COLORADO, USA — U.S. Air Force don take down online content wey dey celebrate female aviators as dem try follow federal directives wey dey remove diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) material from government websites. This action come as part of a broader effort to erase certain historical achievements by women in military aviation.
One prominent casualty of this content purge na retired Colonel Nicole Malachowski, wey serve for 21 years and na the first woman wey fly with the Thunderbirds, the elite air demonstration team. Malachowski don speak out against the removals, calling am a distortion of military history. “You’re good enough to serve but not good enough to be remembered,” she tell 9NEWS. “It’s been shocking to see we would censor the historical facts and contributions of veterans and service members.”
Web pages, photos, and videos wey show the groundbreaking achievements of women including those naim don disappear. Dem don remove the profiles of Major General Jeannie Leavitt, the first female fighter pilot, and content on the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) wey played key roles during World War II by ferrying aircraft to assist male pilots.
Officials from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base confirm say dem remove the content to comply with directives from the Trump administration, wey don order federal agencies to delete information wey link to DEI initiatives. Reports show say tens of thousands of pages wey dey recognize contributions of women, LGBTQ+ people, and people of color don delete or archive.
Malahowski express her dismay over the deletions. She don log over 2,300 hours flying jets and emphasize say history must show all who don serve. “For us to act like those barriers never happened is to ignore our history,” she add. The sentiment resonate with numerous former service members wey don criticize the purge, saying it goes against the principles of historical accuracy.
Imo say the Department of Defense talk say dem remove some content by mistake and don start to restore some popular articles after public outcry. The agency don form a task force wey go evaluate this directive implementation, led by Army veteran Jules W. Hurst III.
Archival versions of the deleted content still dey available through the Internet Archive, even as some pages don show error messages. “We need our military to reflect the America that it represents,” Malachowski concluded, stressing that the erasure of history affects more than just one narrative — it impacts all service members’ contributions.
