Pentagon axes more webpages honouring diversity in the military

More pages honouring diversity in US military history have been removed from Department of Defense websites under what appears to be a purge of content that it considered to be related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

- Lauren Aratani

Among the missing pages is one celebrating Ira Hayes, a US marine famously pictured raising the American flag at Iwo Jima in 1945, according to the Washington Post.

Hayes, a Native American, had been praised on the page as an example of the "contributions and sacrifices Native Americans have made to the United States, not just in the military, but in all walks of life".

Articles about the Native American code talkers in the second world war appear to have been removed from military websites, with an error page being shown in place of the content.

Internet archives show some of the pages were available earlier this month before being taken down.

The removal of the material was first reported by the news site Axios.

Native Americans helped the US send secret messages in both world wars using their tribal languages.

The use of Choctaw in the first world war was so successful that after the conflict Germany and Japan sent students to the US to study Native American languages.