A photo illustration depicts the famous image of Marines raising the American flag atop Mount Suribachi after the Battle of Iwo Jima on Feb. 23, 1945: Sgt. Michael Strank, Cpl. Harlon Block, Pfc. Franklin Sousey, Pfc. Ira Hayes, Pfc. Harold Schultz and Pfc. Harold Keller. (Keegan Bailey/U.S. Marine Corps)
WASHINGTON — Webpages detailing the history of legendary minority service members will be restored to the Defense Department’s online platforms after the content was pulled following an agency-wide examination of material for diversity, equity and inclusion, the Pentagon said Wednesday.
Content about baseball and civil rights icon Jackie Robinson, as well as the Tuskegee Airmen, the Navajo code talkers and a Native American Marine who famously helped raise the flag at Iwo Jima, were among the webpages removed amid the Defense Department’s campaign to scrub material singling out contributions by women and minority groups.
President Donald Trump’s administration has made a push in the first months of his second term to purge the federal government of content it considers to be related to diversity, equity and inclusion, commonly known as DEI.
“We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms,” said John Ullyot, the Pentagon press secretary. “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 [to] correct the content so it recognizes our heroes for their dedicated service alongside their fellow Americans, period.”
Such content will be restored, he said. It is unclear whether the restored webpages will mention the race or sex of the troops or celebrate them as trailblazing minorities.
Calling DEI “discriminatory equity ideology,” Ullyot said, it divides the force, erodes unit cohesion and interferes with the services’ core mission.
The Pentagon issued a memo dated Feb. 26 that ordered the removal of all DOD news and feature articles, photos, and videos that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. DEI content includes information that promotes programs, concepts or materials about critical race theory, gender ideology and preferential treatment or quotas based upon sex, race or ethnicity, according to the memo.
Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s top spokesman, defended the overall content purge Monday during the first Pentagon news briefing since Trump took office for his second term.
“I think the president and the secretary have been very clear on this — that anybody that says in the Department of Defense that diversity is our strength is, frankly, incorrect,” he said. “Our shared purpose and unity are our strength.”
The webpage about Robinson previously included biographical information about his Army service during World War II, which occurred prior to his breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers, according to the DOD Internet Archive, a digital library of documents and articles.
When that page’s address was entered Wednesday on the DOD website, a message showed up saying it “might have been moved, renamed, or may be temporarily unavailable.”
The letters “dei” were added to the URL. The page included an anecdote about Robinson refusing to move to the back of an Army bus in 1944, prompting the driver to call military police. Robinson faced a court-martial for the incident but he was acquitted.
The page has since been republished. The page still acknowledges Robinson broke the color barrier and includes the anecdote of his detention by military police for refusing the move to the back of an Army bus.
A page celebrating Pfc. Ira Hayes, a member of the Pima tribe who was one of the six Marines photographed hoisting a U.S. flag on Iwo Jima in 1945, was erased. The page identified Hayes as an emblem of the “contributions and sacrifices Native Americans have made to the United States, not just in the military, but in all walks of life.”
Additionally, multiple articles about the Navajo code talkers, who aided America’s victory at Iwo Jima and the wider Pacific theater of World War II, were also removed.
Ullyot said the content will be restored to recognize the service members for their “patriotism and dedication to the warfighting mission like every other American who has worn the uniform.”
“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,” he said. “We do not view or highlight them through the prism of immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, or sex.”
The Associated Press and The Washington Post contributed to this report.
