Gen. Bishop responded to another general who dismissed or perhaps is unwilling to face the hard facts about what’s happening at their alma mater USAFA in this article by 1972 USAFA grad Scott Sturman, MD, also a STARRS Board of Advisors: The Hostile Takeover of the Air Force Academy.
By Lt General Rod Bishop, USAF ret, USAFA ’74
STARRS Chairman of the Board
First Email:
We all served to ensure everyone has a right to their own opinion.
I think:
–the creation of a video that repeats the slogan of the Marxist BLM movement 7 times in a 3 minute video
–the Supt telling his staff “we need more black squadron commanders”
–the Supt essentially lying to Congress on Admissions processes
–The Supt telling the staff “I just want to push DEI into every nook and cranny of USAFA”
–the Dean triple downing on the left wing activist George Takei (book, convocation, and premier guest NCLS guest speaker (plus all that I have heard about her from her not being truthful with the AOG BOD on the White Boy 2 story to comments about her service previously))
–the emphasis on DEI from a DEI minor to the purple cord wearers
–the comments I hear all the time from the cadets I interface with (I have now taught 20+ how to ski)
–the comments I hear from recent grads
–USAFA’s “DEI Reading Room” which is thrusting anti-family, transgender propaganda into the cadet wing
–the way USAFA handled the “Extremist down day”
–the extreme left wing training materials they send to appointees (decried by a number of cadets I have “sponsored’) that have to be completed before USAFA issues a travel authorization to come to USAFA
–USAFA’s extremely egregious handling of FOIAs
–their “celebration” of Pride Month
–their “free transgender luncheons” to the first 50 cadets held periodically
(I could go on) https://starrs.us/category/air-force-academy/
all speak perhaps to a much deeper issue than the General is aware of. I believe these inputs/examples to be more credible (closer to facts on the ground) than comments from USAFA leadership who would be predisposed to “sing the party line.”
STARRS mission is NOT to convince–but to “educate”. What I have listed above are some personal observations I have based on extensive interaction with cadets and their inputs to me or first hand conversations with USAFA staff.
The General is correct–we all form opinions based on perceptions. It is hard for me to not form the perceptions I have (which are much more closely related to those Scott expresses in his article–than the ones the General has) when, for example, I have cadets writing to me saying the below as this female minority cadet did–or when I read the thousands of comments on our webpage.
“I see so many bright young Cadets here who know what is going on is wrong but at the same time are too scared to speak up. The fear we feel, not being able to address our concerns only makes the lack of courage issue worse. However, I have a lot of hope that Cadets will start to speak up. Perhaps they just needed a catalyst or some leadership to speak up first, but already I see a shift in Cadet’s attitude, one that is more determined on stopping the push of leftist ideologies.”
VR, Rod
PS. Please feel free to share with the General. You might not know I was once a Falcon Trustee–I worked closely with the Foundation when I worked in USAFA Admissions in the 1980s. I resigned when I was not allowed to address the Foundation (or even email them) as our GC (Mike Rose) had advised me I had a fiduciary responsibility to do when we discovered all “the indoctrination” that was occurring.
Quote from another cadet after finishing BCT “If I heard we need leaders of diversity one more time I was going to throw up”. His buddy chiming in “I felt like I was continually being indoctrinated.” (What two cadets told me, whom I had randomly met at a tailgate on Parents weekend when I asked them innocently, “How was BCT.”) Now just think for a minute about what it takes for that to materialize!
I wonder if the General knows about the Military Leadership Diversity Commission (MLDC) chartered the the Black Caucus in 2008 that laid all the groundwork for the DEI empire throughout DOD? If not, perhaps his perception is based on incomplete information? The MLDC is where Scott gets his “cabal” statement. It is definitely a “planned campaign.”
PLEASE do not interpret this as the STARRS Chairman being critical of USAFA–love my alma mater as much as anyone. But I do NOT love some of the actions/the indoctrination into “leftist ideologies” (as the female minority cadet said above) they have undertaken.
I think we were all brought up to believe our military should be apolitical–and they should be resisting (not welcoming and embracing) the social justice and cultural wars in our country in my humble opinion.
Second Email after receiving a response from the General:
General–in addition to the examples I have given in the email below, please recognize that STARRS tries exceedingly hard to just get to and expose “facts on the ground”–things that have actually happened or are first hand accounts to minimize the issue of “perception” you described.
If others want to criticize or ignore or have a different opinion–that is up to them. Let the facts speak for themselves, we say.
The only place/way we use these examples is in trying to “educate” the public, Congress, etc, so people can understand better what is occurring and hopefully take action/join their voices with ours that the military needs to focus on its mission–not the social justice wars occurring across our country.
90 Cadets wearing purple ropes as DEI officers/NCOs are reporting to a separate chain of command (as Matt Lohmeier describes in the link in my PS) is not a “perception”–that is a fact. How cadets may react to that is a “perception,” but I have yet to speak to one that has told me they like the policy/construct.
In that effort, we have been hugely successful many tell us. If you look at all the anti-CRT/DEI verbiage in this year’s House version of the NDAA, for example, there is no doubt that STARRS was not only at the forefront of alerting Congress to what was happening at ALL our Academies–but also very much a part of the “collective we” (CMR, The Calvert Group, MacArthur Society, Veterans for Fairness and Merit, Restore Liberty etc, etc among the “we”) in recommending corrective action.
Many have criticized us for being “too hard on USAFA” or being “partisan” but it is not us that have injected this “poisonous ideology” into our military.
We are just standing strong against it and remain completely aligned with the vision of our founding fathers and the documents (Declaration of Independence and our Constitution) in which they codified that vision.
“Equity”, for example, exudes discrimination and is the very opposite of “all men are created equal…”
“Diversity” has become to mean almost completely–“diversity of skin color” and “inclusion” has taken on more of a meaning of “exclusion”–unless you buy into our indoctrination, you won’t be “included”, in fact you may be fired like Lt Col Lohmeier was just for speaking the truth.
(The term “poisonous ideology, by the way, is one I have “borrowed” from former NY Times (and self-described “liberal-progressive”) editor, Bari Weiss.)
This is occurring across all of our military–not just our alma mater and the other academies.
You may have heard of former Lt Col Matt Lohmeier? He was the #1 of 784 majors in US Space Force and was fired from his Sq CC position when, as a BTZ Lt Col, he brought attention to what he considered to be Marxist indoctrination of our military. He wrote a book about it: Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military
A story he does not tell in his book (as initially he still wanted to continue to serve) is how his base commander at the time blatantly violated the President’s order to cease and desist teaching CRT. Mandatory “training sessions” continued. When the IG dismissed the IG complaint Matt and a number of other leaders on the base had filed, that day that Base Commander was promoted to Brig General.
I would submit, sir–that is not the same Air Force you and I had the honor of serving in!
VR, Rod
PS. Matt (the STARRS Executive VP as of 1 Jul) addresses (in his usual eloquence) the “partisan” issue in a short segment on Fox and Friends yesterday morning:
I am a USAFA 79 grad. Yes one of those. I have been financially successful and was making a nice annual contribution to the AOG. With the rise of DEI at the zoo, I have stopped giving them money.
General Bishop is correct ! I saw it before I retired.