Open Letter to Members of the United States Senate
Re: the Nomination of Air Force General Charles Q. Brown, Jr. to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
In addition to strongly endorsing the letter initiated by Elaine Donnelly, Founder and President of the Center for Military Readiness, Members of Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services, Inc. (STARRS) would like to provide the following background information for the hearing of Gen C.Q Brown to become the next Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff.
We first became aware of a subtle and insidious ideological infiltration of our military on July 7, 2020, with the publication of a 3-minute video by US Air Force Academy football coaches.
Concerned about its pro Black Lives Matter sentiment justified by five inaccurate allegations of racial discrimination, members of STARRS approached the Superintendent and received great pushback.
Since then we have filed nearly three dozen Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to better understand the facts and circumstances justifying the claim of “systemic racism.” Most have remained unanswered despite the law’s 20-day response requirement.
Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit on our behalf (and a federal court compelled a response.) The first one was issued in February, including a 167-page document originally marked For Official Use Only (perhaps to keep it shielded from the public domain) and 52 entire pages fully redacted.
A review of the unredacted material revealed no discrimination, let alone systemic racism. See Judicial Watch’s press release: https://www.judicialwatch.org/air-force-academy-focus-on-crt/
Judicial Watch recently received an additional set of records this past week. See their press release here: https://www.judicialwatch.org/air-force-academy-instructional-materials-include-presentations-on-critical-race-theory/. Most disturbing is the extent of ideological indoctrination in classroom materials.
On July 7, 2023, an American Spectator article provided substantive details of the indoctrination across all the Service Academies. See https://spectator.org/the-military-academies-have-turned-into-woke-wastelands/.
The above material focused on the Academies, but they are just a sampling of what has occurred across the entire Department of Defense.
Most importantly, the apparent ideological indoctrination affects military readiness, and given the substantial feedback we have collected over the last 39 months, recruiting as well.
Other organizations are coming to similar conclusions. Here is a link to a recently-released Heritage Foundation report: https://www.heritage.org/defense/report/report-the-national-independent-panel-military-service-and-readiness
In another Heritage Foundation Assessment, Index of American Strength, the US Air Force received the lowest readiness assessment. Here is a link to the report: https://www.heritage.org/military-strength/executive-summary
An example of direct ideological effect on merit-based readiness is a memorandum establishing racial, ethnic, and gender goals (quotas). See memorandum here: https://www.af.mil/Portals/1/documents/2022SAF/Officer_Source_of_Commission_Applicant_Pool_Goals_memo.pdf
A group known as Flag Officers 4 America has approached House leaders with their plea for meritocracy as an antidote to the ideological (CRT/DEI) cancer. Their letter is attached along with 181 flag officers who endorse this action.
In closing, we believe it is extremely harmful for our military leaders to support this Marxist-based ideology when many (most probably the majority of) people experiencing the indoctrination (both the alleged “oppressed” and “oppressors”) don’t buy into it, find it divisive, demotivating, or demeaning.
We have overwhelming documentation this is the case.
We sincerely hope our elected representatives will at a minimum hold Gen Brown accountable to ending his overemphasis on DEI, return our military to a meritocracy-based organization and restore the selfless servant warrior ethos so critical for a successful armed force.
Unity, not diversity, is our greatest strength.
Please let us know if we can offer any additional information.
Very respectfully,
Robert D. Bishop, Jr.
Lieutenant General, USAF, Retired
Chairman, STARRS
Joseph W. Arbuckle
Major General, USA, Retired
Vice Chairman, STARRS
Ronald J. Scott, Jr., Ph.D.
Colonel, USAF, Retired
President & CEO, STARRS
John C. Brockman
Colonel, USAF, Retired
Chairman’s Group
LaVoy M. “Sam” Thiessen, Jr.
Colonel, USA, Retired
Vice President, Education
Attachment: FO4A Letter to House Leaders
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