Latest news with #AirForceHandbook1
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Air Force Deletes 'CQ' Brown Quote, COVID-19 History and Bias Lesson from New Handbook
A new version of the Air Force's service handbook has removed mentions of diversity and deleted entire paragraphs about the service's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a quote from recently fired Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Charles "CQ" Brown. Air Force Handbook 1, a more than 600-page document used by airmen to study for promotion exams, was rescinded last month as service officials rushed to edit out anything that could be deemed in violation of orders by President Donald Trump or Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to remove any material deemed to promote diversity in the ranks. "Direct references to diversity, equity and inclusion concepts and nomenclature have been removed in accordance with Executive Order, Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing, 20 January 2025," the new handbook states, explaining the summary of changes. Read Next: 'These Are Human Beings': VA Fires 1,400 More Employees It Considers Nonessential But the new handbook, which was reissued last week, eliminated more than just mentions of diversity within the pages -- some of the edits were just outright removals of quotes or deletions of past Air Force efforts. For example, a whole paragraph on the Pentagon's response to the COVID-19 virus pandemic and Operation Warp Speed, a public-private partnership to quickly develop a vaccine for the virus during the first Trump administration, was completely deleted. "In 2020, Operation Warp Speed was a collaboration effort between the Department of Defense and Departments of Health and Human Services," the now deleted paragraph read. "They partnered with each other to accelerate the development, production and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines. The [Air Force] responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by quickly halting nonessential operations, maximizing teleworking efforts for all airmen, and enforcing policies such as mask mandates and social distancing." Trump signed an executive order last month that offered reinstatement as well as back pay and benefits to troops who were removed from the ranks for refusing the vaccine when it was mandated during the pandemic by the Department of Defense during the Biden administration. The new version of the handbook -- which was dated Feb. 15, but appeared online sometime last week -- also removed a seemingly innocuous quote from Brown, the former Air Force chief of staff who was fired by Trump on Friday as part of a purge of top military leadership, including the services' judge advocates general. "Before you can lead others, you have to lead yourself. We must develop leaders of character that are ready to create and foster environments of respect, inclusivity, and trust," the now-deleted quote from Brown read. "When airmen know they are valued, have high quality of service and quality of life, and are empowered to reach their full potential -- there are no limits to what we can accomplish." A reason for Brown's firing still had not been provided by the Department of Defense on Tuesday. Katherine Kuzminski, an expert on the military and veterans at the Center for a New American Security think tank in Washington, D.C., told that the removal of the quote wasn't surprising, but added that it was likely removed by officials due to the general's mention of inclusivity. "Some things were cut out with a scalpel and other things were a search and delete for anything that had to do with inclusion across a number of federal documents," Kuzminski said. "So, I am reading a little less into the fact that it was Brown's quote than what it was about, even though it was something fairly anodyne. "They're just wholesale removing any reference to the word 'inclusion,'" she said. One edit to a section about inappropriate use of the internet removed a sentence explaining hate speech by deleting the phrase "on the basis of protected class (e.g., race, creed, religion, color, age, sex, disability, national origin)." While the new handbook still prohibits "hate speech or ridicule of others," the removal of protected classes of people is notable, Kris Goldsmith, an Iraq combat veteran as well as the CEO and founder of Task Force Butler, a nonprofit that trains veterans to research and counter extremism, told Goldsmith said that by removing that phrase, it could open up opportunities for certain groups to potentially be accused of hate speech. "What they're doing is they're creating space to go after Black Lives Matter, pro-LGBTQ groups, so that they can classify racial justice protests as racist against white people," Goldsmith said. Additionally, an entire section titled "cognitive bias" was completely removed from the handbook. The deleted section included lessons about "common ways of thinking that can cause individuals to make irrational decisions in some circumstances," and definitions for confirmation bias, overconfidence bias, egocentrism and others. While the word "bias" can often be used in the sense of discrimination against other people, that section of the book appeared to be teaching about mistakes in logic and reasoning that are commonly discussed in psychology, sociology and even economics. An entire section titled "Fosters Inclusion" was also cut from the new handbook. Edits to the new handbook deleted dozens of mentions of diversity. Among those cuts were a section encouraging airmen to "be inclusive," a warning for troops to be aware of "their own biases," and a sentence stating "focusing on diversity through strengths that contribute to the organization in different ways can help reduce criticism and avoid conflict." The changes also replaced several mentions of "gender" with "sex." As part of their blitz of orders, Trump and his administration have said there are only two sexes and have worked to eliminate recognition and services for transgender Americans, including a push to ban them from military service. The handbook did retain mentions to the historic Tuskegee Airmen and the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. A chapter regarding "professionalism" was added to the very beginning of the handbook, according to the handbook's summary of changes. Kuzminski said that is one of the more notable and nonpartisan revisions to the handbook, in her view. "If I were to think of it in terms of a uniform professional and what the administration's priorities are, I actually think that's a really strong move to move the professionalism chapter," Kuzminski said. "That is the context that, regardless of your partisan views, that's the framework through which all of these other requirements should be seen. I feel like that's something that Secretary Hegseth would say, and I also feel like it's something that someone who personally identifies as a Democrat and as a junior enlisted person would also agree to." The changes to the handbook pushed back the testing cycle for those hoping to reach technical sergeant, previously reported. The exam cycle, which was scheduled to begin Feb. 15 and go through April 15, was pushed back to March 3 and will continue through May 1. Related: Airman Promotion Test to Tech Sergeant Delayed as Air Force Combs Documents for Subjects Banned by Trump
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pentagon Purge of References to Women, Minorities in Docs Delays Air Force Enlisted Promotions
An upcoming Air Force promotion exam for airmen hoping to reach the rank of technical sergeant will be delayed after President Donald Trump's administration ordered all diversity-related material to be scrubbed and reviewed, including the service's study handbook and the test itself. The testing cycle, which was scheduled to begin Saturday and go through April 15, will be pushed back to March 3 and will continue through May 1, the Air Force said in a statement to The delay comes after orders by Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to eliminate all efforts throughout the military promoting diverse groups such as women, troops with minority backgrounds, and gay and lesbian service members. "This delay is to ensure we take appropriate action to evaluate testing materials, remove all [diversity, equity and inclusion-related] content in the AF Handbook and [Career Development Course] study guides, and remain consistent with the orders of our commander in chief and defense secretary," Capt. Kevyn Lee-Anne Kaler, an Air Force spokesperson, said in the statement. Read Next: Gabbard, Dogged by Syria Visit and Echoing Russian Disinfo, Approved to Take Helm of Intelligence Agencies Air Force Handbook 1, a more than 600-page document that enlisted airmen use to study for the Weighted Airman Promotion System and the Promotion Fitness Examination, was removed from the service's website in late January, reported last week. also reviewed the handbook and found multiple mentions of the Air Force's history and praise of diverse groups of people serving in the ranks, which would likely be the target of removal under Trump's executive orders. One section titled "Leveraging Diversity" says the Air Force believes "diversity is a military necessity." In another section titled "Respecting Individuality," the service praises the "richness and benefits of diversity," adding "we must increase awareness of individuality and expel stereotypes." The document also praised the successes of female aviators and the Black Tuskegee Airmen, saying they "dispelled myths, opened eyes, rewrote history, and prepared the USAF for being the first of the U.S. armed services to integrate racially." The service told that a new Air Force handbook and study guides with corrected material are expected to be published by Feb. 18, giving airmen only a little more than two weeks to prepare for the beginning of the testing cycle at the start of March. Delays in studying for promotion testing mean airmen must wait longer to prepare and take an exam to earn new ranks that could significantly increase their paychecks and advance their careers in the service. 2025 paycharts show that a promotion to E-6, technical sergeant, could increase an airman's earnings anywhere from nearly $300 to $800 a month just in active-duty pay. Even with the new study materials, the promotion exam will still have diversity-related questions, according to the service, which claimed that writing a new test would cause a four-month delay and affect upward of 6,000 promotions. The Trump administration and Pentagon use the term "diversity, equity and inclusion," or DEI, to describe the programs and materials they are purging. "Until questions can be removed, testers will still see DEI questions and are expected to answer all questions to the best of their ability," Kaler said. "However, any DEI questions will not be scored." The delays in releasing the study guides as well as the test itself are the latest impact to the rank and file under the Trump and Hegseth push to remove initiatives that have supported and celebrated women, people with minority backgrounds, and gay and lesbian service members in the past. Trump has issued orders to ban transgender troops from serving, and the services are already beginning to carry out that ban. Hegseth has openly told troops that he does not support DEI initiatives, saying at a Pentagon town hall recently that "the single dumbest phrase in military history is 'our diversity is our strength.'" Most recently, the Department of the Air Force removed diversity goals for officer applicants, gutted groups that worked to help improve policy for the rank and file, and issued a memo stopping cultural celebration months honoring the history of Black people and women. Related: Air Force Nixes Officer Applicant Diversity Goals as Directed by Trump's Executive Orders
