{"id":59730,"date":"2021-06-10T17:51:20","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T17:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/06\/10\/senator-secdef-go-head-to-head-on-so-called-woke-military\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T11:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T11:19:12","slug":"senator-secdef-go-head-to-head-on-so-called-woke-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2021\/06\/10\/senator-secdef-go-head-to-head-on-so-called-woke-military\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator, SECDEF go head-to-head on so-called \u2018woke\u2019 military"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two weeks ago, two Republican lawmakers launched a whistleblower site<\/a> to gather complaints from troops about \u201canti-American indoctrination seeping into parts of our military,\u201d as Sen. Tom Cotton<\/a>, R-Ark., described it during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cotton, a former Army infantry captain, detailed a handful of anonymous submissions to the site, set up in partnership Rep. Dan Crenshaw<\/a>, R-Texas, a retired SEAL lieutenant commander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Marine wrote that his unit\u2019s \u201cmandatory military history training was replaced with training on police brutality, white privilege and systemic racism,\u201d Cotton said. \u201cHe reported several officers are now leaving this unit citing that training.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, while service members regularly rotate in and out of units, and sometimes have opportunities to leave a unit early to pursue another role, they are not able to transfer at will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continuing, Cotton spoke of a special operations troop who was told \u201cthe special operations community is racist\u201d; a soldier who said a general officer referred to \u201cthe entire U.S. as racist\u201d; an airman said his or her unit was forced to conduct a \u201cprivilege walk,\u201d<\/a> where troops separated themselves by race and gender to talk about their experiences with privilege; and soldiers \u201cforced to watch videos about systemic racism and \u201cdocumentaries that rewrite America\u2019s history as a fundamentally racist and evil nation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cotton also cited a response to his website claiming that a freshly recruited Space Force guardian filed separation paperwork saying that joining the armed services amounted to \u201cindoctrination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cotton and Crenshaw\u2019s effort was met with widespread derision, including a good deal of fake submissions trolling the effort<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beginning his line of questioning Thursday, Cotton asked Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin whether he believed the U.S. military \u201cis a fundamentally racist organization;\u201d whether troops should be treated differently based on their skin color or gender; and whether selections for leadership roles should be based on sex and gender rather than operational and leadership acumen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Austin answered no to all, though Cotton cut off most of his attempts to explain why the questions required more than one-word answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would also say that diversity, equity and inclusion is important to this military now and it will be important in the future,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are going to make sure that our military looks like America and that our leadership looks like what\u2019s in the ranks of the military. And I appreciate your support on that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Efforts by the Pentagon and the services to promote diversity and inclusion, many of which began during the Trump administration<\/a>, have drawn the ire of some conservatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fox News host Tucker Carlson in March famously derided the advent of maternity flight suits \u2015 designed for Air Force pilots and aircrew as an everyday uniform \u2015 as an example of the \u201cfeminization\u201d of the military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo we\u2019ve got new hairstyles and maternity flight suits,\u201d Carlson said, also invoking recently updated Army and Air Force hair regulations<\/a>. \u201cPregnant women are going to fight our wars. It\u2019s a mockery of the U.S. military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior leaders, many of them Army generals, pushed back on that assertion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is me, yesterday, conducting a re-enlistment for one of the tens of thousands of women who serve in our Army,\u201d Maj. Gen. Pat Donahoe, who commands the Maneuver Center of Excellence, tweeted. \u201cJust a reminder that @TuckerCarlson<\/a> couldn\u2019t be more wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t