Diversity enhances our military capability is not a new concept. The Navy has more than one ship. The Army more than vehicle, more than one personal weapon, and more than one uniform. The Air Force has more than one aircraft.
Each individual system brings its own special qualities to the missions. A B-52 bomber is ideally suited to conducting lengthy precise conventional and nuclear attacks yet is woefully inadequate to a Combat Search and Rescue or troop transport.
By not maintaining a monolithic view on Service member’s qualities, we invite the differences inherent in the many life experiences, cultural heritage, and interactions that each individual brings. This is key when dealing with leadership challenges, problem solving, and designing innovative ways to approach strategic, tactical, and logistical challenges. People are ideally suited to distinct roles; not everyone is a leader. Nor, is each person ideally suited to a combat situation, yet may be ideally suited to managing logistics in a rear environment.
This is not limited only to demographics such as racial qualities, but extends to, sexual orientation, gender identity, married or single, religious preferences, education level, economic stratification, and so on. People of these incredibly varying descriptions gives our military, which comes from all corners and niches of the American society, an increased opportunity to achieve diversification in thought, diversification in approaches to situations, and interpersonal interaction capabilities.
To rob ourselves of any one section of our society spectrum is as foolhardy as limiting our military to any one type of weapon system.
