Diversity, equity and inclusion training, such as this seminar given to airmen with the Puerto Rico National Guard on May 31, 2024, is being scrubbed following executive orders from President Donald Trump. (Montalvo Velez/U.S. Air Force)
The Air Force has temporarily halted career development courses as part of a broader effort to remove diversity, equity and inclusion-related content from military training and education.
The Army, Navy and Marine Corps are also reviewing instructional materials to ensure compliance with President Donald Trump’s executive orders that mandate the elimination of DEI content and gender ideology from federal programs.
Within the Air Force, the review has led to a pause in career development courses that teach airmen technical skills, along with an evaluation of the service’s “brown book,” which outlines enlisted standards, according to internal emails obtained by Stars and Stripes.
An Air Force spokeswoman said the service is assessing all training courses to ensure they align with “optimizing operational readiness, lethality and warfighter innovation,” in accordance with a Jan. 29 memorandum from the Office of Personnel Management.
“This is a temporary pause while we work our way through guidance associated with the executive orders, but it will take some time to identify and make changes,” she said by email Monday.
The memo directs federal agencies to review training programs and “cancel any trainings that inculcate or promote gender ideology or have done so in the past.”
Two of the four military spokespeople reached by Stars and Stripes would speak only on background about the DEI reviews. None addressed requests for examples of removed content or potential operational impacts.
Diversity, equity and inclusion training, such as this seminar given to airmen with the Puerto Rico National Guard on May 31, 2024, is being scrubbed following executive orders from President Donald Trump. (Montalvo Velez/U.S. Air Force)
In the Marine Corps, there is no “service-level DEI-mandated training,” but senior leadership courses for newly selected lieutenant colonels, colonels, brigadier generals and senior executives have had DEI-related content removed, said Maj. Hector Infante, a spokesman for the service’s Training and Education Command.
“All other courses in Marine Corps Education Command are currently being assessed to ensure compliance with current policies,” he said by email Tuesday.
The Army is taking “immediate steps to comply with all executive orders related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) personnel, programs, and policies,” service spokeswoman Heather Hagan said by email Tuesday.
The Navy is still evaluating the potential impact of its review, a service spokeswoman said by phone Monday.
“We’re kind of still assessing and figuring out exactly what that’s going to look like in the Navy,” the spokeswoman said.
Spokespeople for the Space Force and Coast Guard did not respond to email requests for comment this week.
