cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/54211228

A senior official exclusively told MS NOW how decorated military officers with decades of experience were withheld from promotion after Pentagon staff printed out internet searches showing they had attended official events like promoting Covid-19 vaccinations or marking International Women’s Day.

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The senior official described to MS NOW how Hegseth’s executive office led a planned and deliberate process that involved creating paper-only files filled with printouts from internet searches that were inaccessible to the officers under consideration. Hegseth’s office gave instructions about the new criteria over the phone instead of in writing.

That meant brushing aside highly decorated officers with decades of experience leading carrier strike groups, thousands of flight hours on dozens of different aircraft, multiple joint assignments inside the Pentagon and shore and sea duty locations around the world. Some had multiple advanced degrees from schools like MIT and Johns Hopkins, and others had deployed in support of several conflicts like the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and Operation Inherent Resolve against ISIS.

But those same officers had findings from the internet searches that disqualified them based on Hegseth’s criteria. The senior official described to MS NOW what was in the paper files for more than a dozen of the senior officers whose promotions were withheld. Some of the findings put into the paper-only files included officers who allowed a celebration that included rainbow flags, a Pride Month event and stood up a diversity committee and task force on the USS Kearsarge to combat discrimination.

Other examples among the officers included: served as a diversity liaison officer early in their career, disciplined an officer in their command who refused to take the Covid vaccine, spoke at a National Hispanic American Heritage Month celebration aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, participated in a Minority Aviation Panel at the Naval Academy, spoke about the importance of taking Covid vaccines, participated in AFRICOM’s International Women’s Day panel, made a statement about being a “champion for inclusion,” participated in a discussion with the African American Employee Resource Group, took a photo with the command triad after their second Covid vaccination on the USS Carl Vinson, made statements encouraging sailors to get Covid vaccines, wrote an article about diversity in a publication and was quoted in an article talking about the importance of diversity.

The way that Hegseth’s office intervened may have also broken the law, said the three senior officials. Cody Harnish, military defense attorney and former Army judge advocate general, said the way that officers were pulled from the promotion list after being selected “is illegal.”