In the introduction of the Chief of Naval Operations' executive review of Navy training, the authors report, "Unfortunately, growing requirements for technically savvy and experienced Sailors contrast sharply with the Navy's projected inventory of those types of people." In short, they say, "the Navy is struggling in its War for People."
There is, however, an opportunity for the Navy to access a previously inaccessible pool of intellectual, managerial, and leadership talent. As information technologies proliferate in support of the Navy's administrative processes and warfighting systems, the changing relationship between information technology (IT) devices and the human skills required to employ them indicates the Navy's human resource requirements might be changing. Some of the forces generating this opportunity are: the ubiquitous expansion of IT systems throughout the military; the rapidly changing definition of what constitutes the "front lines"; the increasing sophistication of ergonomic IT interfaces; and the Navy's adoption of human-factor performance metrics for determining personnel requirements.
Given these changes, opportunities are emerging for physically disabled individuals with advanced IT skills to serve in the Navy's uniformed force. Although wartime recruiting and retention levels are at historical highs, Navy leaders recognize that over the long term it will be increasingly important to recruit and retain the right people. The dividends awaiting the Navy in recruiting the physically disabled are likely to be much the same as those received from the discarding of racial and gender barriers in the last century: an exponential increase in leadership, managerial, and intellectual capital. It may even be a prerequisite catalyst for Navy transformation to meet the modern demands of national security.
Physically disabled persons already work throughout the Department of Defense, but we cannot exploit their abilities through civil service or contractual arrangements alone. Integrating physically disabled persons into the uniformed force will be essential to their ability to contribute fully. Uniforms are an important symbol of the personal commitment and sense of mission that cultivate esprit de corps and reinforce a command's unity of effort. Uniforms also convey certain cultural bonafides that are not otherwise granted but that are becoming essential for working in the collaborative environment developing throughout the federal government.
The Navy currently recruits unique skill sets to meet manpower needs in law, medicine, and engineering and manages the detailing of acquisition professionals, musicians, astronauts, and an assortment of specialized warrant and limited duty officers. These career-track models are great templates from which to fashion personnel policies for physically disabled sailors in the Navy's IT communities. Moreover, private industry human-factor metrics, being adopted by the Navy to identify skill sets for enlisted ratings and officer billets, likely will determine that certain positions in the Navy will not require the full use of both eyes, arms, or legs.
Lord Horatio Nelson, with one good eye and one arm, led the British Navy to victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. In World War II, Royal Air Force pilot Douglas Bader received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts in the Battle of Britain—even though "Tin Legs" took to the skies from the beginning of the war as a double amputee. Today, though quadriplegic physicist Stephen Hawking never will finish an obstacle course under nine minutes, his intellect and capacity for illuminating order amid chaos are skills that would be invaluable to our endeavors to understand and defeat our adversaries.
In the information age, the warrior has been transfigured as leadership, courage, and creative problem-solving skills transcend physical boundaries.
Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, author of Tao Te Ching, wrote, "Thirty spokes unite in one hub; it is precisely where there is nothing that we find the usefulness of the wheel." In an era of military operations becoming less dependent on an individual's physical capabilities, the most valuable attributes of the Navy's IT force will not be their physical or kinetic symmetry—they will be the qualities one cannot see.
The military's still limited recognition of its dependence on things physical and kinetic could signal that the tipping point for real military transformation remains elusive. The global war on terrorism is not a war of geopolitical convenience—it is a war of survival. To prevail, we must outthink, outmaneuver, and outhuman our opponents. If our transformation efforts remain dependent on the patronage of a platform-centric military, we will neglect a group of patriots who are uniquely proficient at understanding and countering asymmetric challenges because of the creative solutions they craft daily to succeed in a nondisabled world.
Despite our best efforts to cultivate information technology as an asymmetric strength, absent a sustained uncommon advantage, rapid proliferation will constantly render it a common denominator. A regiment of IT Ubermenschen, however, could prove to be our fifth column in a military landscape rich in information technology but short on the art of its manipulation. Recruiting physically disabled IT specialists could be a great source of expertise, but it should not be initiated from a misplaced sense of sympathy or some inefficient approach to social fairness. It should spring from the recognition that emerging threats to our national security will not be countered exclusively by nascent technology and advanced propulsion.
We need smart, dedicated people now—and lots of them.
Commander Gusentine serves on the staff of Commander, Second Fleet.