Veterans Speak Out Against Military’s DEI Advisory Group

The Pentagon in Arlington, Va., on Dec. 26, 2011. STAFF/AFP via Getty Images

Veteran advocates are speaking out against a group of civilian leaders that provides the Department of Defense with advice on matters and policies of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the military.

The Defense Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion (DACODAI) is an outside advisory group appointed by the secretary of defense and composed mostly of retired senior military officers that, according to its website, provides recommendations on how to “improve the racial/ethnic diversity, inclusion and equal opportunity” in the military.

According to Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services (STARRS), a veterans advocacy group against “woke” ideology in the military, the panel is a “little-known cultural agent pushing the [critical race theory]/DEI agenda in the military.”

Ron Scott, president and CEO of the organization and a retired Air Force colonel, said STARRS staff began taking a closer look at DACODAI in December 2023, attending a biannual meeting in Virginia near the Pentagon.

According to him, DACODAI has a predecessor: the Military Leadership Diversity Commission (MLDC) chartered by the Congressional Black Caucus in the fiscal year 2009 National Defense Authorization Act.

Early on, Col. Scott said MLDC made it clear that “they were going to discriminate people equally, and even considered assimilation to be anathema.” Then-President Barrack Obama continued to push the narrative in the years to follow, establishing DEI programs across the entire federal government.

“MLDC had demonstrated they could do it and get away with it in the Department of Defense,” Col. Scott said.

MLDC issued its final report in 2011, but DEI ideology and training continued to spread throughout the military, he said.

In September 2020, then-President Donald Trump issued an executive order that directed the cessation of all critical race theory and DEI training in the military. President Joe Biden rescinded the order in January 2021.

“In 2022, the secretary of defense established the MLDC grandchild, DACODAI, chaired by the same retired Air Force four-star general, Lester Lyles, who once chaired MLDC,” Col. Scott said.

At this point, he said, DACODAI was fully established and operating as an advisory committee to “improve” diversity and inclusion within the Department of Defense.

Lt. Gen. Rod Bishop (ret.), STARRS chairman of the board, told The Epoch Times that “based on the discussion and slides from their December 2023 meeting, DACODAI seems to be on a path—like its MLDC predecessor—of recommending that people must be treated differently to ensure an officer corps whose minority percentages match the percentage of minorities in the enlisted force.”

In 2022, the enlisted ranks of the military workforce were composed of 19.2 percent Hispanics or Latinos. The proportion was 8.8 percent in the officer corps. DACODAI would suggest that these percentages be equal, according to STARRS.

“Regardless of the person’s skin color, race, or ethnicity, America needs the very best leaders, and Americans deserve to have those leaders lead the military,” Lt. Gen. Bishop said.

Skin color, racial, or ethnic background should not be included in the equation to select military leaders, he said.

“To say the ratio of Hispanics, for example, doesn’t match the ratio of Hispanic officers is a problem we need to fix should not be a consideration for who could be leading [military units] in a war,” Lt. Gen. Bishop said.

Rather, he said, everyone in a leadership position should “be capable of doing the very best job they are called to do. A bullet could not care less about the color of a person’s skin.”

“[The Pentagon] can say they’re not discounting merit because they are selecting commanders of units that are qualified people, but it’s their racial or ethnic backgrounds that somehow figure into the equation of the selection process to begin with,” Lt. Gen. Bishop said. “While we might be getting people who are qualified, we aren’t getting the very best qualified.”

Col. Scott said promotions based on DEI criteria have a “huge, negative effect on morale.”

“For those missing promotions, it’s devastating; and for those promoted for the color of their skin, they’re questioning their own ability and whether they deserved it,” he said,

Col. Scott said it is also having an effect on recruiting and retention. In March 2023, STARRS collected and published more than 1,000 comments by military servicemembers, veterans, and their families who agreed that “woke policies” harm recruiting and retention.

In a fall of 2023 survey conducted by the author, 229 participants who represented all branches of the military, including enlisted and officer ranks, said they would not recommend their children, family members, or friends to join the military. Nearly 35 percent of responses identified the No. 1 reason as the 2021 military vaccine mandate. More than 27 percent of the responses blamed the “infiltration of woke ideology.”

Neither the Department of Defense nor DACODAI responded to requests by The Epoch Times for comment.