The Pentagon said on Monday that internet pages in honor of a black winner of the medal of honor and the Japanese US service members were mistakenly declined – but defended its overall campaign to make out the contributions by women and minority groups, which considered the Trump administration as “Dei”.
A web page of the Defense Department in honor of the black medal of honor receiver Army, Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers, was taken down last week. The department temporarily changed the web address to insert ‘Deimedal-ofhonor’, which then led to a “404-Page Not Found” message, according to a screenshot that was captured by the Internet Archive on March 15.
According to a US official, the site was incorrectly decreased during an automatic removal process.
But that’s not the only one. Thousands of pages in honor of contributions by women and minority groups have been taken into attempts to remove material to promote diversity, equity and inclusion – a step that defended Sean Parnell, Pentagon spokesman, during a briefing on Monday.
“I think the president and the secretary were very clear about this – that someone who says in the Department of Defense that diversity is our power, is honest, is wrong,” Parnell said. ‘Our shared goal and unity are our power. And I say this as someone who led a farting plate in Afghanistan, who was probably the most diverse peleton you could possibly imagine. ‘
But this does not sound like veterans or communities that honor those groups – and ask questions about whether the administration’s fixation about the disposal of images that emphasize the contributions of women, minorities and members of the LGBTQ community will eventually fire back and injure the recruitment. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump already have the only female four-star officer on the joint staff heads, Navy Adm. Lisa Franchetti, removed and his black chairman, Gen. CQ Brown jr.
“The full weakened attack on black leadership, dismantling of civil rights protection, the imposition of unfair anti-dei regulations and unprecedented historical extinction on the Department of Defense is a clear sign of a new Jim crow that is being planted by our commander,” said Richard Brookshire, co-executive of the Black Veterans Project, The elimine of racial trouble, which eliminates the element of racial sensitivity, which advocates for the elimination of racial density, which is the elimine of racial-—inated members.
Rogers, a native of Fire Creek, West Virginia, was awarded the then President Richard Nixon with the medal of honor, which became the highest black service member to receive the country’s greatest military honor. He was wounded three times while serving in Vietnam. Rogers joined the US Army in 1951, six months before the racial government of the US Army.
He remained outspoken all his life about the discrimination facing black service members. In a 1975 interview with The Daily Press in Newport News, Virginia, Rogers described how difficult it was for them to stand up in leadership positions and said that the struggle for equal treatment in the military was not over. “We still have and will have what the Department of Defense describes as institutional racism,” he said.
The story of the removal of Rogers’ website was first reported by The Guardian. It was online on Monday night.
Another removed page was the Japanese-American 442nd Regiment Fighting Team of World War II, US Army spokesman Christopher Surridge said on Monday.
According to the army, the 4,000 men who made up the unit were mostly American-born children of Japanese immigrants, known as Nisei Soldiers. Their losses were so great that the entire unit had to be replaced almost 3.5 times, according to the army. In total, approximately 14,000 men served, and eventually earned 9,486 purple hearts, 21 eremous medals and an unprecedented eight quotes for presidential units.
But their story was removed “in accordance with a presidential executive order and guidance of the Secretary of Defense” when the service declined a website in celebration of the Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage.
“The military is working tirelessly through content on that website and articles related to the 442nd Infantry Regiment and Nisei soldiers will be published again to better align with the current guidance,” Surridge said in a statement. “The army remains committed to sharing the stories of our soldiers, their units and their sacrifice.”
The mostly Japanese American segregated unit was very decorated, despite facing bias after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. After the 442nd page was removed by the Honolulu advertiser and other media outlets, the US Army’s website on Monday displayed a page with a ‘Spotlight’ label with the history of the unit.
After Japan’s December 7, 1941, Attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans were considered suspicion and initially prevented from submitting for military service. Nearly 110,000 were sent to internment camps. In 2011, the congress presented 442nd members and other Japanese US veterans of World War II, the highest civil honor – Congress Gold Medal.
The eradication of the 442nd content also made the congress. Democrat Hawaii Rep. Ed Case wrote in a letter on Friday that the pages should be restored that “it is clear that the army deliberately removes these sites, exclusively on race without any consideration or respect for historical context.”
The Japanese American Citizens League also exposed the decision and called it an attempt to eradicate the legacy of thousands of soldiers who gave everything to a country that doubted them. “
Bill Wright, whose father was in the 442nd officer, said the removal of the page is just one example of what is happening on the Department of Defense sites that reflects current politics. “We have no control over it except at the polls,” he said, adding that it does not stop him and others from educating people over the unit.
Mark Matsunaga, a former Honolulu journalist whose Japanese US father and uncles served in World War II, said he was grateful to see that the 442nd web page was being restored, but that “one act does not solve the bigger problem.”
“They still eliminate all kinds of content – photos, articles, social media posts – that help Americans understand how diverse their army is,” he said. “Obviously, it’s part of an attempt to whitewash history.”
