S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on today's show how anti dei policies are impacting the military. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. A trailblazing San Diego Navy admiral was among several military officials whose promotion was recently nixed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. In fact , five of the seven admirals impacted are women of color are women and people of color , I should say , according to reporting from The New York Times. And it brings up more questions of how sets policies and pushback against diversity , equity and inclusion , or Dei , are continuing to impact military culture today. Joining me with more is KPBS military and veteran affairs reporter Andrew Dyer. Andrew , welcome back to the show.
S2: Hey , thanks for having me.
S1: Always glad to have you here. So let's talk about the story of the admiral , because you've been following this. You covered this earlier. You know , she may be one of the most well-known women in the Navy today. What can you tell us about her? Sure.
S2: Sure. So , Amy Schmidt , um , is maybe the only , uh , aircraft carrier captain that people may know. These aren't people that normally are well known. Um , but , you know , she , like a lot of people who ascend to command aircraft carriers. You know , she's had a brilliant military career. Graduated from the Naval Academy. She flew helicopters. She was the first woman to be the executive officer on an aircraft carrier. That's the number two in charge. Um , the first woman to command an aircraft carrier. Uh , she was promoted to rear admiral. She went and served as the deputy commander of seventh fleet , and then was promoted to the B , the the carrier strike group commander of the Carl Vinson carrier strike group. So now she's the carrier captain's boss. So , um , I'll kind of , you know , there's certain , like , uh , roadmaps or pathways that these high achieving military officers kind of travel , these well-worn paths. And she is the first woman to kind of be on one of these , you know , almost like a fast track to promotion , very high achieving. And , uh , was due to get her second star , um , two star admiral and reportedly was struck from the list by Pete. Seth. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. And you actually aired a clip of her from her home hometown station , Fox six news Milwaukee. Let's take a listen.
S3: Very few times in my life have I actually sat there and thought about the fact that I was a woman doing this because for the most part , I was just treated as a naval officer and an aviator.
S1: Well , this is the latest in a number of promotions blocked by Hegseth. So what else do we know about the other admirals who were impacted?
S2: So we don't know. I don't have a list of every every one of them. Most of them are either black people of color or women. One notable person is Rear Admiral Steven Barnett. He's a two star admiral. Now , when he was one star , he was the region commander here in San Diego. He was only here for about a year. The Navy had that big fuel leak out in Hawaii. And this is the guy the Navy tapped to go out there and clean up their mess , their public relations mess. And he did it. He was out in Hawaii for 2 or 3 years. He was promoted to two star admiral. Um , by all accounts , and I've talked to a lot of people , you know , around because he was in , in this area for , for a little while , just really well respected , um , the , the bright guy for that job. And , uh , folks were disappointed when he left San Diego because , um , he was an effective and effective leader , but he's a black man and , uh , was nominated for a third star to lead all of Naval Installations Command that is commanding all of the bases around the world , and he was also struck from a promotion list. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Now , you reached out to the Pentagon for a response. What did they have to say?
S2: According to the Pentagon , it's everyone else that's obsessed with gender and race. And people are seeing racism. Where? Where none exists.
S1: We have a clip of Hexum explaining his decision making when he spoke to Quantico , Virginia , back in September.
S4: It's nearly possible to change a culture with the same people who helped create or even benefited from that culture. An entire generation of generals and admirals were told that they must parrot the insane fallacy that , quote , our diversity is our strength.
S1: So , I mean , all of that. What does this tell you about headset's approach to military culture and who gets to rise the ranks?
S2: Well , Hegseth has a long history going back to his time as a Fox News host. He's written books about complaining about reverse discrimination that the military promotes , um , minorities and women over white men , and that this is a big problem. It's in the military. The military has become woke. Once that word got into their kind of lexicon of buzzwords. Um , and he's , you know , a lot of policies that we've seen lately , um , directly go at this , whether that's banning trans troops , this new shaving policy , this , this testosterone thing he announced last week. It all kind of goes back to this , this idea of what Pete Hicks thinks a service member should look like , which is , I don't know , like a G.I. Joe figure.
S1: I guess so. I mean , you mentioned this shaving policy. Um , and what is that? And why is that so? Hegseth.
S2: Hegseth. since. Since he came on , he's complained about seeing troops with facial hair. So military regulations , you're supposed to shave every day. It's the military grooming standards. Um , but for some men it is medically , uh , difficult. They are unable to shave every day. A lot of these men are predominantly black and other people of color. If you have , um , coarse , curly facial hair , when you shave to the skin and that hair starts to grow again , it will grow into your skin , and you'll develop these like , pustules and bumps. Um , and then if you have to shave every day , you are then shaving these bumps off of your skin. It can cause disfigurement , uh , permanent scarring. And , um , the condition is called pseudo folliculitis. Barbet. Uh , they call it fbe. And , uh , there's no cure for FB. The only treatment is not to shave. And as a result , for decades there have been shaving waivers for troops who have this condition , where you maintain a a shaving profile of like less than a quarter of an inch long. And that is how you go through your military career. Well , Seth doesn't like seeing troops , the facial hair. And now the services are saying that if you cannot , uh , if you cannot bring yourself to shave daily after one year of having one of these waivers , that you should be considered for separation from the military.
S5: And this is just this is an aesthetic preference that Hegseth has. Is that what this is? Yes.
S2: Yes. Now the military has kind of they always say that the reason for their shaving , um , rules is to get a good seal on , like , firefighting equipment and gas masks. The evidence for this is pretty wishy washy. Um , you know , for years until , like the 80s , the Navy especially , um , people could just have beards. So , um , that's kind of where that is. But , you know , for for decades , black men in uniform have had shaving waivers and shaving profiles. And I've never heard of any kind of casualty or mishap due to somebody not having a proper seal on any kind of mask. Hmm.
S1: Hmm.
S5: You said these policies could disproportionately affect black men.
S1: So if military officers don't follow these regulations , are they at risk of getting fired?
S2: Yeah , that's that's the way the policies read. Um , it's it's optional. It's up to the commanding officer. But the way the , the instruction is written is that after 12 months consecutive of needing a shaving waiver , if you still cannot meet the grooming standard , which is to shave daily , then you are to be subjected to a what's called a med board , a medical board. Um , and if this medical board determines that you can't shave every day , then they are to , uh , move to administratively separate you from the military , not a medical retirement , which gives you benefits but an administrative separation.
S1: So what other rules has Seth pushed for when it comes to physical appearance?
S2: Well , there's of course the , um , the ban on un trans troops , which , um , has a lot to do with , with appearance. Um , his obsession with shaving , uh , but also he's complained about fat people in , in uniform. Um , so much so that , you know , people that I talked to have said that , you know , if Hegseth is coming to town or if there's a public event or if people are going to be on camera to kind of hide your people that might have a shaving waiver or who may not conform to Seth's idea of what a military member should look like.
S1: From where you stand , what what's the in case in game here? I mean , for Hegseth and the Trump administration.
S2: Um , it's really tough to look at this through any lens other than like the the internet manosphere. Right. There's all of this kind of rhetoric about , you know , testosterone levels being low and that troops are going to get screened for testosterone. And if you're low , we're going to give you testosterone treatment. You know , this this comes from not from medical professionals. This is coming from like , online influencers who think that a lack of testosterone in modern men is why we have wokeness and and liberals , I guess , and that the cure for , you know , the society going in this direction is to do some gender affirming care for men while banning the same kind of hormone treatment for for trans people.
S1: It's a fixation I've never seen before here. Um , what else are you looking into?
S2: Well , right now I'm looking at all of this. Really?
S1: Um , this just keeps going. And going. Yes.
S2: Yes. Um , specifically , I am , Um , the reason I'm glad we talked about the shaving and the beards , as I just interviewed a dermatologist from UCSD who gave me a lot of good information. And I'm , you know , I'm looking to talk to people who may be impacted by this. So if if you're listening and this impacts you , I'd , you know , I'd love to hear from you and talk to you for a story coming up.
S1: How can they do that?
S2: You can email me a dyer at pbs.org or reach out to the newsroom , um , any other way that you find online.
S1: All right. Andrew , thanks. I've been speaking with KPBS military and veteran affairs reporter Andrew Dyer to check out the rest of his reporting. You can go to KPBS. And also , you can reach out to him there as well. Andrew. Thank you.
S2: Thank you.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
