The US Air Force Academy in Colorado has received backlash after hosting a diversity and inclusion training in which it told cadets to eliminate any and all words from their vocabulary that signify gender, such as “mom” and “dad.”
Slides from the D&I seminar gave the cadets examples of how to remove gender from their vocabulary, and effectively eliminate the entire idea of ‘gender.’ The training urges cadets to avoid saying “you guys,” but instead opt for “y’all,” “team,” “squaddies,” “everyone,” or “folks.”
Instead of “boyfriend” or “girlfriend,” they are instructed to say “partner,” and instead of “mom and dad,” they want everyone to say “caregivers,” “parents,” or “guardians.”
An Air Force Academy spokesperson spoke to Fox News Digital and insisted that this D&I training will help improve the cadets’ “warfighting effectiveness.”
Somehow, by eliminating gender, the US Air Force will be exponentially more effective.
One notable critic of this training program is Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), a Green Beret and Afghan War veteran. Waltz has called this training “destructive” and compared it to workshops seen in the Soviet Union and in China where they pushed extreme ideologies on their military.
“That is absolutely destructive to morale, to unity, to everything that I know from a military, that by the way, integrated way before the rest of the country in 1948,” said Waltz in an interview with Fox News Digital.
Waltz insisted this kind of training is “destructive to morale and unity,” and he questioned why the Air Force cadets are being forced to eliminate the idea of ‘gender’ from their vocabulary and, ultimately, their reality.
“Now we’re instructing every cadet entering the Air Force to not say ‘mom’ and ‘dad,’ to not say ‘boyfriend’ or ‘girlfriend,’ and this kind of drive towards gender neutrality,” said Waltz. “I think the Air Force should be worried about the macro aggressions against America that are happening all over the world.”
Waltz added, “To those of use who are a little bit older, it reminds us of what the Soviets used to do or what the Chinese do today, where they literally have political commissars inserted at every level end of the chain of command, but they have a separate reporting chain to ensure that the military is abiding by their ideology and their political doctrine.”
Waltz has reportedly received documents from cadets and their families who say they are “disturbed” by the radical teachings of the military academies
The Florida Rep. vowed to work towards stopping this ridiculous training, saying, “When we are in the majority, we are going to legislate this, and we are going to cut it out of the US military.”
On Thursday afternoon, USAFA Superintendent Lt. Gen. Rich Clark made a statement addressing the recent controversy, insisting that the academy “does not prohibit the use of ‘mom and dad’ or other gender-specific terms.”
“The recent briefing on diversity and inclusion is being taken out of context and misrepresented,” Clark said, asserting that they were simply trying to strengthen respect for others and teach the cadets how to leverage diverse perspectives.
However, Waltz thinks this type of training is a waste of the Air Force’s time and resources. He said, “I’m worried about the macro aggressions. Everything, when it comes to training, is an opportunity cost. Every hour, every day you’re spending training on this stuff, you’re not training on all the other things we need that I would argue would be a higher priority to fight and win wars.”
