Boeing chief communications officer Niel Golightly resigned over a sexist article he wrote three decades ago opposing the service of women in the military.
His departure leaves the fighter jet in search of a new spokesman as he works to get his troublesome 737 MAX aircraft flying again.
Golightly resigned Thursday as Boeing’s senior vice president of communications after an employee complaint about the 1987 article, which he called “embarrassingly wrong and offensive.”
“What is at stake is not whether women can fire M-60s, MiGs for dogfights, or drive tanks,” wrote Golightly, then a lieutenant in the US Navy. “Introducing women into combat would destroy the Exclusively masculine intangibles of the war struggle and feminine images of why men fight: peace, home, family. “
Golightly, who had only been with Boeing for about six months, said he decided to resign for the company’s sake despite the article not reflecting his current views.
“My article was the mistaken contribution of a 29-year-old Cold War Army pilot to a debate that was alive at the time,” Golightly said in a statement. “The dialogue that followed its publication 33 years ago quickly opened my eyes, changed my mind indelibly, and formed the principles of fairness, inclusion, respect, and diversity that have guided my professional life ever since.”
Boeing said it disagreed with the content of Golightly’s article and that it had begun a search for its successor. Greg Smith, Boeing’s chief financial officer and executive vice president of business operations, will oversee communications in the meantime, the company said.
Boeing President and CEO David Calhoun spoke to Golightly about the article and its implications for his role as the company’s chief spokesman, Calhoun said. He added that Boeing has an “unrelenting commitment to diversity and inclusion in all its dimensions.”
“I highly respect Niel for resigning in the interest of the company,” Calhoun said in a statement.
Golightly arrived at Boeing in January at a tumultuous time for the Chicago-based aircraft maker. That was the same month that Calhoun took over Dennis Muilenburg, whom Boeing expelled in December amid a backlash for the 737 MAX crisis. The plane landed in March 2019 after two accidents that killed 346 people.
Boeing, which the Navy awarded $ 3.1 billion in contracts in May, conducted a series of test flights this week in its bid to get regulators to allow the 737 MAX to return to service. The Federal Aviation Administration has said it still has several key tasks to complete before the plane can be certified.
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