Meet the Navy's First "Digital Ambassador"

It’s no secret that the U.S. military is struggling to hit its recruiting goals.

Who could blame young Americans for not wanting to join the military at this time?

Endless regime-change wars
Woke generals
COVID-19 jab mandates

We’re scratching the surface with that short bullet list.

As a result, far fewer young Americans are willing to join the U.S. military.

The Army does not expect to hit its ambitious recruiting goal of 65,000 new soldiers this year as the pool of young Americans eligible to serve continues to shrink.

“We are not going to make that goal,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told lawmakers at a congressional hearing Tuesday. “We are doing everything we can to get as close to it as possible; we are going to fall short.”

The Army fell some 15,000 active-duty recruits short last year of its goal of 60,000 new troops. The Army National Guard is in a seemingly deeper hole, facing an uphill battle bringing new soldiers in while simultaneously seeing retention issues with part-time soldiers heading for the exits as units struggle to juggle domestic and overseas missions.

The U.S. Navy is experiencing the same struggle to recruit new members.

According to reports, the branch is expected to fall 8,000 short for its recruitment goals this year.

The branch’s latest effort is another embarrassment that compounds the reasons why fewer Americans want to enlist.

The Navy recruited a drag queen, who is an active duty sailor, to become a “digital ambassador” to attract a wider range of recruits.

It’s reportedly an effort to recruit more Gen Z sailors.

Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, who goes by the stage name ‘Harpy Daniels,’ is the Navy’s first “digital ambassador.”

Meet Harpy Daniels:

The Navy brought a drag queen 'Harpy Daniels' who is an active duty sailor to participate in a pilot program aimed at targeting a wider array of potential recruits through digital platforms.

China and Russia are laughing their asses off right now. pic.twitter.com/o00x5SYiVc

— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) May 2, 2023

Navy says it used non-binary drag queen as 'Digital Ambassador' amid poor recruitment | Just The News https://t.co/xfB0veHHYM

— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) May 3, 2023

Daily Caller reported:

The Navy brought on an active-duty drag queen to participate in a pilot program aimed at reaching a wider audience through popular social media platforms as the military faces severe recruiting woes, a Navy spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, stage name Harpy Daniels, announced the Navy invited him to become the first “Navy Digital Ambassador” in a November 2022 social media post, highlighting his journey from performing on deck in 2018 to becoming a “leader” and “advocate” of people who “were oppressed for years in the service.” The Digital Ambassador initiative in which Kelley participated ran from October 2022 to March 2023 and was “designed to explore the digital environment to reach a wide range of potential candidates,” the Navy spokesperson said.

The Digital Ambassador initiative concluded in April, and the Navy is now evaluating the program to consider what form it will take in the future, the spokesperson told the DCNF.

Daily Mail added:

Kelley said he began dressing in drag and performing in shows years before he joined the Navy, drawing on inspiration from the queens on RuPaul’s Drag Race — which he started watching at the age of 16.

He then first started performing on ships after a sanctioned MWR (Morale. Welfare and Recreation) lip-syncing contest in 2017, while deployed on the USS Ronald Reagan, and became a regular in the competitions, according to NBC News.

The officer insists he never experienced harassment in the Navy, but when he was scheduled to perform at a diversity, equity and inclusion event at Langley Joint Air Force Base in the summer of 2022, it ’caused an uproar to many conservatives and Christian extremists.’

‘I’m an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, and being able to do drag is not just for me, but a tribute to many service members who were kicked out, harassed, bullied or worse for being openly gay during Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ he told the USS Constitution Museum in an interview, referencing the Bush-era policy that discouraged military members from disclosing their sexual orientation.

‘It shows representation, and that is truly needed for a culture and organization that has shunned us for so long.’

In announcing that he would be a digital ambassador for the Navy, Kelley wrote that his experiences in the Navy have ‘brought me so much strength, courage and ambition to continue being an advocate and [representative] of queer sailors.’