Photo by Joe Rosenthal/AP. Public domain image.
The Pentagon is facing backlash as multiple Department of Defense websites featuring military veterans who are women, minorities, or members of the LGBTQ+ community have been removed, archived, or edited as part of an effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to purge “DEI” content.
Among the many executive orders Trump signed on inauguration day was one ordering the termination of all DEI, or “diversity, equity, and inclusion” programs. The president has frequently railed against DEI policies and blamed them, without proof, for problems like January’s air crash at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued his own directive to his department to implement Trump’s DEI purge and remove any online content that highlights or promotes diversity initiatives. Since then, tens of thousands of photos and articles on DOD websites have been flagged for deletion, including a photograph of the Enola Gay, the airplane flown to drop a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, Japan during World War II. The plane, named after the pilot’s mother, seems to have been flagged because of the word “Gay” in the name; the Associated Press found other content similarly designated for removal, like photos from an Army Corps of Engineers project that included a local engineer whose last name is Gay.
Photos of female pilots, a Hispanic Medal of Honor recipient, and the Tuskegee Airmen, America’s first Black military pilots during WWII, were also included in the list of images to be purged, according to the AP.
The 1945 photograph by Joe Rosenthal of the AP, above, won the Pulitzer Prize and has been recognized as one of the most enduring and inspirational images from WWII. One of the six Marines in the photograph, Ira Hayes, was a Pima Indian from Arizona. That seems to have been enough to have triggered the removal of a page featuring the photograph from a DOD website, reported The Washington Post, “along with many others about Native American and other minority service members” and “multiple webpages about women and LGBTQ+ service members.”
An archived version of the page, which can be viewed here, was titled “Pima Indian Helped Raise American Flag on Iwo Jima During World War II” and included an article dated Nov. 3, 2021 that commemorated DOD “celebrating National Native American Heritage Month, which is every November…a time to reflect on the contributions and sacrifices Native Americans have made to the United States, not just in the military, but in all walks of life.”
Other removed articles include ones featuring the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs), notable Black veterans like the Tuskegee Airmen and Harlem Hellfighters, and the Native American Code Talkers, whose native languages proved to be impenetrable for enemy codebreakers and thusly provided extraordinarily valuable assistance to American military efforts during both World Wars, according to Axios.
One particular aspect of the online purge that drew ire was how several of the broken URLs of the removed pages were changed to include “dei.”
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers earned the Medal of Honor, America’s highest military honor, after he was seriously wounded three times leading his battalion’s defense of a base during the Vietnam War. Rogers was presented the Medal of Honor by President Richard Nixon in 1970 and returned to combat duty. He continued his military service until retiring in 1984 as a major general, also earning a Purple Heart, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and four Bronze Stars.
But the DOD website featuring Rogers’ story as part of an ongoing “Medal of Honor Monday” series was not just taken down, the URL was changed to include the text “deimedal-of-honor.” That URL (https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/Story/Article/2824721/deimedal-of-honor-monday-army-maj-gen-charles-calvin-rogers/) was later set to redirect to a URL that didn’t include “dei,” after a lot of backlash online, especially after a Bluesky post from MSNBC columnist Brandon Friedman noted the change.
This is blood-boiling. Charles Rogers was awarded the Medal of Honor in Vietnam after being wounded three times leading the defense of a position.
Google his name and the entry below comes up. When you click, you’ll see the page has been deleted and the URL changed to include “DEI medal.”
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— Brandon Friedman (@brandonfriedman.bsky.social) March 15, 2025 at 10:25 PM
“Calling Major General Charles C. Rogers Medal of Honor ‘DEI’ is an insult to the military and to the United States,” said one of the top comments on a post on the r/Military subreddit. Numerous commenters on Reddit and social media quoted the official citation from Rogers’ Medal of Honor, which read:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Lt. Col. Rogers, Field Artillery, distinguished himself in action while serving as commanding officer, 1st Battalion, during the defense of a forward fire support base. In the early morning hours, the fire support base was subjected to a concentrated bombardment of heavy mortar, rocket and rocket propelled grenade fire. Simultaneously the position was struck by a human wave ground assault, led by sappers who breached the defensive barriers with bangalore torpedoes and penetrated the defensive perimeter. Lt. Col. Rogers with complete disregard for his safety moved through the hail of fragments from bursting enemy rounds to the embattled area. He aggressively rallied the dazed artillery crewmen to man their howitzers and he directed their fire on the assaulting enemy. Although knocked to the ground and wounded by an exploding round, Lt. Col. Rogers sprang to his feet and led a small counterattack force against an enemy element that had penetrated the howitzer positions. Although painfully wounded a second time during the assault, Lt. Col. Rogers pressed the attack, killing several of the enemy and driving the remainder from the positions. Refusing medical treatment, Lt. Col. Rogers reestablished and reinforced the defensive positions. As a second human wave attack was launched against another sector of the perimeter, Lt. Col. Rogers directed artillery fire on the assaulting enemy and led a second counterattack against the charging forces. His valorous example rallied the beleaguered defenders to repulse and defeat the enemy onslaught. Lt. Col. Rogers moved from position to position through the heavy enemy fire, giving encouragement and direction to his men. At dawn the determined enemy launched a third assault against the fire base in an attempt to overrun the position. Lt. Col. Rogers moved to the threatened area and directed lethal fire on the enemy forces. Seeing a howitzer inoperative due to casualties, Lt. Col. Rogers joined the surviving members of the crew to return the howitzer to action. While directing the position defense, Lt. Col. Rogers was seriously wounded by fragments from a heavy mortar round which exploded on the parapet of the gun position. Although too severely wounded to physically lead the defenders, Lt. Col. Rogers continued to give encouragement and direction to his men in defeating and repelling the enemy attack. Lt. Col. Rogers’ dauntless courage and heroism inspired the defenders of the fire support base to the heights of valor to defeat a determined and numerically superior enemy force. His relentless spirit of aggressiveness in action are in the highest traditions of the military service and reflects great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.