The American Accountability Foundation (AAF), a conservative watchdog group, sent a letter to Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, listing the first 20 names of leaders across the military whom it deems excessively focused on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), as well as similar left-wing initiatives, and, therefore, an impediment to national security.
“The woke takeover of the military is a major threat to our national security,” AAF President Thomas Jones wrote in a letter to Hegseth shared first with the New York Post.
“As global tensions rise, with Iran on the march, Russia at war, and China in midst of a massive military buildup, we cannot afford to have a military distracted and demoralized by leftist ideology,” he added. “Those who were responsible for these policies being instituted in the first place must be dismissed.”
Among those listed are:
Air Force Col. Benjamin R. Jonsson, who authored ‘Dear White Colonel’ op-ed
One of the individuals who made AAF’s list is Air Force Col. Ben Jonsson, who penned an op-ed in July 2020 demanding his white colleagues “to give a damn” and “address our blind spots around race.”
Against the backdrop of national upheaval over the death of George Floyd, he recommended reading Robin DiAngelo’s “White Fragility” and urged other colonels and members of the armed forces to make a plan.
“As white colonels, you and I are the biggest barriers to change if we do not personally address racial injustice in our Air Force,” Jonsson wrote in the piece. “…Dear white colonel, you and I set the culture, drive the calendar, and create the policies at most of our installations around the Air Force.”
“Dear white colonel, it is time to give a damn. Aim High.”
Navy vice admiral Jeffery Hughes, who spoke at DEI summit
Back in 2022, the Navy hosted a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) summit in Virginia. The Navy vice admiral on the list, Jeffery Hughes, spoke at that summit and underscored the importance of DEI to recruit “exceptional talent.”
That summit stoked ire from Republicans in Congress. Sen.-elect Jim Banks (R-Ind.) had a viral exchange with Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday over the cost of the summit during a committee hearing later that year.
AAF also zinged Hughes for speaking at a webinar sponsored by #NatSecGirlSquad, which strives for “competent diversity in national security and defense.”
The conservative firm also flagged comments he made to Navy Recruiter magazine in 2016 in which he talked about realigning the Navy’s diversity team to funnel “diversity-related resources to the most impactful parts of the recruiting process.”
Air Force Maj. Gen. Elizabeth Arledge lauded RBG, railed against ‘whiteness’
Another military official who made the list is Air Force Maj. Gen. Elizabeth Arledge who had made “woke posts” on her social media, according to AAF.
In one post, Arledge shared articles that featured “discussions of whiteness in org[anization] theory and the ways in which whiteness (verb) has become naturalized as the ideal in orgs.”
Org theory pertains to the sociological makeup of organizations.
Another post focused on intersectionality.
“Women are impacted by many constructs simultaneously not just gender. Today’s reading by Evangelina Holvino. So much for me to think about both as an academic and a practitioner. #OrgTheory #AICCSED,” she posted on X.
She had also reposted a tribute to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Navy vice admiral Shoshana Chatfield complained Congress is 80% male
Navy vice admiral Shoshana Chatfield delivered a speech at a Women’s Equality Day event in 2015 where she bemoaned male dominance in Congress, where she claimed at the time, 80% of lawmakers in the House of Representatives were males.
“It seems a bit unequal what issues go forward,” she said.
AAF also noted that in her speech she was quoted proclaiming that “our diversity is our strength.”
Chatfield also attended a Commander, Naval Air Forces DEI summit in 2022.
Air Force Brig. Gen. Corey Simmons oversaw DEI task force creation
AAF also took aim at Air Force Brig. Gen. Corey Simmons who helped oversee the formation of a DEI task force at Vance Air Force Base.
Simmons also partook in an October 2020 video on “Diversity and Culture Message” where he hailed the work being done to promote “the four principles foundational to diversity and inclusion.”
The New York Post reported that prior to getting selected by President-elect Donald Trump, Hegseth, 44, had publicly clamored against wokeness in the military — going as far as to publish a book on the subject earlier this year — and proclaimed on a podcast that any “General, Admiral, whatever that was involved in any of the DEI woke sh— has got to go.”
2024 Election
Pete Hegseth
Military Officers
National security
global tensions
woke takeover of the military
Air Force Col. Benjamin R. Jonsson
Navy vice admiral Jeffery Hughes
Air Force Maj. Gen. Elizabeth Arledge
Navy vice admiral Shoshana Chatfield
Air Force Brig. Gen. Corey Simmons
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