USAF general, Air Force cadet father dispute Army Secretary's denial military has gone "woke"

A retired three star Air Force general and the father of an Air Force cadet are slamming the military for its DEI policies and woke trainings, comments that challenge the recent assertions of the Army’s top civilian commander, Christine Wormuth, who denied “wokeness” is a problem.

The Army Secretary recently expressed concerned the military is being politicized by both Democrats and Republicans, amid conservative criticisms of “wokeness.”

“I think one of the things that we see that’s contributing to a decline in trust in the military is a concern on both sides of the aisle about politicization of our military leaders,” Wormuth said. 

“I think the more our military leaders are sort of dragged into spaces that have been politicized like that, I think the more it contributes to this perception that they’re political when they really aren’t,” Wormuth added. “So, I hope that we don’t see more of the kind of talk that’s been out in the past few days.”

The Army Secretary’s remarks come as the Pentagon is increasingly falling under scrutiny as many conservatives and military veterans express concerns about the rise of woke policies. Those concerns have risen as trainings have shifted from military combat and readiness to information about gender transition and classes and training on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Wormuth fired back against that, however, insisting the Army remained in a prepared state of readiness.

“We are a ready Army, not a ‘woke’ Army,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told journalists last week, according to a report published by Task & Purpose. “That’s something, frankly, the chief [Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville] and I said throughout posture season in hearings, in meetings with members of Congress.”

Others however, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential hopeful and officer in the Navy’s Judge Advocate General Corps Reserve disagreed.

DeSantis has actually targeted wokeness in the Sunshine State by ensuring public schools cannot implement lessons or policies related to critical race theory that he says divides children, instead of uniting them.

The Florida governor and Naval JAG officer has also argued that the military’s woke policies do not appeal to young recruits who want to serve their country or could be looking for action or adventure, selling points the Army used to push as part of its ongoing “Be All You Can Be” campaign.

“I think the military that I see is different from the military I served in,” DeSantis told Fox News last month. “I see a lot of emphasis now on political ideologies, things like gender pronouns. I see a lot about things like DEI, and I think that that's caused recruiting to plummet.”

Although Wormuth denied that the military was going woke, she conceded there was “no doubt” the public had such a perception that was hurting military recruiting.

She further insisted though the drop was due to unfounded political rhetoric, not an actual shift in military culture, protocol or trainings.

“What I am trying to do is talk about now how that drip, drip, drip of criticism about a ‘woke military,’ I do think is having some counterproductive effects on recruiting,” the Army Secretary said.

Her comments were also disputed in two op-eds recently published in the Washington Examiner. In a June 19 piece titled, “The military isn’t the place for woke social experiments,” Bill Smith, the father of an Air Force cadet said that pushing DEI policies and “woke” trainings were hurting morale.

“Today, with the implementation of DEI and other “woke” policies in the military, members of the military do not have a unifying goal," Smith wrote. "And if they do have one, it might be something as ridiculous as learning how to lead people using different pronouns. Or, if could be making sure that all ethnic groups, sexes, or people of different backgrounds are equally represented regardless of their ability to do a job.”

The Air Force cadet's father further added that such policies were hurting the armed forces ability to remain in an actual state of readiness.

“These leftist initiatives weaken the military and its mission. The bottom line is that today’s military is more focused on how to divide this nation internally than on how to unite us around its defense. During his time at the Air Force Academy, my son has had to attend training and briefings regarding DEI and other divisive policies. He and his fellow cadets walked out of those briefings feeling very uncomfortable, knowing that what they were told was hurting the military, creating conflicts among each other, and destroying the concept of building one cohesive fighting unit.”

Smith said he grew up with two parents who served in the military who fought the Nazis during World War II and grew up with one simple understanding that worked for everyone: “that the men and women he worked with all wanted to achieve one mission: defeat the enemy and protect democracy.” Smith added his parents did not see in terms of race or gender.

In another June 19 op-ed published by the Examiner, Rod Bishop, a former USAF Lt. General wrote that, “Woke initiatives are creating division in the military.”

The former general who worked with the USAF on space operations in Africa and Europe cited the Heritage Foundation for reporting that Russia and China view the woke policies as an advantage that is weakening the U.S. armed forces.

“Meanwhile, military leadership has introduced the divisive critical race theory into their ranks, dressing it up in words pleasing to one’s ear, such as ‘diversity, equity and inclusion,’” the retired USAF general wrote.

“They have opened the gates of the fort and piped abord this ideology with great enthusiasm. Gone are the unifying messages of past decades such as ‘One team, one fight,’ ‘We all bleed army green’ or ‘Service before self.’ Today, the focus is on highlighting one’s individual identity, or ‘identity policies on steroids,’ as one U.S. Air Force Academy cadet recently described it to me.”

The retired USAF general then slammed military leadership for adopting such policies.

“Today’s leaders seem more intent on ensuring their “troops” are indoctrinated into the politically correct rhetoric of the social justice wars sweeping across our nation than on teaching them the skills, knowledge, and trust required for the defense of the nation.”

On March 8, the Army issued a statement saying it was continuing the Be All You Can Be campaign, but it was rebranding to ensure it would "reveal a deeper, more personal look at the hopes, fears and dreams of today’s youth."