The Department of Defense, like every U.S. government agency, is looking to cut any reference to the previous administration’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives but has repeatedly tripped over itself and drawn scrutiny for what has been “incorrectly” flagged.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has made his stance well known, telling the DOD workforce in his first town hall, “I think the single dumbest phrase in military history is our diversity is our strength.” 

Recommended Stories

• Waltz says US will answer China threat with economic and military ‘lethality’
• DOD sending another guided-missile destroyer to US-Mexico border
• Trump announces Boeing wins sixth-generation aircraft contract for F-47

He issued the “Digital Content Refresh” memorandum on Feb. 26, and it gave services until March 5 to remove “all DoD news and feature articles, photos, and videos that promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).”

The use of “[artificial intelligence] tools and other software” has “incorrectly” flagged some material that does not meet the criteria for removal, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell acknowledged in a video posted on X on Thursday.

“Every now and then, because of the realities of AI tools and other software, some important content was incorrectly pulled offline to be reviewed,” Parnell said. “We want to be very, very clear: History is not DEI. When content is either mistakenly removed — or if it is maliciously removed — we continue to work quickly to restore it.”

Some of the material that was taken down but has since been restored include articles about barrier-breaking and historic individuals like Jackie Robinson, the Tuskegee Airmen, Vietnam-era Medal of Honor recipient Maj. Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers, the Navajo Code Talkers from World War II, and the Japanese American 442nd Combat Regiment.

Hegseth’s memo noted that if components couldn’t remove all pertinent content by the March deadline, they “must temporarily remove from public display all news articles, photos and videos published” during the Biden administration “until the content is fully reviewed and DEI content is removed.”

It specified that “DEI content includes but is not limited to information that promotes programs, concepts, or material about critical race theory, gender ideology, and preferential treatment or quotas based upon sex, race or ethnicity, or other DEI-related matters.”

Photos of the Enola Gay, the B-29 aircraft the U.S. military used to drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, during WWII, were briefly taken offline. Several pictures of the Army Corps of Engineers dredging project in California were also flagged, likely because the local engineer’s last name was “Gay.”

US TO WITHDRAW FROM BODY INVESTIGATING RUSSIAN RESPONSIBILITY FOR UKRAINE WAR

“Everyone at the Defense Department loves Jackie Robinson, as well as the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee Airmen, the Marines at Iwo Jima, and so many others — we salute them for their strong and, in many cases, heroic service to our country, full stop,” Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot said. “We do not view or highlight them through the prism of immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, or sex. We do so only by recognizing their patriotism and dedication to the warfighting mission like every other American who has worn the uniform.”

Ullyot, who held senior communications roles during the first Trump administration, was sidelined from his position this week and is expected to take on another role at the Pentagon working on “special projects” following uproar over the deletion of the story about Jackie Robinson, according to the Washington Post.