The Navy and Marine Corps have become more diverse across the ranks—a powerful benefit in today’s strategic competition.1 Nonetheless, when comparing the officer corps and enlisted ranks, a difference becomes apparent: Wardrooms are less diverse.2 This discrepancy could have bearing on commands’ ability to establish cultures of trust, a suggestion supported by social science research. While closing racial and ethnic gaps poses a complex challenge, solutions (or at least incremental progress) are not beyond reach.
Status
In fiscal year 2022, 37 percent and 19.7 percent of active-duty Navy and Marine Corps forces, respectively, identified as members of racial minority groups. In the Marine Corps, 25.9 percent of active-duty members identified as members of an ethnic minority (Hispanic or Latino); 17.6 percent in the Navy.3 For comparison, ethnic and racial minorities together made up about 41 percent of the U.S. population in 2020.4
These numbers should be a point of pride. The racial and ethnic composition of the Navy and Marine Corps has changed to match more closely the makeup of the country. However, there is a concerning nuance within these promising statistics: discrepancies between officer and enlisted demographics.
As of 2022, 24.5 percent of the Navy’s officer corps was comprised of racial minorities, with 9.6 percent Hispanic or Latino. This compares, respectively, to 39.5 percent and 19.1 percent of enlisted sailors. The Marine Corps is experiencing a similar phenomenon. As of 2022, 18.6 percent of Marine Corps officers were racial minorities and 11.3 percent identified as Hispanic or Latino. This compares, respectively, to 19.9 percent and 27.9 percent of enlisted Marines.5
The numbers paint a clear picture: Wardrooms—both blue and green—are consistently less diverse than the sailors and Marines in their charge.
Implications
Trust is the foundation on which leadership is built and a hallmark of effective units. A culture of trust is essential not only within the wardroom, but also between officers and the sailors and Marines they lead. It is vital to the success of the Navy and Marine Corps’ mission.
Disparities in demographic representation between the officer corps and enlisted personnel could hamper that trust. Social Science research suggests trust can be negatively affected by racial incongruencies. A 1981 article noted that, because of a history of unfair treatment, Black Americans were less likely to trust white Americans and institutions perceived as favoring the dominant culture.6 Jump forward, and a 2021 study found minority students continue to develop a mistrust of white professors as a result of interpersonal and systemic racism.7 The Navy and Marine Corps have made progress addressing racism, but it would be foolish to assume the fleet is immune to interracial mistrust that affects other areas of U.S. society.
Though neither of these studies was an analysis of the Navy and Marine Corps’ situation, one can see how interracial distrust could have serious implications. Wardrooms could have a difficult time establishing a culture of trust with their sailors and Marines if officers are disproportionately white.
Possible Ways Forward
Building an officer corps that better reflects the enlisted sailors and Marines it leads must start upstream—that is, wardroom diversity requires diversity in officer-accession pipelines.
Consider the U.S. Naval Academy, one of three primary paths to a commission (with the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps [NROTC] and Officer Candidate School). The racial and ethnic backgrounds of the roughly 1,000 freshly minted ensigns and second lieutenants it sends to the fleet every year have significant bearing on the demographic makeup of the officer corps. Academy leaders should develop and implement additional policies that not only encourage prospective midshipmen of color to apply for an appointment but also support their academic success after they arrive. This would bring more students of color to Annapolis as midshipmen and also to the fleet as ensigns and second lieutenants.
While information on the racial and ethnic demographics of naval officers who earned commissions through NROTC is not readily available, it should not be assumed there is no room for improvement. NROTC also should take steps to improve diversity in its battalions.
Some actions for the Academy and NROTC to consider:
• Recruit more heavily at minority-serving institutions of higher education.
• Expand the number of campuses that offer NROTC Preparatory Scholarships. These scholarships take into account the lack of socioeconomic opportunity often found in marginalized minority groups and are a recent and successful path toward creating “a more capable and representative Naval Officer Corps.”8
• Centralize and make more available data on demographics related to non-Academy commissioning sources, which might encourage further inquiries into and additional ideas for improving diversity within the officer corps.
More Work to Be Done
The Navy and Marine Corps are rightfully proud of the improvements in overall diversity. Nonetheless, there is more that could be done. Demographic discrepancies between the officer corps and enlisted personnel could have negative implications for establishing and maintaining cultures of trust within commands. While there certainly are countless examples of trusting relationships between officers and enlisted personnel of different races or ethnicities and in commands with wardrooms that do not fully reflect the enlisted ranks, the Navy and Marine Corps could build on those successes by improving diversity in officer-accession pipelines and closing the gap between the percentage of minorities in the wardroom and the crew’s mess.
1. LCDR Aaron Marchant, USN, “Inclusion and Diversity Policy as Great Power Competition,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 148, no. 8 (August 2022).
2. Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, 2022 Demographics: Profile of the Military Community (Washington, DC: Department of Defense, 2022).
3. Racial minority groups include Native American, Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, multiracial, and unknown. See Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy, 2022 Demographics: Profile of the Military Community (Washington, DC: Department of Defense, 2022). For ethnicity, the federal government recognizes two categories: "Hispanic or Latino" and "Not Hispanic or Latino." Percentages used here are from the Military One Source demographic dashboards, “Active-Duty Members,” Race and Ethnicity, demographics.militaryonesource.mil/chapter-2-race-ethnicity.
4. U.S. Census Bureau, “QuickFacts.”
5. Department of Defense, 2022 Demographics Interactive Profile of the Military Community, “Chapter 2: Active-Duty Members, Race and Ethnicity.”
6. Francis Terrell and Sandra Terrell, “An Inventory to Measure Cultural Mistrust Among Blacks,” The Western Journal of Black Studies 5, no. 3 (1981): 180.
7. Eric Brown and Tim Grothaus, “Interracial Trust between Black Doctoral Student Proteges and White Mentors,” International Journal of Multicultural Education 23, no. 2 (2021): 70.
8. Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps, “NROTC Preparatory Scholarship Reservations,” NETC.navy.mil; and Richard Burgess, “Navy Prepping More Prospective Minority Students for NROTC,” Seapower, 2 July 2020.
