United States Air Force documents have revealed an aggressive diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) agenda, including a targeted reduction in the number of heterosexual white male officers.

These documents, released after a lawsuit forced compliance, underscore the Biden-Harris administration’s disastrous DEI push within the military, even as the military has been reduced to its weakest state since the post-Vietnam era, with the Army operating at just 62% of its capacity.

One of the most damning slides, titled “AFROTC White,” illustrates a deliberate effort to lower the percentage of white male Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) applicants from 60% in 2019 to a projected 43% by 2029.

The slide claims this purging of white officers as a celebrated achievement, raising serious questions about whether the focus on DEI is undermining merit-based recruitment and national security.

Critics argue that these policies may prioritize meeting arbitrary racial quotas over building a more capable and lethal military force.

“The American people are rightly concerned that, at a time when our country is facing dangerous and increasing threats throughout the world, the Air Force is focused on recruitment efforts based on arbitrary racial diversity goals — not merit or increasing the force’s lethality,” said James Fitzpatrick, director of the Center to Advance Security in America (CASA).

Fitzpatrick’s concerns are well founded. Military leaders have long emphasized the importance of merit in maintaining an effective fighting force, and the Air Force’s emphasis on reducing white male applicants has sparked fears that operational effectiveness is taking a backseat to political correctness.

The Air Force initially denied the existence of documents regarding the new applicant standards in response to CASA’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in 2023. It was only after CASA sued the Air Force in April 2024 that hundreds of records and slides were handed over.

“The FOIA request was being processed at multiple levels within the Air Force,” a spokesperson explained. They attributed the delay to a unit that had initially reported “no responsive records” while other units continued searching. This response has done little to quell concerns over transparency and accountability within the military.

The military’s DEI policies come at a time when the armed forces face mounting global threats, from escalating tensions with adversaries like Russia and China to challenges in the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific. Critics argue that these policies could hinder the military’s ability to respond effectively to these threats.

“This is not about ignoring diversity,” Fitzpatrick added. “It’s about ensuring that our military remains focused on readiness and effectiveness, not on arbitrary social engineering experiments.”