The Pentagon's DEI crackdown isn't just deleting history — it also seems to slight veterans

In late February, Hegseth ordered a "digital content refresh across all DoD public platforms," targeting material related to "critical race theory, gender ideology, and preferential treatment or quotas based upon sex, race or ethnicity, or other DEI-related matters," per a memorandum of the mandate.

In the weeks since the mandate was issued, error messages began to appear on webpages depicting diversity events at military bases and stories advocating for women, racial minorities, and LGBTQ+ troops.

Though the March 5 deadline for the onerous online purge has long passed, content continues to be removed from military-run websites, including profiles of biographies highlighting historic military leaders and units that existed long before diversity was a recognized organizational initiative.

Among the deletions was an article spotlighting Black soldiers throughout US history, from Revolutionary War spy James Armistead Lafayette to the legendary segregated World War I combat unit known as the Harlem Hellfighters, one of numerous alterations spotted by the news site Axios.

Published during Black History Month in 2017, the article recognized the "brave soldiers who broke barriers, saved lives, and paved the way for today's force."

The DEI labeling and deletions affected many other trailblazers and warfighters. An article about a Puerto Rican unit that served in World War II and Vietnam had one article's address changed to read, "deiinfantryman." The original DoD publicity arose from the regiment's recognition decades later, in 2016, with the Congressional Gold Medal.

Similarly, an article about retired Brig. Gen. Allison Hickey, an Air Force pilot who graduated in the first US Air Force Academy class with women, was labeled "dei" and its photos and text removed.

Alongside the now-restored story about Robinson's service in the US Army during World War II, a profile about Army Maj. Gen. Charles C. Rogers, the highest-ranking Black servicemember to receive the Medal of Honor, was temporarily taken down.

The story, part of a series honoring Medal of Honor recipients, largely focused on Rogers' decorated military career in the Army. The article briefly mentioned how he championed sex and race equality during his time in the Army and his status as the highest-ranking Black Medal of Honor recipient to this day.

The story returned to the Pentagon's website following criticism of the removal last week. The Defense Department said in a statement that the story was taken down during an "auto removal process" but failed to detail why the article was targeted in the first place.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Ullyot said in a statement that the department will correct the "rare cases that content is removed — either deliberately or by mistake — that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive."

"Now you're hurting recruiting, and you're also branding the greatest military in the world, the US military, a haven for white supremacists," said Brandon Friedman, a former US Army combat veteran who spotted that Rogers' Medal of Honor tribute had been labeled DEI. "Pulling Jackie Robinson off the website, have these people lost their minds?"

Other historical content remained noticeably absent from the Defense Department's website.

The DoD removed a story about the service of Marine Corps Pfc. Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian who "achieved immortal fame" as one of the six Marines in the iconic WWII photo raising the American flag atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima, The Washington Post reported.

The tribute was written in 2021 in honor of National Native American Heritage Month, which the article described as 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."

Articles about the Navajo Code Talkers, the famed US Marine unit who were instrumental in decoding secret messages during World War II, were also labeled under the "DEI" umbrella and have since disappeared from some military websites, Axios reported.

An article about prominent Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers, a US Navy veteran, was also removed from the US Naval History and Heritage Command. However, another webpage about the active-duty US Navy dry cargo ship named after him remains online.

When asked why Evers' biography was taken down, an NHHC representative told Business Insider that the command was assessing and revising each page on its website per Hegseth's DEI directive.

A spokesperson for the Navy Office of Information was unable to provide answers to BI's questions by Thursday morning about the criteria that resulted in the page's removal.

Despite the swift backlash for the online takedowns, the Defense Department defended the decision to remove the content due to its "DEI" framing.

"Everyone at the Defense Department loves Jackie Robinson, as well as the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee airmen, the Marine at Iwo Jima, and so many others — we salute them for their strong and, in many cases, heroic service to our education, full stop," Ullyot said.

He added: "We do not view or highlight them through the prism of immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, or sex."

Nonetheless, wholly deleting the content from the Pentagon's site appears to undermine the department's stated goal of "recognizing their patriotism and dedication to the warfighting mission like every other American who has worn the uniform," as Ullyot said in the statement.

Some have speculated that DoD could have used an algorithm to review thousands of old articles, images, and public records for DEI-related keywords. The DoD did not say how it chose to delete these articles and alter their web addresses; the full number of altered addresses remains unknown.

The DEI label was also applied to the combat veteran President Donald Trump recently fired: Gen. CQ Brown, who had been the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A web article about his trailblazing career was deleted, and the URL was altered to read "deiblack-history-month."

Despite Hegseth's vision to create "the most transparent Department of Defense in history," it remains unclear what guidelines DoD officials are following when flagging online content as DEI-related — both internally and externally.

"I guess I'll just stop taking photos of and sharing the stories of women and Black soldiers," an Army public affairs official told Military.com in late February. "Not sure how else to interpret this."

Staff writer Kelsey Baker contributed to this report.