Pete Hegseth’s ‘Enola Gay’ DEI panic isn’t just laughable—it’s horrifying
For better or worse, the Enola Gay is a hugely important part of American military history. Unfortunately, that history may now be inadvertently erased thanks to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, whose anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives mistakenly flagged references to the aircraft for removal simply because it contains the word “gay.”
The potential elimination of Enola Gay’s imagery is just one of thousands of examples of pictures and other archival records being flagged for removal because of Donald Trump’s executive order to wipe out what he and his ardent followers deem to be DEI-related content. Hegseth is in charge of the project at the Pentagon, and so far, over 26,000 images have been tagged for elimination. That number is expected to rise to more than 100,000, including written posts.
The Enola Gay is the B-29 bomber that destroyed the city of Hiroshima, Japan, with an atomic bomb in August of 1945. The plane’s pilot was Col. Paul Tibbets Jr., and it was named after his mother, Enola Gay Tibbets. Interestingly, the term “gay” didn’t even really come into widespread use as a word to identify homosexuals until the 1950s and 1960s.
Another flagged photo is a headshot of Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. A.C. Gay, as well as another of an Army Corps of Engineer worker with the last name, you guessed it, Gay.
Hegseth has been unflinching in his quest to purge DEI references, saying they disrupt military unity and operational effectiveness. “DEI is dead. We are returning the focus of the military to merit and mission readiness,” he said.
All archival material from all military branches needs to be reviewed, and material that was flagged but which cannot be reviewed by the Wednesday, March 12 deadline will be “temporarily removed from public display” until they can be assessed further.
The problem is that there are not enough people to review the material accurately (or at least, as accurately as a ridiculous policy like this can ask for). The Marine Corps has one civilian employee in charge of checking material—they’ve flagged 10,000 items, of which 3,600 were officially removed. The employee reportedly has over 1,600 social media sites left to check.
Unsurprisingly, most of the material flagged at the Pentagon involves minorities. Content commemorating milestones involving Black or Hispanic people was the first to go. Material touting the accomplishments of women is also gone. For example, posts about the historic Tuskegee Airmen, a group of Black pilots who served with distinction during World War II, have been flagged. Another post about the first class of women to have graduated from the Marine Corps infantry was flagged, too.
No one seems to be safe from the purge, not even animals. One photo from an Army Corps biologist was flagged because it contained data about the gender of fish being studied.
Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot didn’t offer much additional explanation, either: “In the rare cases that content is removed that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct components accordingly.” Doesn’t sound like it’s so rare.
There are so many reasons why this isn’t a good idea. Not only are people in marginalized communities being blatantly discriminated against, but actual history is being erased in the process. There’s no guarantee that once these images and other informational resources are taken down, they will not be deleted and forgotten entirely. History is how we relate to the past and understand ourselves as a species. This policy is a disgrace.
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