War heroes and military firsts are among 26,000 images flagged for
removal in Pentagon's DEI purge
[March 07, 2025]
By TARA COPP, LOLITA C. BALDOR and KEVIN VINEYS
WASHINGTON (AP) — References to a World War II Medal of Honor recipient,
the Enola Gay aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Japan and the
first women to pass Marine infantry training are among the tens of
thousands of photos and online posts marked for deletion as the Defense
Department works to purge diversity, equity and inclusion content,
according to a database obtained by The Associated Press.
The database, which was confirmed by U.S. officials and published by AP,
includes more than 26,000 images that have been flagged for removal
across every military branch. But the eventual total could be much
higher.
One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details
that have not been made public, said the purge could delete as many as
100,000 images or posts in total, when considering social media pages
and other websites that are also being culled for DEI content. The
official said it's not clear if the database has been finalized.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had given the military until Wednesday to
remove content that highlights diversity efforts in its ranks following
President Donald Trump’s executive order ending those programs across
the federal government.
The vast majority of the Pentagon purge targets women and minorities,
including notable milestones made in the military. And it also removes a
large number of posts that mention various commemorative months — such
as those for Black and Hispanic people and women.
But a review of the database also underscores the confusion that has
swirled among agencies about what to remove following Trump's order.
Aircraft and fish projects are flagged
In some cases, photos seemed to be flagged for removal simply because
their file included the word ”gay,” including service members with that
last name and an image of the B-29 aircraft Enola Gay, which dropped the
first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II.
Several photos of an Army Corps of Engineers dredging project in
California were marked for deletion, apparently because a local engineer
in the photo had the last name Gay. And a photo of Army Corps biologists
was on the list, seemingly because it mentioned they were recording data
about fish — including their weight, size, hatchery and gender.
In addition, some photos of the Tuskegee Airmen, the nation’s first
Black military pilots who served in a segregated WWII unit, were listed
on the database, but those may likely be protected due to historical
content.
The Air Force briefly removed new recruit training courses that included
videos of the Tuskegee Airmen soon after Trump’s order. That drew the
White House’s ire over “malicious compliance,” and the Air Force quickly
reversed the removal.
Many of the images listed in the database already have been removed.
Others were still visible Thursday, and it’s not clear if they will be
taken down at some point or be allowed to stay, including images with
historical significance such as those of the Tuskegee Airmen.
Asked about the database, Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot said in a
statement, “We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department
with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms. In the rare
cases that content is removed that is out of the clearly outlined scope
of the directive, we instruct components accordingly.”
He noted that Hegseth has declared that “DEI is dead” and that efforts
to put one group ahead of another through DEI programs erodes
camaraderie and threatens mission execution.
Some images aren't gone
In some cases, the removal was partial. The main page in a post titled
“Women’s History Month: All-female crew supports warfighters” was
removed. But at least one of the photos in that collection about an
all-female C-17 crew could still be accessed. A shot from the Army Corps
of Engineers titled “Engineering pioneer remembered during Black History
Month” was deleted.
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In this image provided by the U.S. Marine Corps, Pfc. Christina
Fuentes Montenegro prepares to hike to her platoon's defensive
position during patrol week of Infantry Training Battalion near Camp
Geiger, N.C. Oct. 31, 2013. (Sgt. Tyler Main/U.S. Marine Corps via
AP)
Other photos flagged in the database but still visible Thursday
included images of the World War II Women Air Service Pilots and one
of U.S. Air Force Col. Jeannie Leavitt, the country’s first female
fighter pilot.
Also still visible was an image of then-Pfc. Christina Fuentes
Montenegro becoming one of the first three women to graduate from
the Marine Corps’ Infantry Training Battalion and an image of Marine
Corps World War II Medal of Honor recipient Pfc. Harold Gonsalves.
It was unclear why some other images were removed, such as a Marine
Corps photo titled “Deadlift contenders raise the bar pound by
pound” or a National Guard website image called “Minnesota brothers
reunite in Kuwait.”
Why the database?
The database of the 26,000 images was created to conform with
federal archival laws, so if the services are queried in the future,
they can show how they are complying with the law, the U.S. official
said. But it may be difficult to ensure the content was archived
because the responsibility to ensure each image was preserved was
the responsibility of each individual unit.
In many cases, workers are taking screenshots of the pages marked
for removal, but it would be difficult to restore them if that
decision was made, according to another official, who like the
others spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide additional
details that were not public.
A Marine Corps official said every one of its images in the database
“either has been taken down or will be taken down.” The Marines are
moving on the directive as fast as possible, but as with the rest of
the military, very few civilian or contractor employees at the
Pentagon can perform content removal, the official said.
In the Marine Corps, just one defense civilian is available to do
the work. The Marine Corps estimates that person has identified at
least 10,000 images for removal — and that does not count more than
1,600 social media sites that have not yet been addressed.
Many of those social media sites were military base or unit support
groups created years ago and left idle. No one still has the
administrative privileges to go in and change the content.
The Marine official said the service is going through each site and
getting new administrative privileges so it can make the changes.
On Feb. 26, the Pentagon ordered all the military services to spend
countless hours poring over years of website postings, photos, news
articles and videos to remove any mentions that “promote diversity,
equity and inclusion."
If they couldn't do that by Wednesday, they were told to
“temporarily remove from public display” all content published
during the Biden administration’s four years in office.
___
AP reporters Nicholas Riccardi in Denver, Christina Cassidy in
Atlanta, Will Weissert and Ayanna Alexander in Washington and
Christine Fernando in Chicago contributed to this report.
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