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"  Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images For a long time the Navy was among the most stone-walling, self-protecting institutions in American public life. It was something of a cultural thing on two counts. First, nobody likes to air their dirty laundry, and second, in the Navy there was long an institutional reluctance to be held accountable to anyone but those who wore Navy Blue. Even as late as World War II, the gruff Chief Naval Officer (CNO) of the Navy, Admiral Ernest King, once said of media and public relations: &amp;quot;Don&amp;#039;t tell them anything. When it&amp;#039;s over, tell them who won.&amp;quot; You really cannot get more standoffish than that. But over the past decade or so, the US Navy has taken repeated drubbings, not least because of very high-profile sexual crimes that took place at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, and so in a somewhat seismic shift of position, the Navy has now taken to openly publishing the results of all court-martial results, every month, within weeks of the sentences. Here are the results for last month. Folks, this is what they call a sea change. Of the 25 courts-martial results, fully 10 of them dealt with sexual assault in one form or another, up to and including forcible rape. I have covered this crisis here and here, including stories of rape. And now the Navy is publishing this, under a new policy of open-ness. We have a problem in the services. Hiding that problem has not worked as we tried to solve that problem internally, quietly. I applaud (oh God does it hurt me to say this) the United States Navy for stepping up to the plate and doing the right thing. As painful as it was to me to admit that, I know that it is even more painful for naval traditionalists to accept. But believe me, you crusty old bastards, it is right in the second decade of the 21st Century to do this, because we need to be open, and it will make us stronger and save money that can then be used for our primary mission. Our job is to protect America and its interests, nothing more, and certainly not our own. Defending the interests of career NCOs and officers is a betrayal of our oaths. Think about it: Every time a crime is committed by one of our own in any service, we lose a little. We lose credibility and we lose the potential to bring in the strongest and the smartest -- and we really need both to volunteer -- because we are not seen as open, fair, and right. The nation has a culture that is mutable, and so we too must be mutable. We must change with the times and the culture, or we will lose our ability to bring in the good and the strong. That will make us weak, and then we might fail in our mission. Accepting change is what we are supposed to do, because we reflect the nation, even as we defend it. Acknowledging that sometimes we bring in wrong ones and that some of those who join the colors should not automatically be beatified into some sort of American pantheon, will make us stronger. The opinions here are those of the author and not the DoD, the Army, or any unit he is affiliated with. I can be reached at R_Bateman_LTC@hotmail.com. From the editors of  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/news/a24774/navy-court-martial-results-rape-051614/>