The Air Force said yesterday it will resume instruction of trainees using a video about the first Black airmen in the U.S. military, known as the Tuskegee Airmen. Via Reuters:
Trump, who took office on Jan. 20, has prohibited DEI throughout the U.S. government and the U.S. military. New Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was sworn in on Friday, has made eliminating DEI from the military a top priority.
Reuters reported on Saturday that the video about the Tuskegee Airmen as well as another about civilian women pilots trained by the U.S. military during World War Two, known as "Women Air Force Service Pilots," or WASPs, were not being taught in basic training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland pending a review.
The move was first reported by the San Antonio Express-News, and it created an uproar, including in Alabama, home to the training base in Tuskegee where the airmen got their name. Alabama Senator Katie Boyd Britt, in a post on social media platform X, described the decision to pause teaching the videos as "malicious compliance" with the DEI review.
