Hegseth’s ‘DEI’ Purge is a Betrayal of American Service Members
This Fourth of July, we must stand up for the warriors this administration is trying to erase.
By CDR Bobby R. Jones, USN (Ret.)
As I write this essay, the current Secretary of Defense has found it necessary to disregard the careers of some of America’s best military officers, personally striking their names from promotion lists for flag rank while offering no explanation. This is a grave insult to those Black service members who have put on the uniform and served their country, only to be treated as lesser than their peers. As millions of Americans spend today celebrating 250 years of our independence, we must commit ourselves to righting this grave wrong.
The very groups Pete Hegseth has targeted are among this nation’s most dedicated patriots. Many African Americans died for a country that hated them, degraded them, and dismissed them; but they still served anyway. African Americans have consistently been among the first to volunteer, the first to be drafted, and the first to die for the United States of America. The erasure of Black military history from official records was a deliberate whitewashing of the past. Hegseth’s striking of names from flag officer promotion lists is his attempt to whitewash the military’s future.
From Crispus Attucks (the first American of any race to die for independence in 1770), to the Buffalo Soldiers (Frontier Trailblazers), the Harlem Hellfighters (the most battle-hardened unit in WWI), and the Tuskegee Airmen (who flew over 1,500 combat missions without losing a single bomber), the record is unbroken and unambiguous.
Henry Flipper, the first Black graduate of West Point, was targeted for his race and waited years for a pardon he should never have needed. Dorie Miller shot down four Japanese aircraft at Pearl Harbor from a gun he wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near, because of segregation in the Navy. Benjamin Davis Sr. served for forty-two years before his nation gave him a general’s star.
In 2023, for the first and only time in American history, both the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs were African American; the culmination of a climb that began before the nation itself existed. Every entry in this record is a testament. Every delay between the service and the recognition is an indictment.
Hegseth has nonetheless found it necessary to strike the names of accomplished African American officers from promotion lists—without explanation, without due process, without the dignity those careers have earned. The firsts in this record did not come easily. They came through decades of pressure, persistence, legal battles, presidential orders, and the weight of irreplaceable sacrifice. To erase them with a stroke of a pen is a violation of the very thing Hegseth says the American military is supposed to be. The merit is there despite the many micro- and macro-aggressions many people of color and women have had to endure. The ripple effects of such actions will plague the force for decades to come.
Attucks did not die for a nation that would treat his descendants as optional citizens. Henry Flipper did not endure four years of institutional silence at West Point—shunned by his fellow cadets, refused meals in the dining hall—so that his successors could be quietly removed from promotion lists without cause or comment. The Tuskegee Airmen did not fly into the teeth of enemy anti-aircraft fire over North Africa and Italy so that an unqualified political appointee could one day erase the names of the officers who came after them.
They served because they believed. They believed in something larger than the nation’s present failures; that one day America would live up to the words it had the audacity to write on July 4, 1776. That belief was, and remains, the most patriotic act in American history.
CDR Bobby R. Jones, USN (Ret.) is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Class of 2001, and a combat veteran with 22 years of commissioned service. He served as a Surface Warfare Officer and commanded Maritime Security Squadron Four (MSRON-4) and Combined Task Group 56.7, conducting theater security operations in the U.S. Fifth Fleet area of responsibility. He holds a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College and is President of Veterans for Responsible Leadership (VFRL).
Well stated and reflects who we are, not the false bravodo of Hegseth. I'm a retired Army NCO, and know leadership when I see it, and he is a fake and insults current and past service members. He was kicked out of the Army National Guard and now his bitterness and biases has betrayed our military and country.
LBJ said this: "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
Little men like Hegseth and Trump want that reassurance of believing they are "better", and people of color, women, hell, even the physically handicapped serve their desire to inflict petty cruelty instead of common decency!