Behind closed doors, Marines struggle with a glaring diversity problem
Zach Mullins was used to walking into rooms filled with white faces. But he was taken aback when, at an air show last year in San Diego, a man approached to ask: “Did you know that you’re the only Black fighter pilot in the Marine Corps?”
Capt. Mullins, who flies F/A-18 Hornets, is one of five, in fact. But in recalling the exchange, he said that, “I never really thought about the numbers just because it was the job that I wanted to do” — though it was “a little staggering,” the Marine captain conceded, to learn the number of African Americans in elite jobs like his was so small.
The Marine Corps, in step with the rest of the U.S. military, has spent decades trying to become more reflective of the diverse nation it defends. Officials point to gains in recruiting women and in growing overall diversity among the officer ranks.
But within its community of fighter pilots, these efforts haven’t kept pace. And while leaders acknowledge they have work to do, observers say the institution appears unwilling to take the aggressive and resource-intensive steps necessary to put Black candidates for those jobs on more equal footing with their white peers.
Gary Graham Jr., a film producer whose father flew jets in the Marine Corps, has researched the imbalance and concluded that the service’s leaders underestimate what’s required for African Americans to overcome certain obstacles that can stymie the prospects of otherwise qualified individuals. He points to previous flying experience, which is expensive. Mr. Graham also faults a recruiting system that he said has done a lackluster job engaging the Black community specifically.
“So those opportunities aren’t known to folks who would even consider it, and who would be skillful or educated enough,” he said.
Numbers going down
Over the past quarter-century, the number of Black Marines who fly fighter jets has fallen from an all-time high of 15 in 2000 to just the five today — not even 1% of the approximately 580 fighter pilots across the Marine Corps. It’s the military’s worst such disparity — and one made more striking by the rise of Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., a fighter pilot and African American, who as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff holds the military’s highest post.
David Berger, who retired in July as the Marines’ top general, commissioned during his tenure as commandant an independent study that yielded a road map for the service to close the gap.
But two years later, the study’s most transformative recommendations remain unimplemented as leaders opt instead to remain on a course that emphasizes a broad concept of diversity rather than targeting shortfalls in individual demographics or career fields.
To lead the effort, Mr. Berger tapped Charles Bolden Jr., a former NASA administrator and the second Black Marine aviator ever promoted to general officer, and Mr. Bolden’s son Ché, who spent 26 years in the Marine Corps. Charles Bolden said he accepted the assignment “somewhat leery,” having grown disillusioned with what he characterized as the Pentagon’s vague efforts to promote military diversity.
“I came out depressed,”
he said. “Because I personally had no idea we had gone as backwards as we have gone.”
The Boldens’ study, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, has not been made public. It concludes that the Marine Corps cannot overcome generations of discrimination and mistrust merely by having removed barriers to participation in top-tier jobs. Rather, the Boldens assert, the service must establish new paths to recruit African Americans and entrust the role of “chief diversity officer” to the commandant himself rather than delegate that responsibility as it does now.
“We made a very clear statement upfront that, hey, the Black jet pilot community is an avatar for the Marine Corps,” Ché Bolden said.
All branches struggling
In response to questions about the study, Maj. Joshua Larson, a Marine Corps spokesman, pointed to a mission statement indicating that the service is “committed” to diversity, equity and inclusion, “not to satisfy abstract notions of political correctness, but as a very real means to recruit, develop, and retain Marines of varied talents.”
Only the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps operate fighter jets, and while all have struggled to recruit and retain Black pilots, the Marines have performed most poorly.
There are 60 Black fighter pilots in the Air Force, or 2% of the community. Navy data shows 15 Black pilots out of 1,124, about 1.3%. Those figures could be higher, however, as both services allow personnel to identify as multiple races or decline to respond.
In the Marine Corps, the fighter pilot community has an outsize impact: The service’s top officers are almost always promoted from within the infantry and aviation fields. One takeaway from the Boldens’ study was that Black Marines often take themselves out of the running for these positions at the start of their military careers by pursuing fields such as logistics or administration that transfer more readily to future civilian employment.
The Marine Corps could diversify its pilot ranks by selecting more Black enlisted troops for officer training, the study found. But a restrictive process that requires enlisted Marines to serve at least four years — which is the duration of a standard contract — before entering an officer program reduces the pool of candidates. The Boldens recommended removing these barriers, but to date, the service has not done so.
Statistics provided by the Marine Corps show that, in the past two years, about 35% of newly commissioned lieutenants came from what the service calls diverse backgrounds, defined as anyone other than a white male.
The data shows, too, that last year nearly 45% of those enrolled in enlisted-to-officer programs were categorized as diverse.
The Bolden study is critical of the service’s broadbrush discussion of diversity, saying that failing to distinguish demographics by race and job field amounts to “data masking.”
Another focus of the study was the availability of education opportunities that prepare promising leaders for military service. The Boldens called for establishment of an additional military feeder school at a historically Black college or university and aviation-specific recruitment programs at each of those six schools.
“The Marine Corps does not have close, long-term, habitual relationships with key institutions within the Black community,” the Boldens wrote, emphasizing that this “very same shortcoming” was highlighted during a similar diversity initiative undertaken during the early 1990s. “Decades later,” they wrote, “it remains a problem.”
New recruiting paths
Before retiring, Mr. Berger, the study’s commissioner, said he agreed the Marines have more to learn from HBCUs — “that’s a partnership we can continue to build on” — and noted that he had met last year with administrators from Florida A&M to discuss diversity and bridging “perceived gaps about what service means today.”
Maj. Mullins’ path to the cockpit illustrates the effectiveness of community outreach. A Houston native, he said he had a natural affinity for engineering but knew nothing about military academies until an Army officer visited his school when he was in eighth grade.
It was a family friend who’d flown for the Navy who turned Maj. Mullins’ head with stories of landing on aircraft carriers. Ultimately, he attended the Merchant Marine Academy in New York, a lesser-known federal service academy. He said his education, from his days at a predominantly White Catholic high school, prepared him well not only for a demanding military career, but for navigating non diverse environments.
“I wouldn’t say I’d settled into being the minority in the group, but I think it’s a statistic that I’m not unfamiliar with,” Maj. Mullins said. “As I matured, I realized what that meant. And I do think I carry a little bit of extra intentionality with the way ... I conduct myself, because I do know that I might be the only Black guy in the room.”
The Boldens have called for the creation of Socratic style discussion groups, centered on topics of diversity and race, at Marine Corps training hubs. Officials said the service will consider such groups.
Charles and Ché Bolden suggested that, until the message comes from the Marines’ most senior leaders that Black fighter pilots are needed in the ranks, efforts to reach candidates will ring hollow. They called in their study for assigning the responsibilities of chief diversity officer to the commandant, a recommendation that has gone unheeded.
“Without the commandant’s explicit oversight,” Ché Bolden said, “you’re always going to find those younger, or those who are not able to chart their own destiny, afraid of sticking their neck out.” Such a step, they added, would permit Marines in the ranks to pursue more radical solutions for building diversity, rather than relying on established approaches.
At NASA, where he answered directly to the president, Charles Bolden said, he assigned himself this role. Themove was meant to make his priorities clear to all. “I felt that the only way to build an effective, No. 1-ranked organization that beats everybody else is to have that organization be diverse and inclusive,” he said.