Maj. Caitlin Oviatt, 55th Logistics Readiness commander, inspects a shaving waiver at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., July 9, 2024. (Chad Watkins/U.S. Air Force)
The Air and Space forces have been told to eliminate working groups aimed at improving equal employment for women, minorities, LGBTQ+ and disabled service members, according to a memo this week from the acting Air Force secretary.
In the memo, acting Secretary Gary Ashworth ordered immediate “disestablishment of all Department of the Air Force Barrier Analysis Working Groups.”
The memo cites executive orders signed by President Donald Trump on Monday to end “Radical and Wasteful Government DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) Programs and Preferencing” and rescind executive orders by former President Joe Biden.
Ashworth’s order follows a Tuesday memo from the Office of Personnel Management directing that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion staff be put on paid leave, and that agencies develop plans to lay them off.
The Department of the Air Force working groups were set up in 2008 “to address active or potential barriers to equal employment opportunities across the total force,” according to a Sept. 17, 2021, Air Force news release.
The groups were “a conduit to maximize the team’s diverse talents and create an inclusive culture regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, orientation, religion or disabilities,” the release said.
The groups advocated for things such as more comfortable body armor for female troops and shaving waivers for Black airmen with painful skin conditions.
They looked at ways to retain service members during a time when the military faced recruiting challenges.
Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Rebecca Hudalla took part in one of the working groups, she told Stars and Stripes by email Nov. 7.
Volunteers in the groups analyzed the service’s policies and procedures that might impede equal opportunity and inclusion, “including female and family-centric barriers and multiple programs at the Wing level,” she wrote.
The groups expanded during Trump’s first term with the addition of an Asian American/Pacific Islander Team in June 2020, according to an Air Force statement the following month.
However, Ashworth’s memo instructs group leaders to “ensure cessation of all [working group] activities, including outward-facing media,” an apparent reference to information accessible to the public such as social media accounts.
Such media must be updated to remove official sponsorship, the memo states.
It must include a disclaimer: “The views expressed are my own and do not constitute endorsement by the Department of Defense, the Department of the Air Force or the U.S. government,” according to the memo.
Facebook pages listed in an Air Force information sheet about the groups couldn’t be accessed Friday.
