Our Best: Commander Shanti Sethi
The Chrome web browser is inserting hyphens for some unknown reason. If you know why or how to fix, drop us a comment, PLEASE! Fixed. Plugin issue. Thanks to commenter jg!!!
Commander Sethi smiles for the camera during a press tour of the ship.\ during a port call in India.
America is truly a wonderful country. Where else would you find a female Navy officer from Reno, Nevada, commanding the destroyer USS Decatur? Did I mention that she is of South Asian origin? Oh, and let us not forget that she is a graduate of the nation’s oldest private military academy, Norwich.
Commander Shanti Sethi joined the U.S. Navy in 1994. She has worked her way up, serving in various positions at sea and on shore.
In mid March, her ship made a port call in Chennai, India. The Indian media were quick to recognize the success of a daughter of their nation and the visit received a great deal of publicity.
The Decatur has a Facebook page.
Commander Sethi blogs at a site called Adventures in Paradise. Her Twitter account is @ShantiRae.
the attachments to this post:
Shanti Sethi
Re: your note up top about the hyphen problem – I see your site is created in WordPress. Are you using the Hyphenator plugin? It doesn’t always work right with Chrome. Try disabling it and see if that resolves the problem.
I’m not, but I have another similar plugin. I’ll check it. Thanks!
Lord, thank you for America, thank you for your blessings and thank you for not making me carry the heavy burden that Rollory has to shoulder every day. His is a hard life.
That’s right. America is unique in that your ethnicity or station of birth does not prevent you from “signing on.” Wanting to be an American, live with predominantly American values, and make America a better place for one’s family and the families of other Americans is unquestionably the most important part of being American.
God bless you, Commander. Our country needs a few million more Americans like you, whatever their ethnic heritage.
Salute.
I went to Surface Warfare School with CDR Sethi and she deserves everything she has worked for. Congrats to her and good for the Navy.
When in history has a female Captain won a sea battle?
Try looking up Ní Mháille, 16th century. Female pirate captain and terror of the Irish coast.
That you would have to dig so deep into obscurity to find a female owner (inhereted)of a fleet of cargo and privateer vessals only proves my point.
Yeah, but Smarty, just think of all the thousands upon thousands of sea battles that have been LOST by MEN. It has to be near 50% of them! Clearly, men are not qualified to be warship COs.
Idiot.
So pointing out that there is nearly zero evidence of female exceptionalism in military history is the same as pointing out that whenever two men fight one man loses?
Yeah, I must be the idiot because that logic of yours goes right over my head.
Rollory, you need to (re)read this from A. Lincoln:
http://www.vindicatingthefounders.com/library/index.asp?document=47
No person gets command of a row boat in the Navy unless they are capable of handling the job.
This nonsense of not being a “real” American – just what the hell does that mean?
So what that I am some Midwestern white man whose family was all born here.
When I was rescued at sea after a serious accident, during some damn stormy weather, the crew of the Navy helicopter that transported me was every color of the rainbow. I couldn’t care less what they looked like and where they were born, because they were all professional and risked their lives to save mine.
Smooth sailing, Commander Sethi. I’d volunteer to serve with you.
How do you know she is qualified? The first female Navy fighter pilot was passed through flight school despite making mistakes in training that both should have disqualified her from graduation and resulted in her slamming her plane into the hull of a carrier.
And lest we forget, we had an Affirmative Action female Captain Holly Graf get removed from duty who was, by her behavior, clearly unfit to command a rowboat. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1969602,00.html
I am not saying this woman is unqualified, but in the PC era she must be (sadly) considered highly suspect. This is the unintended consequence of liberalism
Go, Navy!
WRS, LTC (Ret.) USAR
I would agree that you do become American by “signing on”. But nothing is less “American” than affirmative action, which gives the newcomers a higher place in social pecking order than the folks who created the country and the culture that welcomed them.
The US would not be the exceptional country that it is without the WASPs. Newcomers need to adapt to that, not be told that the society created by the WASPs is crap and needs to be replaced by socialism, marxism, islam, secular judaism…..
So the liberals promote minority females in order to provide “affirmative opportunity”, then we go in a circle and use her to show how equal and wonderful minority females are.
When in history has a female Captain won a sea battle? How do we know she is more qualified than any white male officer of her age group? All we know is that females and minorities get to leapfrog into promotions.
Good for her! Everyone that wears the uniform of the U.S. military is an American no matter where they started out. I’m proud of her.
Rollory- stop being such a douche. Immigrants such as myself are as American as apple pie and football. Oh wait- Apples come from central Asia, so maybe you don’t think they’re so American? Football was originally a form of rugby, so maybe that’s not American either?
Get over yourself. The Commander is a hero for serving her country- the United States- and is a role model for people from all walks of life on how you can succeed regardless of your gender or ethnicity.
Rollory, you ignoramus, she is a native of Reno, Nevada:
http://www.public.navy.mil/surfor/ddg73/Pages/Bio1.aspx
Even if she wasn’t a native of Reno, as a US citizen, she is an American. End of story. Apparently, you have no idea what it means to be an American.
The first comment above smacks of “birtherism”. The Navy commander in question was raised in Reno, and graduated from a US military academy. In what way is she not “American”?
The second comment nails that point well. Anyone born here is American, even if they have different-color skin. Get used to the “new” America. Or would you prefer the anti-Italian, anti-Catholic riots of the late 19th Century?
1) she’s not “from” Reno, she’s from India, as you yourself note the Indians are quick to notice
2) as she is Indian, she is not American, regardless of what pieces of paper she has
3) as she is not American, she is not “our” best (although admittedly “American” is ceasing to mean anything at all anymore)
4) the track record of women in the military is one of exceptional exceptions and generalized ineffectiveness, with double standards to pretend they are generally just as capable as the men, when they very noticeably are not. But admitting this is heresy, and thoroughly unspeakable.
Only a liberal could have posted a piece of utter nonsense like this.
Unless your ancestors were in the United States in 1640, I could say the same about you. Immigrants are what made this nation great. The Commander appears to be a hard working woman who has accomplished a great deal in her chosen profession. I think that is worthy of some admiration.
Dude. You are SO being trolled by that fake.
Congrats on the Insty link, btw.
Some of my ancestors were here in the 1300′s, but that isn’t what makes me an American.
People become American by signing on.
Commander Sethi signed on.
Welcome aboard.
1. She was born in the States to legal immigrants. How did your family get here?
2. See reply 1.
3. If you are a representing yourself as a good example of an “American” then I agree.
4. STFU you bigoted, knuckle dragging, misogynistic “American” jerk. I guess for guys like you the same can be said of Jewish Americans or Polish Americans. How about Japanese Americans, German Americans or hey, what about those Black Americans?
I’m personally in the Atilla the Hun sector of the vast right wing conspiracy and a Southerner born and bred. I have voted Repub. for the last 40+ years (with more than a little nose holding) and here I thought we had put you Bedford Forest types out our collective minds, but I see we haven’t.
Rollory
1) it sounds like you are a birther
2) it sounds like you are a misogynist
3) it sounds like you were passed over for promotion
4) maybe by a female?
5) it looks like you missed the post from the Cdr’s mother.
6) the only nonsense is emanating from you