The Gateway Pundit obtained an exclusive letter from Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL 1st District) to the Secretary of the Air Force expressing serious concerns over the Department of the Air Force’s (DAF) Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Strategic Plan for 2023.
Gaetz’s letter comes as the latest salvo in the ongoing national debate over the role of DEIA initiatives within the United States military. The outspoken lawmaker is questioning the agency’s priorities, arguing that the focus on DEIA initiatives distracts from the military’s core mission—national security.
The Gateway Pundit previously reported that Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall unveiled the new Department of the Air Force’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Strategic Plan for 2023.
“As with any competitive team, our success depends on recruiting and retaining the best talent… The Department of the Air Force’s (DAF) diversity and inclusion efforts are informed by science, business best practices, congressional mandates, data-focused policy reviews and assessments, and the lived experiences of Airmen and Guardians working together every day,” Kendall said in a statement.
“Our mission requires the DAF to represent the diverse Nation we serve. To maintain the pipeline of All-Volunteer Force, we must leverage the diversity of the United States – including racial and gender, but also regional, cultural, socioeconomic, and philosophical diversity. Our diversity distinguishes our force and provides us with unique advantages on today’s battlefield and the battlefield of the future,” he added.
In the letter obtained by The Gateway Pundit, Gaetz states that these DEIA initiatives have caused alarm among his constituents in Northwest Florida. They are concerned that such priorities reflect a degradation of the DAF’s commitment to national security.
“I write to express concern over the Department of the Air Force (DAF) Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, (DEI) and Accessibility (DEIA) Strategic Plan for calendar year 2023. Throughout Northwest Florida, my constituents have voiced concerns that the DAF has placed an overemphasis on DEI initiatives through numerous policy memos that neglect to mention or prioritize the DAF’s core purpose for existence: preserving national security,” Gaetz said in his letter.
Drawing a stark contrast, Rep. Gaetz notes that under former President Donald Trump’s 2020-2021 recruitment policies, the DAF was on point in meeting its staffing and recruitment goals.
However, the tables have turned under the Biden regime. Last year, not only did the Air Force but also the Army and Navy miss their recruiting targets. This underperformance, according to the Congressman, is symptomatic of deeper issues relating to the misplacement of priorities.
“The DAF is a key contributor to the misapplication of defense priorities, with DEI memoranda that send command signals to recruit a certain number of Americans based on superficial characteristics, like race or sex. According to your memo, the DAF sought to recruit in FY 2022 8.5% black men, 4.5% black females, 6.5% Asian men, and 0.5% Native-American females,” said Gaetz.
He continued, “Unfortunately, the recruiting numbers would suggest a failure of DEI and social-experimentation programs. Your policies have resulted in numerous recruiting shortfalls of a historic manner; for example, the recruiting numbers from FY 2022 and FY 2023, were some of the weakest recruiting numbers in the history of the DAF. Additionally, the public has observed the politicization of the DAF, resulting in waning public sentiment and trust in the military as an institution.”
Gaetz’s letter emphasizes that the 18-page DEIA policy document, which contains over 5,500 words, mentions “combat” only once, “national security” zero times, and “merit” or “merit-based” also zero times. This glaring omission speaks volumes about where the DAF’s priorities currently lie, says the Congressman.
Gaetz contends that the DEIA working group should be eliminated altogether and suggests that the DAF should instead reorient its strategies to confront threats from near-peer adversaries like China and Russia.
“The working-group analytics team assesses every possible angle DEI could contemplate, except whether an emphasis on DEI could have a negative impact on military recruiting and retention. The failure to even consider this as a possible result in the “wokeification” of the DAF shows a clear disregard for the objective truth.”
“I respectfully request that your team step back and reflect on the current state of the DAF. With the swearing-in of General C.Q. Brown as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I can only imagine these misguided Air Force policies, ushered in under your tenure, will quickly find “adherence” and “compliance” in the other services, leading to further erosion of their standing and the entire reputation of the Department of Defense (DoD).”
“Therefore, I am formally requesting that your office eliminate the DEIA working group. Please do not just rely on the standard DoD echo chamber that will reaffirm the status quo. Rather, please take this moment to steer the DAF back toward an America-first outlook that removes the social-experiment element from the DAF and reorients the team toward addressing the threats of our near-peer adversaries,” the letter concluded.
You can read Rep. Matt Gaetz’s full letter here.
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