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I can only speak from a perspective coming from the Navy.  There used to be traditions that we followed and did for various reasons.  The core values of a Navy member used to be Honor, Courage and Commitment.  I see it being stripped away little-by-little.  So much of it is gone.

 

As a small example that people that have never done so would probably not understand.  When a member achieves the rank of E-7 or in the Navy Chief Petty Officer, they used to go through a process called "initiation".  Initiation did include a lot of "hazing" but the reason for it was to teach humility as the member rises to the position of leadership.  That tradition is now gone.  The "hazing" was deemed to be anti-PC and "degrading" to the sailors.

 

In the military, generally speaking a person with the rank of E-7 or above is referred to as an NCO (Non Commissioned Officer).  In other branches it might be at a lower rank, but in the Navy it's E-7.  Contrary to what most people think, it's not the officers that make the Navy work, it's the Chiefs.  I suspect that it's the same in every other branch of the military.  It's the NCO's that actually do the work and make things happen.

 

When it comes to the retirement of an NCO, especially one with 20+ years serving, I have a real problem when any Commander or anyone else tries to censor his retirement ceremony in order to be PC.  The NCO deserves his retirement ceremony however he wants it.  If someone serves our country for 20+ years in perhaps one of the most challenging jobs ever, he deserves to leave "his way", not the PC way.

In the Army E-7 and above are considered senior NCO's and are most definitely the workhorses of the Army's senior enlisted. If they have served 20+ years in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and can't have who they want to speak as well as what is spoken then that's just ridiculous. They EARNED it. And the fellow we're talking about has done numerous ceremonies so if the unit commander had a seemingly personal issue with him he should have kept his military bearing, swallowed his pride and let the guy do what the retiring fellow wanted him to do. If you're so offended by the word God or a ceremony religious in nature then maybe being a unit commander isn't the job for you because your job is to look after all your soldiers, not just the ones you agree with.

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