Pentagon restores webpages of Black veterans, Navajo Code Talkers and others after outcry

The Pentagon has restored some of its webpages that highlighted Black veterans such as Jackie Robinson, the Tuskegee Airmen and Vietnam-era Medal of Honor recipient Major Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers as well as the Navajo Code Talkers from World War II and the Japanese-American 442nd Combat Regiment.

Two Defense Department officials not authorized to speak publicly told NPR that these and others were taken down through a review of thousands of stories, photos and videos meant to remove diversity, equity and inclusion material in line with Trump administration policy guidance.

Earlier, Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot had said in a statement:

“Everyone at the Defense Department loves Jackie Robinson, as well as the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee airmen, the Marines at Iwo Jima and so many others — we salute them for their strong and in many cases heroic service to our country, full stop. We do not view or highlight them through the prism of immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, or sex. We do so only by recognizing their patriotism and dedication to the warfighting mission like ever other American who has worn the uniform.

DEI — Discriminatory Equity Ideology does the opposite. It Divides the force, Erodes unit cohesion and Interferes with the services’ core warfighting mission.

We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms. In the rare cases that content is removed — either deliberately or by mistake — that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct the components and they correct the content so it recognizes our heroes for their dedicated service alongside their fellow Americans, period.”

Regardless, one of the Pentagon officials said the ongoing review was too hasty in some respects and used search terms such as “gender” and “gay,” which also led to the flagging of images of the Enola Gay, the aircraft that dropped the Atomic bomb on Japan during World War II. “The review is ongoing and meant to comply with the policy and not erase history,” the official said.