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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, August 19, 2002

Navy SEALs seek racial mix

Associated Press

CORONADO, Calif. — Navy SEALs, among the military's elite, are finding one of their toughest battles on the homefront.

Navy SEALs have long been known as fierce warriors. Now, they want to be known for their racial diversity as well. Minorities make up 13 percent of the SEALs' enlisted force and 10 percent of its officers. Officials say they want to do better.

Associated Press

The Navy's special warfare branch, historically one of the whitest segments of the U.S. military, is making an ambitious effort to increase the number of blacks, Hispanics and Asians in its ranks. And the campaign, now in its third year, is beginning to show results.

Between 1997 and this year, the percentage of minorities among the 1,600 enlisted SEALs has risen from 9 percent to 13 percent; minorities represent nearly 10 percent of the Navy's 600 SEAL officers, up from 6 percent, according to figures compiled by the RAND Institute and Naval Special Warfare Command.

Last month, the SEALs' recruiting effort was honored by the NAACP for its success in increasing diversity as well as changing mindsets within the tight-knit organization.

Rear Adm. Eric Olson, the Navy's top SEAL, said the problem of minority underrepresentation has been one of perception, not qualification.

Minority applicants have graduated from the punishing six-month screening process, which eliminates seven out of every 10 who attempt it, at the same rate as whites, he said.

"The problem has been getting them to show up in numbers," said Olson. Many minorities either never considered the SEALs, he said, or believed they had no chance of making it. "The sense that we are an elite force prevented some who had the ability, the potential to serve as SEALs, from starting that journey."

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A 1999 RAND study, commissioned by Congress, found that blacks were underrepresented in the SEALs and other U.S. military special operations units and noted that the SEALs were widely perceived as a "white" organization.

In comparison to the diversity rate of the SEALs, minorities make up 17 percent of the Navy's 400,000 sailors and 20 percent of its more than 76,000 officers. Of the military branches, only the Army is more diverse with minorities accounting for 40 percent of the force.

Olson assumed command of Naval Special Warfare in Coronado in 1999, the same year the RAND study was issued, and decided to use it as a springboard for change.

Olson said he believes a diverse force is both "simply right" and a practical matter. SEAL teams routinely operate, often in secret, around the globe.

"The more diverse we are, the more we are in some way like the people in the places we go, the more quickly and successfully we can do what we went there to do," Olson said.

In 1999, just 18 minority candidates signed up for SEAL training and seven graduated. Olson decided to expand the size of training classes to broaden the applicant pool without lowering the rigorous entry standards. In February, the SEALs had 57 minority candidates; 18 of them graduated.

While diversity numbers have improved in the past five years, the SEALs concede greater change in the ranks will take longer, in large part because of the 2 1/2-year training process it takes to become a full-fledged member of a SEAL team.

The Navy special operations force has gone outside its ranks to find someone to lead its diversity effort: Dr. Warren Lockette, the SEALs' 47-year-old civilian medical officer.

Lockette, who led integration efforts at two Michigan medical schools, has brought an outsider's perspective to the sometimes insular culture of the SEALs.

He has sent white SEAL operators to recruit at predominantly black high schools, hoping that both the recruiter and his audience learn from the experience. He set up mentoring opportunities for minority SEALs.

As a member of the selection board for SEAL officers, he has challenged candidates — and fellow board members — to bring something unique to the organization, be it fluency in the Indonesian language or a graduate degree in oceanology.

"What I want people to do is not feel they have limitations," Lockette said.

Last month, Lockette was chosen from among the entire roster of Navy personnel to receive an NAACP award honoring an individual's efforts to strengthen racial equality in each service branch.

The SEALs "recognize the value of diversity," said Lockette, who is black. "I have seen institutions that wouldn't care."

Rick May, commanding officer of SEAL Team Five, has known Lockette since 1987 and lauded the doctor's work.

"He is all about sensitizing people to the plight of those less fortunate and encouraging people to give back, to help wherever they can," said May, who hosted junior Navy ROTC students from Detroit during a visit to San Diego.

Lockette also has helped bring students from the University of Michigan into the SEALs — a handful of men affectionately dubbed the "Wolverine platoon." Richard Witt, a Hispanic graduate student at Michigan, started doing research with Lockette on the physical stresses affecting SEAL trainees, and then decided to enlist.

"Dr. Lockette is definitely influencing changes in the Naval Special Warfare community," Witt, a junior-grade lieutenant in the SEALs, said via e-mail from an undisclosed location overseas, where he is part of the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

Witt has helped spread the word about the SEALs to Navy ROTC students in black colleges and high schools, many of whom hadn't considered careers in special warfare.

"The word is getting out and now there is a system in place that continues to help others in the future as well," Witt wrote. "I am an example of this system."

The RAND study found that minorities were discouraged from considering a special forces career when they didn't see anyone like themselves. Researchers found that minorities in special operations were often uncomfortable as the only nonwhite members of units.

Out in the field, Witt said he has no problem being an officer and one of two Hispanics in his unit.

"I feel comfortable in the role of an officer given the opportunity to lead. I also feel comfortable in the role of helping to promote diversity within Naval Special Warfare," he wrote. "If I don't do both of these well, I don't belong in this community."