Historical figures cut from military websites while others are restored following ‘DEI’ ban
Doris Miller, the first Black sailor to earn a Navy Cross, is one of many from marginalized backgrounds whose contributions have been scrubbed from Pentagon websites.
For the last four years, high school world history teacher Hadley DiForti has taught the story of Navy hero Doris Miller to her students.
Miller, a cook on a ship, gunned down attacking Japanese planes at Pearl Harbor in 1941, before he led other sailors to safety. The effort made him the first Black sailor to receive the Navy Cross, and his image was used on recruitment posters.
But earlier this year, when DiForti went to a Navy website that she had used for years to teach the students about Miller’s story, it had been taken down, leaving her students feeling “significantly upset.”
“I was extremely angry,” the Tennessee teacher said. “I’ve taught about him now for four years in a row, and kids really do like learning about him.” She has come to rely on .gov websites because she could trust them, she said, but “now, that’s not the case.”
The Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot told NBC News earlier this week that “DEI is dead at the Defense Department. Discriminatory Equity Ideology is a form of Woke cultural Marxism that has no place in our military. It Divides the force, Erodes unit cohesion and Interferes with the services’ core warfighting mission.”
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