What STARRS Accomplished in 2024 Because of You

As we head into the new year 2025, STARRS wants to review what we’ve done the past year thanks to all those who supported our mission.

We are getting closer to meeting our two major goals of eradicating the CRT/DEI ideology/agenda from the US military and service academies, and getting remedies for those harmed by the COVID vaccination mandate.

We hope these will be realized in 2025 with a new President of the United States who has stated the military should be focused on “meritocracy, lethality, accountability and excellence.”

Here are some of the things STARRS accomplished this year because of your support:

Organization

• Brought on board Matthew Lohmeier as the Executive Vice President for STARRS
• Created the National Outreach Program to educate and spread the word about the mission of STARRS and the dangers of the CRT/DEI agenda in the military
  • STARRS Vice President for National Outreach is Lt Col. Bob McKinney, USAF ret, USAFA ‘70 from Colorado
  • There are 135 volunteers from 35 states
  • We have 25 State Leaders
• Fourteen new people were added to the Board of Directors or Advisors, including a Medal of Honor recipient and the former Chief Master Sergeant of the US Air Force:

DIRECTORS

• • • CMSAF Rodney J. McKinley, USAF ret
    • Martha Ostrom, Ph.D.

ADVISORS:

• • • Maj Drew Dix, USA ret, Medal of Honor Recipient
    • Rear Admiral Will Rodriguez, USN ret, Citadel ‘77
    • Brig Gen Mike Zais, PhD, USA ret, USMA ‘69
    • Col Phil Williams, USA ret
    • Lt Col Bob Reimer, Ph.D., USAF ret, USAFA ’97
    • Lani Kass, Ph.D., Sr Pentagon Advisor, NWC Professor
    • Amber Smith, frmr Dep. Asst to SECDEF for Outreach
    • Stephen Bryen, Ph.D.,frmr Dep USD
    • Paul Crespo, Center for American Defense Studies
    • The Hon. Phyllis Kaminsky
    • Shoshana Bryen
    • Sara O’Neil-Manion

Congressional/Legislative

• In January, Matt Lohmeier testified on Capitol Hill for the hearing, “The Risks of Progressive Ideologies in the U.S. Military”. He submitted to Congress our 100-page document of over 1,000 quotes from military-related people showing the DEI agenda negatively affects recruitment, retention and readiness. STARRS assisted him with his testimony.
• In February, STARRS Chairman Rod Bishop, STARRS General Counsel/Exec VP Mike Rose and Scott McQuarrie who heads Veteran for Fairness and Merit went to Washington for a series of meetings on Capitol Hill to discuss and educate on various issues on DEI in the military. They met with Congressmen Glenn Grothman, Mike Waltz and Ryan Zinke.
• In July, STARRS leaders met with Congressman August Pfluger (who is also a USAFA graduate)
• In December, STARRS leaders met with Congressman Bost from Illinois.
• In December, STARRS leaders also met with a staff member of newly elected Congressman Hurd from Colorado.
• STARRS leaders wrote position papers on DEI and VAX topics in the military and professional formatted them into a document which we are sending to the new administration as well as Senators and Representatives to educate/advise.

Events

• In February, a dinner was held for STARRS supporters in the Washington, DC area with STARRS leaders.
• In April, held an online Town Hall with special guest speaker Kendall Qualls of TakeCharge.
• In May, STARRS Chairman Rod Bishop gave a talk at a VFW in Connecticut: DEI and Its Impact on the Military: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
• In July, Virginia STARRS state leader Les Gabriel had a STARRS booth at a premier Northern Virginia conservative event and spoke briefly to the large crowd about the work of STARRS.
• In July, held an online Town Hall with special guest speaker Maj. General Richard Comer.
• In September, STARRS held a Rally For Our Republic in Arizona with five speakers, including Matt Lohmeier. Many people attended in-person and watched online. STARRS brought its state leaders who were able to attend to meet each other and learn how to hold an event in their state.
• In September, STARRS President Ron Scott was on a Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR) panel in Colorado which discussed “Diversity without division: is it possible?”
• In September, STARRS Chairman Rod Bishop was on a panel in Connecticut talking about Marxism in the government.
• In September, held a Joint Town Hall with the MacArthur Society and Calvert Task Group with special guest speaker Amber Smith, former Pentagon official and author of Unfit to Fight: How Woke Policies are Destroying Our Military.
• In October, two STARRS Board members who had been military chaplains issued a call for people to submit prayers for our nation.
• In November, Ron Scott was a speaker at the Freedom Summit in Chicago.
• In December, Rod Bishop spoke about STARRS, and Mike Rose spoke about STARRS litigation and efforts to restore promotion of an Air Force Commander at Khobar Towers wrongfully blamed for results of a terrorist attack there, with former AF Chief of Staff General Ron Fogleman, at a luncheon in Denver.

DOD

• In February, nine STARRS-related people recorded a series of short briefings for the chairman and members of Secretary of Defense Austin’s senior DEI advisory committee (known as DACODAI: Defense Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion). Originally these were planned to be given during a Zoom meeting with the chairman, until a DACODAI rep canceled it.
• STARRS leaders and associates made travel plans to attend the May 2024 DACODAI public meeting in Arlington, VA.
  • STARRS asked that three of our board members (including a General and an Admiral) be allowed to make short oral statements, but that was denied.
  • STARRS encouraged people to submit written statements for the DACODAI meeting. 25 people wrote criticisms of the DEI agenda in the military. All of these were posted on DACODAI’s website.
  • At the last minute, most likely because of all the senior people from STARRS who were going to attend the meeting in-person, DACODAI switched it to a virtual-only meeting, so hotel and airplane reservations had to be canceled.
  • Because of the unusual circumstances of DACODAI avoiding a public in-person meeting, the news media publicized this and STARRS leaders were interviewed on various shows, including on Fox News by Pete Hegseth. This resulted in a large increase in views of our website and people signing up for the mailing list.
  • STARRS Board Member Frank Gaffney, host of Securing America on Real America’s Voice network, recorded interviews of those from STARRS who had planned on attending DACODAI, and also had them on a Military Readiness and Merit Coalition panel.
  • Prior to the DACODAI meeting, STARRS had gathered multiple organizations together in this coalition.
  • Statements, articles and interviews can be found here
• STARRS Vice Chairman, in his role leading Flag Officers For America, obtained signatures from 130 retired generals and admirals on a letter supporting Pete Hegseth to be the next SECDEF
• Matthew Lohmeier was a member of the National Commission on Civic Education in the Military which released its report in July.

Legal Activities

• STARRS associate Retired Brig General Chris Walker testified in the SFFA v USNA case regarding race-based admissions
• Submitted an appeal to the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals and filing of a Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the United States Supreme Court challenging the Biden Administration’s interferences with the Boards of Visitors of West Point, the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy
• Filed dozens of FOIA requests/appeals; filed lawsuits challenging improper responses to FOIAs, via Judicial Watch
• Defended/advised numerous cadets and military members regarding the military COVID vaccine mandate, DEI, etc.; resulted in reinstatement of cadets at two academies
• Advised re lawsuit against Naval Academy’s race based admissions

Media/PR

• STARRS had 52 media interviews and/or mentions, including Rod Bishop interviewed by Pete Hegseth on Fox & Friends, Joe Arbuckle interviewed by Rep. Mark Alford on Washington Watch and Matt Lohmeier being profiled in the UK Daily Mail and was on a veterans panel on Fox Nation’s Modern Warriors with Pete Hegseth.
• Issued 11 press releases in 2024 on a variety of subjects
• A New Yorker Magazine journalist has been interviewing STARRS leaders on a planned article about how wokeness in the military is affecting recruiting.

Educational

• The STARRS website has over 2,400 posts/articles monitoring, examining and exposing the DEI/Woke agenda and C19 vax mandate in the military. Of these, 1,317 posts were made in 2024. Our website is a rich resource and database of the CRT/DEI/Woke problems in the military because “sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
• 226 comments on articles were made this year.
• STARRS Authors wrote 168 articles about DEI and the military, most which were published first on other sites such as Real Clear Defense, Washington Examiner, American Thinker, etc., reaching large audiences.
• Created and published 50 weekly email newsletters.
• Started a professionally-produced podcast show called “STARRS & Stripes” hosted by retired Navy Commander Al Palmer and so far we’ve published 16 interviews/shows. These are available to watch on video or listen via many audio podcast platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audible, etc
• Submitted 14 FOIA requests. Because of receiving no answers, Judicial Watch sued on our behalf regarding two FOIAs.
• Vice Chairman Joe Arbuckle created a STARRS overview PowerPoint for volunteers to use and we also made it into a video “Overview of STARRS“.

THANK YOU for your support this year enabling us to do all of this and more!

For those wishing to make a donation to support our mission, retired Air Force Colonel Jack Swonson from the Air Force Academy Class of 1962 has generously made a $10,000 match donation. We are grateful for his help in making your gift go “higher, further, faster.” Happy New Year!

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