1. Once USAF Academy candidates accept an appointment offer, they are given an extensive checklist that must be completed prior to arriving at the academy. This year the list included a new training section on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (key Critical Race Theory (CRT) terms). As you can see in the linked video below, the training was overtly pro-Black Lives Matter (BLM) and portrayed the “white male” as an insensitive racist that needed educating. One of his supposedly most egregious comments was suggesting that “all lives matter” would be a more unifying slogan. The video in the link is one of many scenarios they had to work through.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-w5UkrdyVFloBtgAuHSs67eNNINSJcTd/view
There was no discussion in any of the training about BLM’s Marxist roots, its anti-family, anti-police, anti-US (BLM calls for “tearing or burning the system down”), anti-religion and anti-white ideology, nor the BLM-led destructive riots, looting, assaults and murders that terrorized many of America’s larger cities for much of 2020.
Other segments of the training were about privilege, intersectionality and other tenets of CRT.
One appointee’s assessment of the DE&I training was “Overall it is pushing identity politics instead of E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one). It’s just the constant theme of the white person always being in the wrong, and the person of color being the victim that is irritating to me and other friends that I have spoken to that have completed the training.”
2. George Takei’s book They Called Us Enemy was handed out to the Class of 2025 on in-processing day. The USAFA’s Dean shared her excitement of the book selection on in Instagram post stating, “Welcome Class of 2025! We are so excited for this year’s One Book One USAFA read They Called Us Enemy.” In a later encomium she remarked, “Our shared institutional read this year focused on dignity and respect. We are getting our Basics ready for what’s ahead.”
Most Basic Cadets are raised in non-military families, so the first summer at USAFA serves as the transition between civilian and military life. The concepts of duty, honor, and service remain in the rudimentary stage, but new cadets are filled with high expectations and an eagerness to learn about their chosen career. They are inspired by the likes of Robin Olds and Chuck Yeager to fly, fight and win, and take an oath to support and defend the U.S. Constitution. Yet now they are bombarded with mixed messages when issued They Called Us Enemy, written by a progressive, polarizing activist about his experience as a child in a Japanese internment camp 75 years ago.
STARRS contends that it was inappropriate to issue Takei’s book to Basic Cadets on their first day in the US military. A more appropriate document to issue and have basics study would be the U.S. Constitution since they swear an oath to support and defend it against all enemies foreign and domestic. Copies of the Declaration of Independence and the “Gettysburg Address” would also be much more appropriate reads for mostly 18-year olds just starting their military journey.
NBC News published an article about the book’s distribution to Basic Cadets:
3. Lynne Garcia, an associate professor at the USAFA, admitted in an opinion piece published in The Washington Post that she teaches CRT tenets to cadets during her political science courses. Her Op-Ed advocated teaching it at the military academies and claimed it was not unpatriotic and did not promote division among the ranks. Yet she emphasized the inequalities of the past and contends minorities are still at a major disadvantage today. You can read about her comments at:
I’m impressed to see STARRS come so far. Great leadership, great message!