Historic military moments being scrubbed from federal sites

Over the course of hundreds of years, our military has accomplished incredible feats. From the continental army of George Washington to today’s military, there is a rich and priceless history meant to be maintained.

In 2025, our military history is just one of many victims of President Donald Trump’s censorship. In January, the Office of Personnel Management sent a memo to agency heads directing them to scrub federal websites of any content contrary to the president’s thinking. This was sent in association of one of his many Jan. 20 executive orders.

An example of words that have been flagged and banned in accordance with Trump’s policies include BIPOC, Black, climate crisis, DEI, female, gender, Gulf of Mexico, hate speech, historically, LGBTQ, mental health, minority, Native American, non-binary, political, social justice, stereotype, trans, trauma, tribal, victim and women. This is only a fraction of the list.

For a party who has always called liberals “snowflakes,” this administration sure seems to be offended by a lot of words. Don’t worry, straight, white and men are not on the list.

Let’s get back to our illustrious military history and its erasure. I’ll start with one that was hit in the crossfires — the Enola Gay.

The Enola Gay is perhaps the most famous military aircraft of all time. The bomber was flown by Paul W. Tibbets Jr. who named the plane after his mother — Enola Gay.

“My thoughts turned at this point to my courageous red-haired mother, whose quiet confidence had been a source of strength to me since boyhood, and particularly during the soul-searching period when I decided to give up a medical career to become a military pilot,” Tibbets later recalled. “At a time when Dad had thought I had lost my marbles, she had taken my side and said, ‘I know you will be all right, son.’”

On August 6, 1945, as World War II was coming to a close, the Enola Gay was the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in warfare. The bomb struck Hiroshima, Japan, and destroyed about three-quarters of the city.

Today, the Enola Gay is displayed at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., where it remains a centerpiece of World War II history.

In response to the photos being flagged and removed from government websites, Tibbets’ granddaughter Kia Tibbets recently expressed her shock and outrage at the removal of the photos simply because of the name “Gay.”

“It’s shameful that a word that harms no one, that means cheerful, could invoke so much hatred,” Kia said.

I think this is an example people on all sides of the aisle can agree is a ridiculous target, but when federal agencies are threatened with funding cuts and other punishments if they don’t comply within a tight timeframe, this is the result.

Public outcry has worked in restoring some pieces of history that were originally removed.

The Tuskegee Airmen, the nation’s first Black military pilots who served in a segregated WWII unit, were originally removed from parts of the Air Force’s website before being restored shortly after when social media protests began.

The removed videos were said to fall under “Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Referencing.”

The Tuskegee Airmen were the first Black pilots in the U.S. military, who got their name from their training facility in Tuskegee, Alabama. The Airmen consisted of 15,000 men and women in total, of which approximately 1,000 were pilots.

Before the Tuskegee Airmen, no Black American had been a United States military pilot. The “separate but equal” treatment at the time was the justification for blocking previous attempts by Black soldiers to become pilots.

With how many times this history mentions the word “Black,” I can see why it was flagged. Is this really what our federal agencies should be focusing on? Is this really “government efficiency?”

One article you can’t pull up is “Women’s History Month: All-female crew supports warfighters.” When you look for it, you get a “404 - Page not found” error on the Air Force’s website.

Luckily, no matter what this administration does, the internet is forever. I was able to find it on some sketchy website to see what was so awful about this photo that it needed to be removed.

The photo in question is of Captains Kate Bufton and Emily Nelson as they review flight information before departing on a mission in a C-17 Globemaster III March 19 at an air base in Southwest Asia. They were part of an all-female flight crew for the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron.

That’s essentially all the information provided. My assumption is it has to do with the fact that it was for Women’s History Month, something Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has axed along with National African American/Black History Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Pride Month, National Hispanic Heritage Month, National Disability Employment Awareness Month and National American Indian Heritage Month.

When we look at countries with a high level of censorship, we see dictatorships like North Korea, China and Iran. Censorship and democracy never go well together.