Oct. 1, 2025 7 AM PT
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 below gasoline generators, deal with traces with small boats, hearth machine weapons, sit at consoles and push buttons or stand on the bridge and provides orders. Did all of them do equally properly? In fact not. Each particular person is totally different and their various expertise, backgrounds and experiences made the ship, and Navy, stronger.
At a time when the army suffers a crisis of recruitment and retention, telling half the inhabitants and a good portion of the remaining half they don’t seem to be valued for who they’re makes our army weaker and nation much less secure (“Trump and Hegseth declare an end to ‘politically correct’ leadership in the U.S. military,” Sept. 30).
Michael Smallberg, San Diego
