-and-

Lieutenant Commander Ross Hammerer, USN,
Executive Secretary to the Board of Visitors
Office of the Superintendent
U.S. Naval Academy,
Annapolis, MD 21402-5000

From:  R. Lawrence Purdy

Date:   16 November 2024

Re:       Written Submission for BOV Meeting (December 2, 2024)

Dear Chairman Ruppersberger;

In accordance with the Notice issued by the U. S. Naval Academy Board of Visitors (BOV) on 15 November 2024, I respectfully submit the following statement for the BOV’s consideration during its upcoming meeting.

The purpose for this submission is to ask the BOV to consider eliminating race-conscious admissions policies at the Naval Academy and to adopt in their place an unwavering commitment to colorblind meritocratic admissions policies.

In support of this request, I ask that you include, and make part of the BOV record, a copy of my forthcoming St. Mary’s Law Journal article, “We All Wear Green, We All Bleed Red, There Is No Difference: Race-Conscious Admissions Have No Place at Our Military Academies.”

For your information, the following is the Abstract from my forthcoming article:

Abstract 

While the thousands upon thousands of dedicated military officers do not share the same skin color, what they do—and must—share is something vastly more important; it is a dedication to our Nation, its Constitution, and a willingness to put their lives on the line to protect and defend the Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of every American.

This includes the safety and well-being of every sailor, soldier, airman, and Marine without considering anyone’s race or ethnicity. That should be the only test for every officer entrusted with protecting our national security.

If we have learned nothing else from our history surrounding race, we should have learned this: dividing any collection of individuals by race— whether it be a platoon, a battalion, an airwing, a Corps of Cadets, or a Brigade of Midshipmen—and assigning benefits or assessing penalties to the resulting groups is fundamentally destructive.

Perpetuating racial favoritism and its opposite, racial discrimination, does not heal a society; it poisons it. Policies that focus on race do not lead to a cohesive and effective military; they undermine it. Such policies have no place in our military.

(A copy of both the Abstract and the complete article can be found at the following link: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4988319)

My law review article largely duplicates two prior written submissions I provided to the Defense Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion over the past twelve months.  These submissions can be found in DACODAI’s official records for its December 2023 and May 2024 meetings.  For the December 2023 submission, please see:  https://www.dhra.mil/Portals/52/Documents/DACODAI/R._Lawrence_Purdy_Written_Comments.pdf; and for the May 2024 submission, please see: https://www.dhra.mil/Portals/52/Documents/DACODAI/Purdy_Comments.pdf.

I humbly submit that my earlier DACODAI submissions together with my forthcoming law review article – as well as the numerous additional May 2024 submissions to DACODAI by several highly respected groups and individuals — represent the views of millions of honorable current and former military veterans.

Based on all the above, I respectfully urge you to place before the BOV the question of whether the Naval Academy should retain legally questionable and morally repugnant race-based admissions policies.

Such policies are not only broadly opposed by Americans across all racial and ethnic lines but also are entirely unnecessary in order to achieve the twin goals of “diversity and inclusion,” goals that are, in my opinion, achievable without resorting to divisive race-based policies.

Respectfully yours,

R. Lawrence Purdy
United States Naval Academy Class of 1968

Cc:  VADM Yvette M. Davids, USN