressive stuff was slowly creeping in back then and virtually overnight after the election the brand new Sec Def published a series of policies mandating that all this stuff stops immediately. "Increasing lethality", basically the military is no longer allowed to mandate classes or training that does not directly contribute to increasing the lethality of the force or focused directly on Soldiering tasks and MOS specific tasks. It was the "professional" way of saying no more mandatory DEI classes, SHARP classes, social issue classes, safety briefings cut down by like 75%, etc. Unfortunately in 2020 within the first week of appointment the new Sec Def reversed all of that and not only re-instituted said classes but made them mandatory and monthly. This progressive stuff is coming from the top down and it's not going to stop, the single best thing the DoD can hope for regarding even beginning to think about repairing its image and boosting it's recruiting numbers is for Democrats to get ousted from power. I've served under multiple Presidential Administrations over the years both Democrat and Republican and I can tell you first hand that all of this social justice stuff only usually shows up at my job when Democrats are in control. When Republicans are in control the military is more or less the "military". Republicans do tend to let some of this stuff in as well but it's done subtlety and in small increments so that it can be assimilated more organically leading to easier acceptance. Democrats grab this stuff and shove it directly down your throat and threaten you with full blown UCMJ action if you dare even think about having a problem with it. Not the best strategy when the majority of service members are conservative men.
     
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  22. Pro_Line_FL

    Pro_Line_FL Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    If there has been "woke" ads, then the mistake was to assume all zoomers are cool with gay agenda. Many probably are cool with it, but the segment who might consider military service probably are not as cool with it, and such ads would be counter-productive. I don't think ad campaigns come from the top though.
     
  23. LiveUninhibited

    LiveUninhibited Well-Known Member

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    There's definitely such a thing as taking it too far. I doubt a pride patch, if optional, would qualify.

    The core fact though is that military recruitment is geared towards the young. Unlike older Americans, the young DO support these things on average. The ideal balance to strike I think is a message of acceptance of diverse people, but not heavy promotion of it. I do think they have, at times, crossed the line.
     
  24. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    Not me.
     
  25. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    Why not other patches? Can I wear an Indian Head patch to show pride in my heritage? How about a Heterosexual Pride patch?

    This is the kind of lunacy that simply has no place in the military. The problem right now is that we have an entire generation that has been taught that "everybody is special". And that is simply not true in the military, or should it ever be true there. After all, if you are dropped into a battle, those shooting at you from the other side will not give a damn about that.

    Myself, I am actually very worried about the future of the military in our country. At the current time, between 70 and 80% of those joining the military today have a family member (parent or sibling) that has served. I seriously worry that if this continues, it may become a job only accepted by lineages and no longer for anybody. Especially if one considers that less than 1% of adults in the country today have served. That means 70-80% comes from less than 1% of the population. And the other 99% only submits 20-30% of recruits. It would not surprise me if by the time my grandson is old enough to serve, those figures are closer to 90%.

    And that percentage has actually changed dramatically in just a few years. In 2018, it was 60% of new recruits have close family that were veterans. By 2021 it was 70%.
     
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