By Rick Neale | Florida Today
The Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute at Patrick Space Force Base is pausing its military equal-opportunity training programs for up to 180 days in light of President Donald Trump’s executive orders and recent Department of Defense guidance.
DEOMI is DoD’s center for occupational training and research in Military Equal Opportunity and Equal Employment Opportunity laws, which deal with unlawful discrimination and harassment.
The “pause and review” began on March 19. DEOMI has a staff of about 150 military and civilian personnel, and its command staff is comprised of U.S. Air Force, Army and DoD leaders.
“Our team has been working to adapt our most recent Equal Opportunity Advisor Course as well as website and associated products to ensure compliance with the most recent executive orders and guidance,” Air Force Col. Michelle Nash, DEOMI’s commandant, said in a press release.
“This pause will give us time to conduct a thorough review,” Nash said.
DEOMI is headquartered at a two-story, 92,000-square-foot facility at Patrick. On Jan. 30, Air Force officials released a memo noting that the military branch’s EEO and MEO policies and programs are distinct from diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility efforts, which had been rescinded by Trump’s executive order.
“While DEIA programs focused on promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion, EEO and MEO programs are designed to promote equal opportunity and prevent discrimination in the workplace, as mandated by federal law and regulation,” the Air Force memo said.
On average, 850 people attended and graduated resident courses at DEOMI during the past two fiscal years.
“The pause will impact some resident and virtual FY25 courses. The DEOMI staff is working closely with its stakeholders and considering alternative dates and training methods to minimize the impact on the force while ensuring that the curricula meet DEOMI’s goal of providing highly qualified and professional MEO and EEO practitioners to support the warfighter,” a DEOMI spokesperson said via email.
DEOMI was established in 1971 as the Defense Race Relations Institute to address racial unrest in the military.
First published on Florida Today
NOTE: We’ve heard from people that DEOMI is/was central to pushing the CRT/DEI agenda. If you have more details, let us know.
Comments:
“As an attendee of multiple classes at DEOMI, I can tell you for a fact that they had shifted from basic EEO principles back in the early 2000s into a cultural Marxist approach in more recent times. The last class on Affirmative Employment and Special Emphasis Programs that I had before I retired from AF civil service saw faculty explaining that only white people could be racist and promulgating the notion that quotas for women and minorities were legal and desirable. Their on-site library had a large section upfront of pretty radical books about race and gender. That would have been around 2018.”
“A hotbed of racist and Marxist thought when I attended.”
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