The retired Navy SEAL who claimed to have killed Osama bin Laden has criticized a Navy recruitment strategy that involved an active drag queen ambassador.
Rob O’Neill, 47, said Monday during Varney & Co. on the Fox Business Network that the US military “has to be wild, not fabulous.”
The Navy is facing a recruitment crisis and is expected to be 8,000 short of its annual targets.
It came amid scrutiny of his attempts to fix the issue and a campaign first launched in November with a drag queen influencer, Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, who is non-binary and goes by the stage name Harpy Daniels.
Kelley said last week in response to the negative attention she drew on the campaign, “haters only hate when you win.”
The retired Navy SEAL who claimed to have killed Osama bin Laden has criticized a Navy recruitment strategy that involved an active drag queen ambassador
Rob O’Neill, 47, said US military ‘needs to be wild, not fabulous’
Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, who goes by the stage name Harpy Daniels, has caused a stir by posting drag videos on TikTok
“This will not encourage recruitment, this will do the opposite,” O’Neill said when asked if he thought the Navy’s digital ambassador program was effective.
“We don’t join the military to express ourselves,” O’Neill added.
“All we have in common is that we are all afraid that if we get our heads shaved then we are part of a team and our mission as a military is alliance, solidarity, forward defense and deterrence. And deterrence is a way of avoiding conflict by projecting strength.”
Kelley was commissioned to highlight her journey from performing on board from 2018 to becoming an “advocate” for those “who have been oppressed in the service for years”.
The program ran from October 2022 to March 2023 and was designed to “explore the digital environment to reach a wide range of potential candidates for military recruitment”.
O’Neill said during a Monday night appearance that the focus should be on more traditional aspects of the military.
“I’m all about freedom, you do what you want behind closed doors, you have your free time, but we need nuclear-capable submarines, aircraft carriers, men and women who fly jets, and the best infantry in the world.” World, this is the United States Marine Corps,” he said.
“I personally speak to thousands of people every week, and we have some really good young men and women out there who still want to get involved,” O’Neill added.
“I always tell them if you can do something, get accepted into the academy and fly something because that’s still cool. I don’t care who you are.’
While the campaign was active, Kelley (pictured) was one of five digital ambassadors. Kelley has a large following on TikTok, where she’s been sharing videos of drag performances aboard Navy ships for years
A Navy spokesman told the Digital Ambassador program was a pilot that ended in March 2023.
“They should be: get up in the morning, train, go to the range, learn tactics, practice, and then go back to the range. And now they’re just putting out all this useless stuff,” O’Neill said.
In a TikTok video posted by the Harpy Daniels account last week, Kelley featured a tweet reacting to her content, in which conservative podcaster Graham Allen wrote, “This isn’t the same military I served under… Our enemies LAUGH at us.”
The video featured supportive comments with the words “LGBTQ+ people can serve” and “LOUD & PROUD.”
“Haters only hate when you win,” Kelley wrote in the caption of the TikTok post.
“LGBTQ+ people have never been able to serve openly because of DADT [Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell]. Now that we can, you can see who the homophobe is [sic] and are transphobic people.’
While the campaign was active, Kelley was one of five digital ambassadors. Kelley has a large following on TikTok, where they’ve been sharing videos of drag performances aboard Navy ships for years.
In a post over the weekend, they thanked their followers and asked them to support the other four ambassadors as well.
“Give the same respect and support to the other four distinguished Seafarers who also made the Navy Digital Ambassador Pilot,” they said.
“In the Navy, everyone has the ability to lead and make a difference, regardless of rank, race, gender, sexual orientation or background. We are all fighting for the same mission and goals to become a stronger and better Navy,” Kelley wrote in the caption.