Donald Trump Jr. triggered the left on Monday by saying Navy SEAL friends tell him they spend more time on diversity training than shooting.
“I have friends on SEAL teams that told me they spend more time now in diversity training than they do shooting,” he said during a campaign event for Florida State House candidate Carolina Amesty on August 19.
After the left accused Trump Jr. of lying, Navy SEAL veteran and podcaster Robert O’Neill, who famously delivered the kill shot to terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, tweeted:
He’s telling the truth. I’ve had this discussion with @DonaldJTrumpJr and so have other SEALs. Retention is an issue and so is recruitment. This is more than a political talking point. It’s happening and it’s not good.
He’s telling the truth. I’ve had this discussion with @DonaldJTrumpJr and so have other SEALs. Retention is an issue and so is recruitment. This is more than a political talking point. It’s happening and it’s not good. https://t.co/cOiywTpA0k
— Robert J. O'Neill (@mchooyah) August 22, 2022
Retired Navy SEAL Derrick Van Orden told Breitbart News in an interview on Monday that sailors, including Navy SEALs, were indeed spending too much time on diversity training to the detriment of other critical skills.
“The amount of time that the military and special operations [are] spending on diversity, equity, and inclusion training is superseding a lot of the actual combat training,” he said.
“The military is spending an inordinate amount of time on the subjects that really don’t pertain to warfighting,” he continued.
For example, he said much like every Marine is a rifleman, every sailor is a firefighter, but the recent loss of the USS Bonhomme Richard — which was completely destroyed in a fire while in port — shows that sailors lack basic firefighting skills.
“If God forbid, we ever go to war with China, that’s exactly the ship we need because you embark Marines and helicopters on there. And that burnt to the keel because the sailors did not put out a cardboard fire and their chain of command couldn’t figure out who should be put out the fire and who should be in charge,” he said.
“I guarantee you with absolute certainty that every single sailor in that chain of command from the admiral down to the seamen on deck had all of their diversity equity and inclusion general military training done, because you can’t transfer or get promoted if you don’t have that done,” he said.
He said Navy SEALs also have to complete diversity training. For one team of about 200 Navy SEALs, two hours of diversity training equals 400 training hours not devoted to critical skills.
“And we only have X amount of hours in the day. And so you have a two hour training block. It’s not two hours — you’ve got to add half an hour ahead or half an hour after. So you’re looking at really three hours. So three hours is what, 600 hours? Just do the math on that, and then multiply that across the entire Department of Defense,” he said.
“We’re teaching them to recognize race and gender. And we’re not teaching them how to fix an M-4 or how to shoot them, or operate at high margins, or to fix a helicopter or to maintenance on a vessel or put out a fire,” he said. “The sole purpose of the United States military has to be protecting American citizens. And how you do that is by training for war. For peace, train for war.”
Van Orden, who is running to represent Wisconsin’s 3rd congressional district, added that diversity training is destroying the U.S. military by focusing on division instead of unity.
“We’re training to divide ourselves from within, and it’s destructive. It’s got to stop,” he said. “We treat everybody with dignity and respect, we can solve them both to protect all American citizens and it, regardless of your gender, your race, your creed, that’s all irrelevant. What we see as SEALs is we see an American citizen.”
“If you’re an American citizen or you’re one of our allies we’re gonna risk our lives for you, even if it means leaving our wives a widow or our children without fathers. So what would make somebody think that they have to put something else on top of that?” he added.
According to Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the U.S. military has spent nearly six million man-hours on extremism and diversity, equity, and inclusion training since President Joe Biden took office. Milley provided that data in response to a request by Senate Republicans.
Van Orden warned that when Republicans take control of the U.S. House, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley would do well to retire.
“We’re going to have subpoena power. He can do himself a favor by retiring because we’ll put him up [on] actual television, he’ll have to start explaining this stuff,” he said.
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