Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training and policies are harming the development of cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, according to a retired Air Force lieutenant general and a parent whose son is at the academy.
The Epoch Times spoke to Rod Bishop, Air Force Lt. Gen. (ret.) and chairman of the board for the advocacy group Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services. Mr. Bishop, who has befriended several cadets attending the academy, said he has heard numerous stories about what some of the cadets are experiencing.
He said, in a recent incident, a civilian professor began a semester calling white male cadets in the classroom “white boy number one, white boy number two, and white boy number three, because all you white boys look alike.” In another classroom, white cadets were asked to give an example of their “white privilege,” he said. Cadets have also been taught that calling their parents mom and dad could be offensive and calling them guardians or parents would be more inclusive, he added.
Since 2020, Pentagon leaders have mandated DEI policies to be incorporated into military services, a move that has sparked a backlash from Republicans and conservatives.
“Since DEI is rooted in Marxism and the history, lineage, and divisive intent reflects that Marxist-based ideology, isn’t it ironic that America’s military is welcoming and embracing these concepts with open arms when we sacrificed 95,000 American lives in Korea and Vietnam fighting against this very same ideology?” Mr. Bishop said. “We spent trillions of our national treasure since the end of World War II resisting its constructs and false promises throughout the world.”
The retired Lt. Gen. said these social justice concepts shouldn’t be allowed to be integrated into the U.S. military which is supposed to be an apolitical institution.
“Our military should be solely focused on readiness and deterrence.” If deterrence fails, he said, “winning our nation’s wars becomes paramount, and doing that job to the best of our ability means there is no time to get involved with the cultural wars invading our society.”
He described DEI as a revamped version of critical race theory (CRT), a Marxist-rooted framework that views America as systemically racist, calling it CRT “dressed up in nice sounding words.”
“DEI seems to be everywhere—from Hollywood to corporate America, from our educational system to our legal system, from our media to our medical community, from many of our politicians to our libraries,” Mr. Bishop said.
‘Road to Mediocrity’
But DEI is “especially dangerous” when inserted into America’s armed forces, according to Mr. Bishop.
“DEI [is] a subtle poison that quietly, but quickly, destroys the organs of society along with the heart and soul of our military: the selfless-servant warrior ethos,” he said.
“Until they take the time to peel back the onion, examine its origins and understand Aesopian language, who can argue against nice-sounding words like diversity and inclusion?” he said.
“In the name of diversity,” he said, “the rules are being changed to favor a particular immutable trait of one person over another who may have worked harder and is more qualified.” While diversity of thought, background, experience, and education were always welcome in the military, he said “in today’s world with extensive use of Aesopian language, diversity almost always refers to gender or color of skin, and these immutable traits often become the determinant in one person’s promotion over another or selection into our military service academies.”
“Pair diversity with equity—equal outcomes for identity groups instead of equality of opportunity for all persons—and a dangerous pattern begins to emerge,” Mr. Bishop added. “This puts our military on a road to mediocrity instead of meritocracy, where we start simply selecting qualified people, not the best qualified to lead, for example.”
Equity should not be a priority in the military, he said, because “our nation and our national security deserve the very best leaders, not just qualified ones [as] the future of our country and our national security depends upon it.”
Inclusion, he said, is “the last piece of the DEI puzzle that’s harming the military” and placing cadets in tough predicaments. “Take, for example, a devout Christian or Muslim being coerced to affirm—not just accept—the transgender movement,” he said. In addition, he said, “Taking a shower with a ‘woman’ who still has male genitalia is not at the top of the ‘want to do’ list of female cadets.”
Attributing the quote to an unnamed Air Force Academy cadet, Mr. Bishop said, “DEI is nothing more than identity politics on steroids.” According to him, “This Marxist-based ideology divides and it has absolutely no place in a military which depends upon unity and cohesiveness to successfully execute a military operation.”
Infiltration
Former Air Force pilot Athena Raven served in the military for over 30 years. She spoke to The Epoch Times using a pseudonym due to fear of reprisals against her son, who currently attends the Air Force Academy as she did in the past.
While her son remains “strong and unaffected by rampant indoctrination” in recent years, she said the academy has clearly been “infiltrated by this crazy ideology,” referring to CRT, DEI, and other “woke” policies.
“At one time, [transgenderism] wouldn’t have been allowed, and at another, it was ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’” Today, Ms. Raven said, “I have yet to figure out why the transgender movement is being pushed.”
Transgender individuals were banned from serving in the U.S. military for decades until officials lifted the ban in June 2016. Then-President Donald Trump implemented a new ban in July 2017. Shortly after President Joe Biden took office, he reversed the Trump administration’s ban on transgender recruits.
In 2021, the Pentagon updated its policy to allow service members to access gender transition medical procedures funded by the military.
“If somebody is willing to die for our country, then I really don’t care about their sexual orientation, but why are we catering to them?” Ms. Raven said. To that end, she said, “the military has no business paying for people who are supposedly transitioning.”
Inadequately Prepared
Training at the Academy has also become less rigorous, according to Ms. Raven.
She was told by her son that “an instructor was putting [cadets] in order [for tactical reasons] during a survival training situation, asking for the short ones to be in the middle.” But some cadets were offended.
“We’re supposed to be making warriors, not kids who are offended by the smallest things,” she said.
“During training, cadets were not given knives because leadership feared they would hurt themselves each other,” she added. During evasion training, she said, cadets were also not allowed to run for fear of the same. “They also wouldn’t let them build fires because they thought they’d create wildfires.”
In part of a cadet’s training described as “Hell Week,” Mrs. Raven said, “the goal is to try to break someone down mentally and push them to their limit.” But contrary to her experience at the academy decades ago, “today, if someone starts to cry, you can’t even continue to yell at them,” she said.
According to her, “war is not kind, nor easy” and she suspects “new military recruits will not be able to withstand the punishments of war.” Instead, she said, “They will be offended and will break down without much effort.”
“War is tough and only the best will survive, so let’s give these cadets the training they need and deserve instead of catering to promoting incompetence and weakness.”
The Chinese regime is “very, very patient” and “they don’t do anything fast,” Ms. Raven said. “Slowly, but surely, they’re infiltrating our country, and I’m scared to death of what they’re capable of doing.”
“As the [U.S.] military continues to be dismantled, I fear there’s no way we are going to be able to stop them from doing whatever they want to do,” she said.
The Air Force Academy’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion didn’t return requests for comment.
