Ron DeSantis’ Distinguished Naval Career Makes Him The Right Man To Fix Our Military

Our military is facing a crisis. 2022 was the worst year for recruiting in the history of the all-volunteer force, and every one of the services is missing their recruiting goals by as much as 50%. We are now at point where too many Veterans are advising their own children not to serve. This is something we cannot have: our ammunition stocks are already being depleted by the war in Ukraine, and the Chinese Communist Party is rising in power. We need a Commander-in-Chief who can fix our military.

I’m a 25-year veteran of the United States Navy. I served as a surface warfare officer on a warship for four years, went to law school on the Navy’s dime, and then served as a JAG. In that capacity, I supervised Ron DeSantis, now the Governor of Florida and candidate for President of the United States. I can tell you that he was a diligent, hard-working, conscientious advocate, who worked selflessly to assist our sailors and marines.

I can also tell you that he is the one who can restore our military to its proper glory because he knows exactly what needs to be done because he has done it. He is one of the very few that volunteered to serve with elite forces in a combat zone. He is the only one that combines the required academic, military and political skills that are necessary to fix our military.

The military, like any large organization, needs lawyers to ensure that the people within it follow the law. But the military does not need “diversity and inclusion” officers imposing racial quotas and indoctrinating servicemembers in notions of “white privilege,” “systemic racism,” and “unconscious bias.” The point of any military is to be capable, ready, and lethal, and these diversity bureaucrats do not help one bit in achieving those goals. We had a saying on my warships – “Fire and bullets don’t discriminate.” Putting an unqualified individual into harms way is reprehensible.

That’s why I’m happy to see that Governor DeSantis has put out a plan to rip out the diversity bureaucracy of the Department of Defense. I’m also glad to see that he has a plan to fix the service academies and ensure that our future officers are learning about military history, not critical race theory.

I’m also pleased to see that he is going to do something about the spectacle of former military and intelligence officials leveraging their security clearances for political purposes. The most egregious example of this is when 51 former officials signed a letter saying that the Hunter Biden laptop story had the hallmarks of Russian disinformation. We know that the laptop was authentic; indeed, the FBI knew it at the time too. And yet all these former officials used their stature to give credibility to these lies by putting party before Country. Never again.

These people deserve to have their clearances revoked, and Governor DeSantis will do it.

The military also lost focus on being ready, capable, and lethal when it decided to drive off some of our bravest and most competent special operators with a COVID vaccine mandate. Our special operators are in peak fitness and tremendously skilled. We should be doing everything in our power to retain special operators; the Biden administration was doing the opposite.

As a Florida resident, I’m extremely grateful to the Governor for his excellent leadership during COVID, which included banning unnecessary vaccine mandates for Floridians. I’m gratified to see that he would end COVID vaccine mandates for the military if he’s elected President.

There’s a simple, unifying theme to everything Governor DeSantis will do with the military: he will get our brave servicemembers focused on the mission first. If he is elected President, the military will focus on readiness, capability, and lethality—not ideology. That’s exactly what’s needed, and it’s one of many reasons I’m proud to support him for President.

Captain (Ret.) Dan Bean is a twenty-five (25) year Naval Veteran. He served as a Surface Warfare  Officer and a Judge Advocate. He received the Legion of Merit, among other personal awards and commendations. Dan is co-founder of his law firm, Abel Bean Law.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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