ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
White House efforts to target what it calls the woke military are impacting long-standing relationships and practices at the Defense Department, including the recruiting of women and people of color. Steve Walsh with WHRO in Norfolk, Virginia, reports.
STEVE WALSH, BYLINE: A year ago, Army Maj. Gen. Jeth Rey was interviewed at the Black Engineer of the Year Awards Conference in Baltimore.
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JETH REY: I mean, the opportunity to meet individuals from a diverse background, I think that's just an important piece of what makes us all we can be.
WALSH: The event has been a staple for military recruiters for decades. This year, all of the services pulled out at the last minute, says Tyrone Taborn, the conference organizer.
TYRONE TABORN: They've been here every year. They're huge participants. The U.S. Navy Academy supplied buses to bring in high school kids. They canceled that on Sunday.
WALSH: Last year, even Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin attended. Taborn worries what will happen next year if government contractors also pull out.
TABORN: You now have lost the critical recruiting year. The kids come here because the employers are here, and the opportunity is here. On a recruiting side, you go to the place where the talent exists.
WALSH: In his first public meeting with the troops, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth described the new way of thinking.
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PETE HEGSETH: I think the single, dumbest phrase in military history is our diversity is our strength. I think our strength is our unity. Our strength is our shared purpose, regardless of our background.
WALSH: West Point shut down 12 clubs geared toward Black and women engineers, as well as clubs geared toward Native Americans and Hispanic students. The Pentagon ended official celebrations recognizing a range of groups from Black History Month to people with disabilities. Chris Purdy, an Iraq war veteran, founded The Chamberlain Network to mobilize fellow veterans.
CHRIS PURDY: Black History Month doesn't mean we're treating white people differently. It just means that we're celebrating the struggles and the sacrifices that service members who were discriminated against because of their race.
WALSH: He's worried that the military's public perception has been damaged. At the moment, the question is, how much will the military pull back from initiatives highlighting women, people of color or LGBTQ troops? The Navy and Marines are holding up annual Sexual Assault Prevention and Response, or SAPR, training, including training new advocates. A Defense official said, these changes in terminology required a thorough review and administrative edits to SAPR policy programs and training, but their critical work in the mission continues without pause. The courses have their roots in the aftermath of the 1991 Tailhook scandal, when Navy and Marine flyers were accused of assault and harassment at their annual convention. Josh Connolly is with Protect Our Defenders.
JOSH CONNOLLY: One thing people could agree upon is, as a baseline, to have training programs in place to try to minimize and address the prevalence of what virtually everyone agreed was a problem.
WALSH: Connolly says advocates worry that it could be the first step to more permanent changes. Allison Jaslow, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, says the irony is that the new initiatives have the goal of creating unity, but they have made many people feel isolated.
ALLISON JASLOW: You know, I think it's something that's, like, built in you as a member of the military, is you're not just going to be, like, super reactive. But, like, it's fair to be concerned as to whether current leadership has their backs. And that's on a variety of fronts. And that makes me really sad.
WALSH: She says it's a particular problem in a military where roughly one-third of the troops describe themselves as members of a racial minority, and nearly 20% are women. For NPR News, I'm Steve Walsh.
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