Politics

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus To Step Down

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Jonah Bennett Contributor
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Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced Tuesday to Congress that he plans to resign and step down from his role.

Mabus has served as Navy Secretary for a total of eight years after being appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009, which is the longest any Navy head has served since World War I. He revealed during a House Committee on Appropriations subcommittee hearing his plans to step down in 2017, The Sun Herald reports.

His tenure hasn’t been without considerable controversy, and will likely see more before he makes his exodus. GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter has called for Mabus’ resignation multiple times over his attempts to “socially engineer” the Navy and Marine Corps at seemingly any cost. That social change has mainly been the integration of women into all ground combat roles, which includes access to elite units like the Navy SEALs. Integration has moved far beyond mere access.

The Navy has proposed deep social change associated with the new move, including removing the word “man” from job titles to make the environment more hospitable to women. There are a total of 21 job titles with the word “man” in them, namely fireman and legalman, among others. Navy officials will shoot a report out to Mabus by April 1 on what should be done about male job titles.

Mabus has also clashed with Marine Corps leaders, who submitted an exemption request in 2015 to keep several combat roles male-only based on a Marine Corps study which showed that all-male units vastly outperform mixed-gender units. After the study came out, Mabus savaged officials who ran the study, accusing them of bias and not wanting women to succeed. Females Marines balked and complained that Mabus’ remarks essentially threw them under the bus.

In response to Mabus’ outbursts, Hunter said that Mabus was going out of his way to undermine and insult Marine Corps leaders. He has asked twice for the Navy Secretary to resign.

Special operators have widely opposed the integration of women into their units, but military leadership, especially Mabus, have run roughshod over all objections.

Mabus has a long history of public service. In 1988, he became the youngest governor of Mississippi in over 150 years. He then served in President Bill Clinton’s administration as ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1994 to 1996.

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