RedState has written at length about how the Biden Administration and the U.S. military under Joe Biden’s command is going through something of a woke transformation, which continues to distort and potentially damage the U.S.’s long term ability to keep America and her interests safe, both at home and abroad. These changes include pushing the radical progressive ideologies of Critical Race Theory and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as an integral part of training members of our fighting forces, including at West Point.
Now, in a new, exclusive piece by Fox News Digital, a Republican congressman shares explosive, sometimes frightening information on a “D&I” training presentation at the Air Force Academy, passed along to him by cadets and their families, who are “alarmed” by what is being taught:
A diversity and inclusion training by the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado instructs cadets to use words that “include all genders” and to refrain from saying things like “mom” and “dad.”
The slide presentation titled, “Diversity & Inclusion: What it is, why we care, & what we can do,” advises cadets to use “person-centered” and gender-neutral language when describing individuals.
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The documents were shared with Fox News Digital by Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., a Green Beret and Afghan War veteran, who said the materials had alarmed cadets. Fox News Digital has verified the documents’ authenticity.
The information shared by Waltz was wide-ranging, contained on seven presentation slides used as part of the training. Here are two of the more alarming elements from it-and what this portends for our future military readiness and national security.
Perhaps most ominious was the element known as the “Cadet Wing Divesity and Inclusion Program,” which was detailed in an Air Force press release:
The academy also offers a “Cadet Wing Diversity and Inclusion Program,” where graduates are given a purple rope to wear across their left shoulder “symbolizing their position as a diversity representative” so that they can “advise students on diversity,” according to a press release.
An August 2021 memo by the academy that proposed the D&I program, obtained by Fox News Digital, said it would create “champions of dignity and respect to foster an inclusive climate in the Cadet Wing.”
“Recommended trainings include, but are not limited to, inclusive leadership, conversation facilitation, unconscious bias, and cultural sensitivity,” the memo stated.
Waltz explained why this “D&I” program-including the “special insignia”-is “particularly concerning”:
Waltz, a ranking member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, told Fox News Digital that the program’s structure is particularly concerning because it appears to create a “separate, parallel chain of command.”
“To those of us who are a little bit older, it reminds us of what the Soviets used to do or what the Chinese do today, where they literally have political commissars inserted at every level end of the chain of command, but they have a separate reporting chain to ensure that the military is abiding by their ideology and their political doctrine,” Waltz said.
“Not only do they have diversity and equity officers in the cadet chain of command, they wear a special insignia, which is exactly what the political commissars — they would wear an armband in both the Soviet army and now in the Chinese Communist military. I just think there are some really alarming parallels,” he said.
The report also had a series of slides with instructions and training on a “G-Animals” group exercise:
The diversity and inclusion (D&I) training also includes an exercise asking cadets to separate into small groups and write down as many “G-Animals,” or animals that start with the letter “G,” that they can think of in one minute’s time.
Slide from U.S. Air Force slide presentation on “D and I.” Screenshot credit: Fox News Digital
The next slide urges participants to compare their groups’ results from the exercise about animal names to the “risks” inherent in a real-life military challenge they might face in service:
“What does this activity show us about the power of combining our diverse perspectives?” the activity asks. “If this were an operational USAF/USSF [United States Space Force] challenge (think COA [course of action] development) what risks might be present if we did not fully leverage the diversity of our group?”
Slide from U.S. Air Force slide presentation on “D and I.” Screenshot credit: Fox News Digital
Another slide includes a list of the 107 possible “G-Animal” entries, where you would find familiar animal names like “Giraffe,” but it’s mostly full of obscure listings like “Greater Swiss Mountain Dog” and “Geoffreys Tamarind.”
The Fox News Digital report continues by sharing a final slide purporting to show the “results” of implementing D&I exercises like the one described above: (emphasis mine):
One slide in the presentation claims that D&I training is critical for “developing warfighters” to be “prepared to lead the USAF/USSF with character.”
“How can we Lift Others (motivate our teams) if we don’t know our people?” it asks. “How can we Elevate Performance if we don’t include people during planning and execution?”
“Today we are preparing to face challenges that may not exist today,” the training says. “For example, Information Warfare only became a career field 7 years ago, and we stood up the Space Force in 2019. This makes our need to innovate critical. Thus, our leaders have deemed D&I a warfighting imperative.“
In an updated statement Thursday to Fox News Digital, the academy’s superintended pushed back on Rep. Waltz’s revelations:
USAFA Superintendent Lt. Gen. Rich Clark clarified that the academy “does not prohibit the use of ‘mom and dad’ or other gender specific terms.”
“The recent briefing on diversity and inclusion is being taken out of context and misrepresented; the slide in question was not intended to stand alone,” Clark said. “First and foremost, the briefing centered on respect for others and the warfighting imperative of leveraging diverse perspectives to solve our nation’s most difficult national security problems. Our strategic competitors are doing the opposite. Our American diversity is a strategic advantage and opens the door to creative solutions, providing a competitive edge in air, space, and cyberspace.”
“The slide on ‘inclusive language’ was intended to demonstrate how respect for others should be used to build inclusive teams, producing more effective warfighting units,” Clark continued. “Understanding a person’s context shows respect. Until you know a person’s situation, we should not make assumptions about them.”
No one needs to tell you that this touchy-feely, woke nonsense about “understanding a person’s context” has no correlation to readying our troops for “planning and execution” in warfare. Solving a newspaper’s Jumble puzzle would do as much good as the animal exercise-and it seems many potential servicemember, who otherwise would consider signing up to protect our nation, have caught on to this transformation. As my colleague Bob Hoge noted recently, the military leadership’s prioritizing of political propaganda has already decimated recruitment numbers-which, in itself, is dangerous to our nation.
The information shared by Rep. Waltz only underlines the importance of what will happen on November 8, when the Republican party is expected to regain the majority in the House and, likely, the U.S. Senate. The congressman affirmed to Fox News Digital that Republicans will excise this dangerous stuff once they are back in control in the House, where Waltz would “[become] chairman of the Subcommittee on Readiness, which has oversight of all trainings across the U.S. military and military academies.”
“I’m worried about the macro aggressions,” he said. “Everything, when it comes to training, is an opportunity cost. Every hour, every day you’re spending training on this stuff, you’re not training on all the other things we need that I would argue would be a higher priority to fight and win wars.”