The database, which was confirmed by U.S officials and published by AP, includes 26,000+ images that have been marked for removal across every military branch. But the total might be much higher. One official said the purge could delete as many as 100,000 images or posts in total, when considering social media pages and other websites that are also being culled for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion/DEI content. The official said it’s not even clear if the database has been finalised.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had given the military just days to remove content that highlights diversity efforts in its ranks following Pres. Trump’s executive order ending those programmes across the federal government. Most of the Pentagon purge targets women and minorities, even notable heroes in the military. And it also removes a large number of posts that mention Commemorative Months eg those for women and for Black and Hispanic people.
In 1945, Bob Lewis ferried a modified B-29 to the Utah base where a group was training for its special assignment.
But a review of the database underscores the chaos that swirled among agencies about what to remove re Trump’s order. In some cases, photos seemed to be flagged for removal because their file included the word gay, including service members with that last name and an image of the B-29 aircraft Enola Gay, which dropped the first WW2 atomic bomb on Hiroshima Japan.
Photos of an Army Corps of Engineers dredging project in California were marked for deletion because a local engineer in the photo had the last name Gay. And some photos and videos of the Tuskegee Airmen, the nation’s first Black military pilots who served in a segregated WW2 unit, were listed :( The Air Force briefly removed new Tuskegee recruit training courses. That drew White House’s ire over malicious compliance, and the Air Force quickly reversed the removal. Many of the images listed in the database already have been removed, and it’s not clear if others might be allowed to stay, including those with great historical significance.
Asked about the database, Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot said “We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Dept with the directive removing DEI content from all sources. Hegseth declared that DEI is dead and that efforts to put one group ahead of another through DEI programmes threatens mission execution.
Cadets at the Flying School for Negro Air Corps Cadets Jan 1942.
Richmond Free Press
The main page in a post titled Women’s History Month: All-female crew supports war fighters was removed. But note that at least one of its photos, about an all-female C-17 crew, could still be accessed. An Army Corps of Engineers photo called Engineering pioneer remembered during Black History Month was deleted. Other photos flagged in the database but still visible included images of the WW2 Women Air Service Pilots and one of U.S Air Force Col. Jeannie Leavitt, the country’s first female fighter pilot.
Also still visible was an image of Private First Class/PFC Christina Fuentes Montenegro becoming one of the first women to graduate from the Marine Corps’ Infantry Training Battalion and an image of Marine Corps WW2 Medal of Honour recipient PFC Harold Gonsalves. And it was unclear why some other images were removed.
The database of 26,000 images was created to conform with federal archival laws, so if the destroying images was queried in the future, officials could show they were complying with the law. But it may be difficult, because the responsibility was dependent on each unit. Workers might have taken screenshots of the pages marked for removal, but otherwise it would be difficult to restore images.
A Marine Corps official said every one of its images in the database either has been taken down or would be. The Marines were moving on the directive as fast as possible, but as with the rest of the military, very few contractor employees at the Pentagon could perform content removal. In the Marine Corps, one defence civilian had to do the work! He identified 10,000+ images and papers for removal online, and after further review, 3,600 of those were removed. The total excludes 1,600+ social media sites that have not yet been addressed. The Marine official said the service is going through each site and getting new administrative privileges so it can make the changes.
This Feb the Pentagon ordered all the military services to spend countless hours poring over years of website postings, photos, news articles and videos to remove any mentions that promote diversity, equity and inclusion. If they couldn’t do that immediately they were told to temporarily remove from public display all content published during the Biden administration’s four years in office.
Tank officer Jackie Robinson’s heroic career was purged from military site. Then reinstated.
NBC News
A database obtained by CNN shows that 24,000+ articles would be purged, with many gone already. This goes well beyond just the removal of images from the Pentagon’s visual database, Defence Visual Information Distribution Service, and includes articles from across 1,000+ websites hosted by the Dept. Articles about the Holocaust, September 11th, cancer awareness, sexual assault and suicide prevention are among the tens of thousands removed or flagged for removal from Pentagon websites as the Dept has scrambled to comply with the order to scrub diversity content to comply with Pres. Trump’s order.
A Defence Department’s website celebrated six Marines photographed hoisting a U.S flag on Iwo Jima in 1945, including famous Pfc Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian. This was an emblem of the contributions and sacrifices Native Americans have made to the U.S in the military etc. But along with many others about Native American, this page has now been erased amid the Trump administration’s wide-ranging crackdown on what it says are “diversity, equity and inclusion” efforts in the federal government (The Washington Post). Multiple articles about the Navajo code talkers, critical to America’s victory at Iwo Jima and the wider Pacific theatre, were also removed, along with a profile of a Tonawanda Seneca officer who drafted the Confederacy’s surrender at Appomattox toward the end of the Civil War.
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, Feb 23 1945
Reddit
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25 comments:
Hello Hels, I am disgusted. This is a major and intentional rewriting of history whose only use is fell political purposes. As a researcher, I often find interesting references to all kinds of people who by their efforts or even existence earned a place in history, and that is beings destroyed. My advice for years, however, has been that if you are interested in something on-line or in some sort of database, copy it all (and make sure you do it correctly) so that you will have access to that information in the future. Even information that is not a victim of a targeted hunt tends to disappear as places go out of business, or decide that continued publication of certain material is not economical.
This goes double for art historians. Many museums now are in a golden period of giving high-resolution access to their materials on-line. Take advantage of it! Don't count on this to continue forever. The Louvre website, to name one example, used to be much better than it is now (although I have not checked it again very recently). Also there were some images that I downloaded years ago from various sites, but when I downloaded them again, the new copies had much reduced resolution (often the high resolution images were available now for an exorbitant fee). These are sad times we are living in.
--Jim
This situation highlights the complexity and scale of the Pentagon's directive, as well as the strain it places on limited personnel and resources.
What an utter disgrace.
"Hegseth declared that DEI is dead and that efforts to put one group ahead of another through DEI programmes threatens mission execution."
How is historical recognition threatening threatening the dismantling of DEI ideals?
And just as a female astronaut has returned to earth after being unexpectedly 'imprisoned' in space.
Helen, I have added a report from the Washington Post about the purging of a much loved photograph of Marines hoisting a U.S. flag on Iwo Jima in 1945. Tragic.
It's astonishing how readily they are all obeying this utter nonsense. Does no one dare to stand up to him? It's mindboggling what he is trying to do. You cannot "cleanse" history simply by removing the evidence.
Good heavens, Hels. I had heard that that person wanted many 'things' removed but when I sit here and read what you have written it has sunk into my brain more. Not good at all, getting rid of history and so on.
Parnassus
the entire purging process is indeed a major and intentional rewriting of history whose only use is for political purposes. But that suggests that the purging actually _helps_ the organiser in his/her political goals. If, for example, the aircraft Enola Gay was seen as the saviour of the US in 1945 and the men were seen as heroic all across the nation, then cancelling all references and photos of the plane would be counter productive for the President.
Rewriting history is immoral; rewriting history that doesn't even serve the President and his ministers is stupid.
roentare
only one certified worker in each division was instructed to purge the files and he given a shortish time to do it. So exhaustion and impatience were problems, but confusion was worse. Who knew what was in the President's mind when the Department workers were instructed to "cull for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion/DEI content".
Andrew
I copied the top quality U.S newspapers' front pages rather than writing the material myself because I didn't think any reader would believe it under my name. _I_ didn't believe a word myself, and I am not even an American.
"`How is historical recognition threatening the dismantling of DEI ideals?" is a good question. But then I would also ask how is "the dismantling of DEI ideals" a productive move for the USA?
Student,
many thanks to the Washington Post and to you!!!
The photograph of Marines hoisting a U.S. flag on Iwo Jima in 1945 showed the bravery of the lads in the Pacific Theatre but tragically 3 of the heroic 6 Marines in the photograph died in that battle. Apparently Ira Hayes was an American Indian, and therefore the President had to purge the photo. Tragic is right :{
River
Noone in the Department would fight with the President or the Head of Defence because they would certainly lose their job and they may even spend their career years in gaol.
Hopefully the bravest workers may copy the records and photos before they burn the originals. But for those born overseas before they got American citizenship, I wouldn't even risk copying the records.The U.S President has deported many South and Central Americans, even with totally legal US documentation.
Margaret
rewriting history is insane. I know that the 11th September 2001 tragedy brought the American nation together in mourning and national support, even after all these years. So does _this_ purge suggest the President is insane?
During one public presidential debate, Trump appeared to blamed the attacks on the inaction of American leaders. “The World Trade Centre came down during the reign of George Bush. He kept us safe? That is not safe.”
Then at rallies Trump frequently turned his attention toward Muslim Americans, whom he has accused of celebrating the attack. Trump has repeatedly claimed that “thousands and thousands of people were cheering” in Jersey City on 9/11 itself. On another anniversary, he wrote no memorial to the 2,996 people who died, nor to their families. Instead he wrote “I would like to extend my best wishes to all, even the haters and losers, on this special date, September 11th.”
I find it difficult to comment on this post, Helen! Hope you are well!
Diversity, equity and inclusion describes Australian policies and programmes that promote the participation of different groups of individuals. DEI encompasses people of different ages, races, ethnicities, abilities, disabilities, genders, religions, cultures and sexual orientations. Cough... am I missing something?
It is truly unbelievable that one edict could set out to destroy American history. Also when you come to think of it, history is impossible to delete, think about films for a start.
Irina
I am finding it difficult also. Until I read the articles in the US's best newspapers, I assumed this purging of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion content was either not true or it was so secretive, noone had discussed it.
Joe
You are not alone. Let me quote The Guardian. DEI may be a relatively new term, but the idea started in the civil rights movement. The 1964 Civil Rights Act made it illegal for most employers with 25+ staff to discriminate on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex and national origin. And affirmative action policies emerged to redress the historical under-representation of racial minorities and women.
Now the US government’s move to abolish diversity, equity and inclusion policies is a naked attempt to appeal to prejudice. Understood, but what has that got to do with rewriting history??
thelma
history IS impossible to _delete_ totally, as you say.
But if original documents, reports and photos are purged, true history is more difficult to _retrieve_. Imagine in 10 years time when researchers, PhD students and history book writers search the Department of Defence files and find ... very little.
This is beyond disgusting. It is changing history .
Have these ignorant people not heard of Alexander the Great or Margaret Anne Bulkley, who disguised herself as a man and worked as a military surgeon in Regency times?
It is shameful that that happened. When I first read about it I was very upset. Now I'm upset and angry. These people are so closed minded and shallow minded too. And the leader of them all, the president of my country (but not my president if you want to look at it that way) is the worst of the worst. Thanks for sharing this.
I voted against both major parties, so none of this is my doing.
What a horrible and disgusting thing to do, and really why, changing the records of history is one of the most lowest of acts.
I could use many adjective to call Trump out. One of them he is racist. And also he and Pete Hegseth want to make our military completely white.
jabblog
I don't think those ignorant people know that once history happened, it has happened! Even if rulers chose the wrong allies in the past or entered a war that shouldn't have involved them, those historical events cannot be undone.
Future politicians can certainly say they would have conducted WW2 differently, but that is very far from deleting WW2 participants' records because they were blacks, females or American Indians.
Erika
sadly the order cull for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion content was far more immoral than shallow minded.
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