One order, signed Friday by acting Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel Timothy Dill, marks the most wide-reaching directive in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's effort to eradicate diversity and equity programs, policies and reading material across the military.
The U.S. Naval Academy earlier this spring removed nearly 400 books that promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) from its library after a review, with the West Point Military Academy and Air Force Academy conducting similar reviews of their books and curriculum.
But the new directive goes far beyond that effort, ordering all military educational institutions such as war colleges and military service academies to "identify library materials that may conflict with our core mission" and "appropriately sequester those materials" by May 21, according to the order.
Hegseth also put out a memo Friday ordering the service academies to admit students "based exclusively on merit," with "no consideration of race, ethnicity, or sex," underlining the word "no" on the document. Academies must confirm within 30 days that they are adhering to those standards.
"This ensures only the most qualified candidates are admitted, trained, and ultimately commissioned to lead the finest fighting force in history," Hegseth writes. "Selecting anyone but the best erodes lethality, our warfighting readiness, and undercuts the culture of excellence in our Armed Forces."
The directives are the latest steps in the Trump administration's sweeping effort to eliminate DEI content across the federal government, which has included attempts to remove DEI content from the Defense Department websites and social media pages.
The memo on library books says that a temporary Academic Libraries Committee - comprised of "knowledgeable leaders, educators, and library professionals" from across the military - will provide information on which books to review and how to decide if they should ultimately be removed.
The panel provided a list of search terms to use in the initial identification of the books to be pulled and reviewed, including affirmative action, allyship, anti-racism, critical race theory, discrimination, DEI, gender dysphoria, gender identity, gender transition, transgender, transsexual and white privilege.
Read the full report at TheHill.com.
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