US: Warship's African American Exec. Relieved Of Duty

A top officer on a U.S. naval ship has been relieved of his duties, further thinning the ranks of top-ranking African-American officers in the U.S. Army, according to military media reports.

Lt. Cmdr. Randall Clemons, executive officer of Japan-based U.S. warship the U.S.S. McCampbell, was relieved "due to a loss of confidence in his ability to fulfill his responsibilities," The Navy Times reported on Wednesday.

The guided-missile destroyer's chief since February, Clemons was reassigned on Tuesday to Destroyer Squadron 15 in Japan, said Task Force 70 Spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Matt Knight in an email to the privately owned website.

Knight added that no investigation had been done before the move.

Clemons himself has yet to make any statement on his reassignment.

"Lt. Cmdr. Clemons' performance has been evaluated by leadership at multiple levels and it was determined he was consistently not meeting the high standards which is expected of an executive officer," Knight said.

Clemons' removal of has further reduced the already low number of high-ranking African American officers in the U.S. military.

No African American has yet attained the rank of General in the Marine Corps unit of the U.S. Army despite a standing Executive Order by former President Harry Truman in 1948 that intended to establish the equality of treatment and opportunity in the armed services.

More needs to be done to diversify the military, retired Air Force Gen. Lester Lyles, who studied the issue of minority representation in the U.S. Army, told USA Today.

African American representation in the Navy ranks had slipped as of 2014, reported the paper, and the percentage of black officers in the services has remained fairly steady since 1995, at about 5%-7%, far below blacks' percentage in both the general U.S. population and among the rank and file. -