Former United States Space Force Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Lohmeier, the officer who was relieved of command for speaking out in 2021 about DEI initiatives in the military, spoke to Fox News Channel guest host Joey Jones on “Fox and Friends Saturday” about woke DEI efforts in the military, particularly in the Air Force Academy.
As background, Lohmeier spoke against the military’s woke drift in 2021, accusing it of bending the kneww to cultural Marxism, particularly through its various DEI efforts. He was then relieved of command and released a highly important book on the matter called “Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military.”
Speaking to Jones about the matter, Lohmeier said that he lost his pension after he was relieved of command under the Biden Administration in2021. He also spoke about the disastrous woke drift of the Air Force Academy, saying that it “has diversity and inclusion cadet officers” who “report to a separate chain of command.”
Lohmeier’s comments on the matter came after Jones referred to a study from Arizona State University that found the military academies encourage cases to report on fellow cadets who have “private conversations that challenge DEI precepts.” Jones then asked Mr. Lohmeier if he had similar experiences with such Orwellian though policing during his time in the service.
Sadly, Lohmeier did have such and experience, saying that he was threatened with consequences for his mainstream political views. “In fact, come to think of it, I did experience that. A fellow commander informed me that they’re aware of my kind of politics and that they’d be happy to turn me into the base commander if I continued to privately criticize our diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives,” he said.
Continuing, he added that the problem has since gotten far, far worse, both for individuals who don’t want to deal with the matter and for those who are in the military and dealing with the unfortunate situation professionally. He said, “But this problem has grown far beyond what I experienced, personally and professionally in the military workplace.”
Then, getting to the rampant wokeness in the Air Force Academy, Lohmeier said, “My own alma mater, the U.S. Air Force Academy, has diversity and inclusion cadet officers who wear a special insignia within their cadet squadrons, they wear purple braided rope over the shoulders and they report to a separate chain of command other than their military chain of command, relating to diversity and inclusion issues.”
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Drawing the obvious conclusion between what those DEI cadets are like and the Soviet Union, he compared them to the political commissars the Soviets embedded in units to watch for wrongthink. He said, “It reminds one of Soviet political commissars that have been established both in the Soviet Union and in other Marxist revolutionary efforts throughout the last century.”
Watch him here:
Lohmeier also, during the interview, spoke about the pressure the military puts on service members to not “Unfortunately for the American people and for all of the men and women in uniform, it’s been considered for a number of years now to be politically partisan to speak up against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.”
He added, “And of course, anyone who looks into this matter knows it shouldn’t necessarily be considered a partisan issue. I wasn’t interested in being politically partisan while I wore the uniform of the country and was in command of a space force unit, but of course, senior military leaders, especially under the current administration, decided that because of the climate of fear that we had created for ourselves they ought to treat my criticism of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives as partisan and, quote unquote, hold me accountable for speaking out against it.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video