Congresswoman questions Hegseth about book removals at Naval Academy, other military libraries
Rep. Sarah Elfreth is seeking answers from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as military libraries face a deadline to remove books and other materials to comply with a Pentagon directive on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
In a letter exclusively obtained by The Baltimore Sun, Elfreth, D-Md., writes to Hegseth asking for details from the department on 'targeting books and historical materials that this Administration has ideological disagreements with.'
The letter requests more information on a department memorandum, issued earlier this month, that directed military leaders to remove all books focusing on perceived DEI issues by Wednesday.
The memo stated that 'promoting divisive concepts and gender ideology are incompatible with the Department's core mission,' according to the AP.
Since Hegseth was confirmed as Defense secretary, the department has deleted or removed thousands of historical images, documents, and stories from online archives that contain perceived references to DEI, only for some to be restored after outside complaints.
They included an article on the military service of Jackie Robinson — restored after ESPN asked the department about its removal — and images and references to the Enola Gay, the World War II aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
The Nimitz Library at the U.S. Naval Academy department removed 381 books in April after Hegseth's office issued directives to evaluate and eliminate works focused on DEI.
'We knew it was bigger than the Naval Academy,' Elfreth told The Sun. 'It's a distraction — of time, energy, resources, capital — towards culture wars and not towards what's actually going to make us ready to defend this country against our adversaries.'
The letter lists five questions for the secretary to respond to about the memo. One asks about the formation of the Academic Libraries Committee, the temporary committee that provided a list of search terms for military leaders to target in the book removal.
Other questions refer to potential criteria to inform the list of search terms, the department institutions impacted by the memo, the future of the removed books and the costs associated with the removal.
More disturbing than the targeting of books, Elfreth's letter states, 'is the lack of explanation, and the contradiction between the books this Administration thinks should be removed and the books that remain, like Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler and The Doctrine of Facism by Benito Mussolini.'
Elfreth is a member of the U.S. Armed Services Committee. Seven Armed Services Democrats joined the letter.
Hegseth has been weathering a maelstrom of mistakes. It started with the Signalgate incident, when then-National Security Advisor Mike Waltz created a group chat of America's highest-ranking officials to discuss military strikes in the Middle East. Hegseth sent sensitive information about the strikes in the chat, which included a journalist whom Waltz had mistakenly added.
Additional reporting revealed another chat used to discuss the strikes. Hegseth included his wife in the second chat, marking another security breach. He also fired top Pentagon staffers, alleging they were leaking to the media, while his chief of staff resigned.
'This is what the media does,' Hegseth said at the time. 'They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees, and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations. It's not going to work with me, because we're changing the Defense Department, putting the Pentagon back in the hands of war fighters.'
He has faced public calls from resignation from his former chief spokesperson, John Ullyot, and Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican.
'In your confirmation hearing, you reiterated the importance of lethality in our fighting forces — how does erasing our history from public display and removing books from military educational institutions serve this goal?' the letter states. 'Time and energy spent attempting to expunge our historical record simply means diverting resources away from critical readiness.'
'Our servicemembers are tested every day physically and mentally, and they have the capacity to critically examine and engage with texts they disagree with,' it continues.
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