Hegseth will never erase this history

The Associated Press reported yesterday that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has given an order to erase more than 24,000 images of female, minority, and gay soldiers as part of the Pentagon’s purge of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) content from Department of Defense archives and histories. One source told the AP that when military social media pages and websites are included, as many as 100,000 images may end up being deleted.

“The vast majority of the Pentagon purge targets women and minorities, including notable milestones made in the military,” the AP reported. “And it also removes a large number of posts that mention various commemorative months — such as those for Black and Hispanic people and women.”

A spokesman for the Pentagon told the AP, “We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms.” The spokesman told the AP that “Hegseth has declared that ‘DEI is dead’ and that efforts to put one group ahead of another through DEI programs erodes camaraderie and threatens mission execution.”

Since there is this Pentagon wide effort to erase history, including the history of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, this nation’s first black pilots, I thought it would be useful to preserve at least some of the little known history of the all-black 92nd Infantry Division that served under my grandfather, Lieutenant General Lucian K. Truscott Jr. in Italy during World War II.

The 92^nd, commonly referred to as the Buffalo Division because of its patch picturing a black Buffalo against a green background, was the only all black unit to see combat in the European theater during the war. Most black soldiers who were drafted into the army or volunteered were used in units assigned to do labor or as delivery drivers to resupply troops on the front lines. One black soldier, interviewed for World War II History Magazine, described the arrival of the 92nd in Naples, where black soldiers on the docks in service units cheered as soldiers from the 92nd filed down the gang plank from their troop ship. “Most times you would see a black soldier, he was carrying ammunition, cans of fuel, or chow for the front line—anything but a gun. These guys were carrying rifles. A black G.I. carrying a rifle was not a normal sight to see every day in Europe in 1944.”

This was because the military was still segregated during the war, and in fact the all black 92nd wasn't really all black at all. Enlisted soldiers were black, as were their second lieutenant platoon leaders, but every other officer in the division, from company commanders through battalion and regimental commanders right up through the division commander and all of the staff officers were white.

Here is an army photograph that will survive even if stricken from the army archive because it’s being published right here. It shows soldiers from Company I, 3rd Battalion, 370th Infantry Regiment, of the 92nd Division on the march through mountainous country near Cacina, Italy.

One soldier from the 92^nd, 2nd Lieutenant John Fox, was awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor for calling in artillery fire on his own position to cover the withdrawal of a unit that was suffering heavy casualties under attack by Germans. Fox was a forward observer for an artillery battery. He occupied the second floor of a ruined house and told his battery to fire directly on his position because Germans had completely surrounded him. “Fire it!” he said over his radio. “There’s more of them than there are of us. In three or four minutes they’ll be all over us. Fire directly on the house.” When his position was later retaken by a counterattack, fox’s body was found in the destroyed house surrounded by 100 dead German soldiers.

Because medals for gallantry and valor were systematically withheld from black soldiers during the war, 2^nd Lieutenant Fox was first awarded a posthumous Distinguished Service Cross in 1982 by a general who had been a First Lieutenant in his company during the war. In 1996, Fox’s award was upgraded to the Medal of Honor by President Bill Clinton during a ceremony at the White House where six other black heroes had their medals upgraded as well.

Here's a photograph of a crew from Battery B, 598th Field Artillery, servicing a 105 millimeter Howitzer during the battle on the Arno River in September of 1944.

During heavy fighting near the town of Viareggio in February of 1945, the 336^th Regiment of the 92nd was pinned down for four days by heavy German artillery and coastal guns. Before the regiment could be rescued by reinforcements, 659 enlisted soldiers and 47 officers had either lost their lives, been wounded, or were missing in action. This is a photograph of my grandfather visiting troops from the 92nd after their tragic losses in the hills above the town of Viareggio.

Trump and Hegseth and their obsession with DEI is disgusting enough by itself. Their attempt to erase the history of black and brown and female and gay soldiers who have served their country honorably should be beneath the contempt of all Americans. I'm proud to do my small part in preserving at least some of the history Hegseth is trying to purge from Pentagon records.