Jackie Robinson’s Pentagon Page Removed—Then Restored—In DEI Purge; Forbes, March 19, 2025

 Sara Dorn, Forbes ; Jackie Robinson’s Pentagon Page Removed—Then Restored—In DEI Purge

"A webpage dedicated to baseball star Jackie Robinson’s military career was removed from the Department of Defense website this week in the Pentagon’s purge of content it deems aligned with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives—but was later restored after the agency suggested it was a “mistake.”...

The page was “mistakenly” removed in the DEI purge, an unnamed Department of Defense official told ABC News, adding that it and others that had been taken down — including those honoring the Tuskegee Airmen, the Marines at Iwo Jima and Navajo Code Talkers — would be restored.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Ullyot said in a statement to Forbes that errors are corrected “in rare cases that content is removed—either deliberately or by mistake—that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive.”

Ullyot defended the Trump administration’s directive to dismantle DEI initiatives at the agency, however, referring to the acronym as “Discriminatory Equity Ideology” which he said “is a form of Woke cultural Marxism that Divides the force, Erodes unit cohesion and Interferes with services’ core warfighting mission.”"

Ronald Reagan narrated a short film in 1945 about the Tuskegee Airmen; Task & Purpose, February 20, 2025

 MATT WHITE, Task & Purpose; Ronald Reagan narrated a short film in 1945 about the Tuskegee Airmen

"An Army film produced in 1945 on the Tuskegee airmen begins with footage of a fighter taxiing behind a narrator’s familiar voice.

“It’s morning,” says the unmistakable voice of then-Army captain Ronald Reagan, who always enjoyed his ‘morning’ metaphors. On screen, fighters take to the air. “Twenty miles from the enemy,” Reagan says.

The 10-minute Army-produced film is a kind of first draft of history on the Tuskegee Airmen, the famed World War II flyers who were in the news last month when the Air Force removed — and then partially replaced — videos on the unit from its boot camp. But the National Archives video on those airmen is worth watching, both for what it says and for what it doesn’t say. Along with some vintage footage of training, the film is narrated by future-President Ronald Reagan, back when he was an Army officer making films for what was then the War Department...

Perhaps Reagan’s most notable passage comes toward the end, when he firmly divides the world into two sides — the Axis powers versus the American way — and puts the segregation and racism behind the Tuskegee project squarely into the Axis’ camp. 

“Here’s the answer to Hitler and Hirohito,” Reagan says. “Here’s the answer to the propaganda of the Japs and Nazis. Here’s the answer: Wings for this man.” 

It’s almost as if the future President wanted to say that diversity is a strength."

Trump’s anti-DEI order yanks air force videos of Tuskegee Airmen and female pilots; Reuters via The Guardian, January 25, 2025

 Reuters via The Guardian ; Trump’s anti-DEI order yanks air force videos of Tuskegee Airmen and female pilots

[Kip Currier: As the proud son of a U.S. Air Force veteran captain, I respectfully call on the U.S. Air Force to again make available to its instructors and students these important parts of its history, as a force for making our country and the world safer and more representative of the promise of America.]

[Excerpt]

"Donald Trump’s order halting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives has led the US air force to suspend course instruction on a documentary about the first Black airmen in the US military, known as the Tuskegee Airmen, a US official said on Saturday.

The famed Black aviators included 450 pilots who fought overseas in segregated units during the second world war. Their success in combat helped pave the way for Harry Truman’s decision to desegregate the armed forces in 1948.

Another video about civilian female pilots trained by the US military during the second world war, known as Women Airforce Service Pilots, or Wasps, was also pulled, the official said.

The air force did not directly comment on the decision, which was confirmed by an official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity."