The Army and Navy both have restored webpages they removed last week that featured the histories of female soldiers and sailors.
The webpages for the U.S. Army Women's Museum at Fort Gregg-Adams in Hopewell, Virginia, and the U.S. Navy History and Heritage Command's site highlighting women temporarily were taken offline to ensure that their content complied with an executive order issued Jan. 20 by President Donald Trump that banned diversity initiatives in the federal government.
The Navy website, which had an address that included the word "diversity" in its uniform resource locator, or URL, was restored within a day of Military.com reporting on the removal of the websites, with a new URL.
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The Army restored the museum's site at some point late last week, after having replaced a broken link earlier in the week with a statement saying the museum remained open while the website was down.
Critics said the removals discounted the contribution of thousands of women who have served the U.S. since its beginnings.
Retired Navy Cmdr. Jerri Bell, co-editor of the book, "It's My Country Too: Women's Military Stories from the American Revolution to Afghanistan," said that even a temporary removal was harmful.
"It implies that the historical achievements of some service members who once faced discrimination and arbitrary limits on their service based on their race, their gender, or their sexual orientation are not worth sharing," Bell said in an email to Military.com.
"In fact, the opposite is true: They not only achieved and set examples to all of leadership, courage, and devotion to duty -- they did so while facing immense opposition simply because of their race, gender and/or sexual orientation," Bell added.
Trump ended diversity initiatives across the federal government by executive order, prompting the federal government, including the armed forces, to abolish diversity offices and place those who work in them on leave.
The directive ordered agencies to review all policies and programs to ensure they complied.
But it also led to confusion in numerous circumstances, including a pause at Air Force Basic Military Training on trailblazers that included the Tuskegee Airmen and the Women's Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs, who helped pilot aircraft stateside during World War II.
As a result of the order, the Pentagon abolished its Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and removed websites related to that office, as well as the DoD Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity.
However, the military services' and DoD inspector general's Equal Employment Opportunity Offices and sites remain intact because federal law protects equal employment opportunities by barring discrimination in the workplace based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
On Jan. 31, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth killed "identity months" at the Defense Department, abolishing official support for Women's History and Black History months as well as Pride celebrations, National Disability Employment Awareness and more, even though White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Jan. 29 that the White House would continue honoring such celebrations.
"As far as I know, this White House certainly still intends to celebrate, and we will continue to celebrate American history and the contributions that all Americans, regardless of race, religion, or creed, have made to our great country," Leavitt said in response to a question specifically about February, Black History Month.
Bell said she didn't think celebrating history, heritage or Pride months interfered with military duty any more than celebrating birthdays, promotions, awards or retirements.
"It's an important way that the best military leaders take care of their people -- just like celebrating awards, promotions, retirements, and 'hails and farewells' of new shipmates reporting aboard or going to their next duty station," she added.
Women make up nearly 18% of the active-duty forces and 11% of the U.S. veteran population, according to the Pew Research Center.
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