The bottom line up front:-our experience over the last 3 years tells us that the great majority of Americans we have interfaced with want to have a military built upon “meritocracy” and not government “cooking the books” to ensure “equity”. The latter is both demeaning to minorities and divisive to others is the overwhelming feedback we have gotten.
Intro Note:
Dear Chairman Reed,
Sir, you greatly honored me by being present and speaking the day I pinned on my third star, especially in the presence of my mom before she passed away. These are truly the great moments in one’s life when celebrating the great mantle of leadership and its expectations. I also remember fondly our multiple meetings in your DC office, your presence at your former West Point classmate’s promotion (when he and I were students at the National War College and you were “Congressman Reed”), and of course the thrill I had as the commander of “Air Force One” transporting both you and the President in and out of Bosnia.
Today is another one of those times when the mantle of leadership is needed, even critical, among our “Great Captains” in Congress.
Attached is a letter appealing to your leadership in arresting the ideological cancer of Critical Race Theory, advocated and enforced by Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion staff across the federal government, most egregiously within the ranks of our armed forces.
Also, attached is a recent Flag Officers 4 America letter signed by 180 flag officers, sent to Congressional leaders, advocating meritocracy over the DEI cancer that is destroying our military.
As our STARRS Board Vice Chair (and the President of Flag Officers for America), Major General USA (Ret) Joe Arbuckle, has observed: “DEI, is a subtle poison that quietly, but quickly, destroys the organs of society along with the heart and soul of our military—the warrior ethos.”
We appeal to your love of country and the unique bond we have as graduates of our Service Academies. I know we both want what is best for our military. I can tell you, Sir, based on the feedback “we” have received from 100s of active duty personnel, CRT/DEI is not it!
Please honor all of the vets who put their lives on the line (with 95,000 making the “ultimate sacrifice”) in Korea, Viet Nam, and the Cold War fighting against this type of tyranny and division, trying to keep this Marxist ideology at bay, by standing strong against the most radical elements of our society trying to force the same divisive ideology upon all facets of our nation–but most egregiously, our military–the people who write a blank check with their lives “supporting and defending” our constitution against “all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
Please have your fellow democrats put politics aside and ask them to study the roots, history, lineage, and intent of the originators of these “critical theories.” If they love America, once they know and understand all of this, I have to believe they will follow what I hope will be the House’s lead–and eliminate funding for CRT/DEI throughout the DOD.
Very respectfully,
Rod
ROD BISHOP
Lt Gen USAF (Ret)
Chairman of the Board
Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services, Inc
STARRS.US
LETTER:
Senator Jack Reed
Chairman, Senate Armed Services Committee
728 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Chairman Reed,
America is vulnerable to a domestic threat: dangerous Marxist ideology that is manifested in Critical Race Theory and advocated and enforced through Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion staff members across the federal, state, and local governments, academia, and the corporate world.
This movement (possibly a Mao-equivalent cultural revolution, 1966-1976) is seductive because it operates under the cover of Aesopian language that appeals to good people interested in justice. To do this, advocates distort the facts to paint a picture of injustice by grouping people into oppressor and oppressed classes that results in the establishment of a system of double-standards. Examples?
A former Superintendent at the US Air Force Academy claimed systemic racism at the Academy and directed an assessment due to him no later than September 18, 2020. Our nonprofit formed primarily in response to this development and filed a Freedom of Information Act request on October 12, 2020.
It took a lawsuit by Judicial Watch to get a federal court to compel the release of the document. Every page was labeled FOUO—apparently to shield it from the public. The document consisted of 167 pages, 52 completely redacted. Of those pages unredacted there was no evidence of racism, let alone systemic racism.
Yet, this assessment appears to have been the justification for establishing 90 diversity and inclusion officers and NCOs within the cadet wing with a parallel reporting structure.
The current Superintendent at West Point is erasing history by removing monuments and any artifacts associated with West Point graduates who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. We recognize this action stems from an ill-advised Congressional mandate and is as infamous as the Dred Scott ruling.
In August 2022, Air and Space Force leadership pushed discrimination using “aspirational goals.” See attached memorandum.
In 1963, a fellow Democrat, Congressman Herlong from Florida, read into the Congressional Record the 45 goals of the Communist Party USA. An excerpt from the Congressional Record is attached. Note in particular goals 15, 17, 25, and 26.
The Communist Party USA has become far more open than in past years. Visit their website: Communist Party USA – cpusa.org. Notice how aligned their goals and priorities are with today’s Democrat Party. John Bachtell, former head of the Communist Party USA even “spiked the football” in their support of Democrat candidates in the 2018 midterm elections (a rehearsal for 2020?). See his article here: https://www.cpusa.org/article/lesson-from-midterms-a-united-people-can-win/.
We sincerely appreciate the role you play in preserving our Constitutional Republic. This letter is a request for your West Point-inspired leadership in exercising the obligations of your oath of office:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; . . . So help me God.
As a West Point graduate, we implore you to heed General MacArthur’s admonition in his Duty, Honor, Country speech:
You are the leaven which binds together the entire fabric of our national system of defense. From your ranks come the great captains who hold the nation’s destiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin sounds. The Long Gray Line has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country.
Ironically, MacArthur delivered his speech a year before Herlong recorded Communist goals for America in the Congressional Record. We are in a cultural war, Mr. Chairman. It’s time for “great captains” to win this war.
Very respectfully,
Robert D. Bishop, Jr.
Lieutenant General, USAF, Retired
Chairman, STARRS
USAFA ’74
Joseph W. Arbuckle
Major General, USA, Retired
Vice Chairman, STARRS
OCS ‘70
Christopher J. Petty
Brigadier General, USA, Retired
Director, STARRS
USMA, ’87
Ronald J. Scott, Jr.
Colonel, USAF, Retired
President and CEO, STARRS
USAFA, ‘73
Lavoy M. “Sam” Thiessen, Jr.
Colonel USA, Retired
VP, Education, STARRS
USMA, ‘73
Attachments:
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