The Naval Academy said it has canceled two classes and is encouraging further review of course material following President Donald Trump's orders to ban all diversity programs in the federal government last month.
The Navy is also taking more of its training programs offline -- the latest in a series of quiet reviews, policy changes and website removals spurred by a pair of presidential orders. Despite the moves being done at the behest of the commander in chief, officials in the Navy and other service branches have often not publicly announced or provided information when materials are taken down or a review is initiated.
Instead, an accounting of many of the changes relies on whistleblowers from inside the military or visibly spotting changes. The result is a scattered and likely incomplete picture of what exactly the military has scrutinized, changed or outright removed as Trump and his administration seek to erase policies and programs recognizing women, troops with minority backgrounds, and gay and lesbian service members.
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In the case of the Naval Academy, officials began work to cut banned subjects after Trump issued the orders on the first day of his term in late January.
Cmdr. Ashley Hockycko, a spokeswoman for the Naval Academy, told Military.com in a statement Tuesday that the school reviewed "all 870 courses in our catalog." While most of the courses were in compliance, "NL445 Gender Matters: the Sociology of Gender" and "HE374 Gender and Sexuality Studies" were canceled.
The Baltimore Banner reported last week that Provost Samara Firebaugh -- the school's academic leader -- sent an email after the cancellation of the courses to the school's faculty that was aimed at offering further guidance for going forward.
The email, according to the Banner's reporting, had guidance to "not use materials that can be interpreted to assign blame to generalized groups for enduring social conditions, particularly discrimination or inequality."
Republicans and the Trump administration have long railed against any teaching that highlights America's history of discrimination and racism, and Trump promised to remove these topics while on the campaign trail last year.
During Trump's first term in office, Russell Vought, the White House's current Office of Management and Budget director, ordered federal agencies to identify contracts or agency spending for training on critical race theory, white privilege, "or any other training or propaganda effort that teaches or suggests either ... that the United States is an inherently racist or evil country or ... that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil," a 2020 memo read.
Much of U.S. history is intertwined with racial tensions and civil rights movements, including the era of slavery, integration of the military, women's suffrage and, more recently, the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," a policy that banned open military service by gay Americans.
When asked about Firebaugh's email, Hockycko didn't dispute any of the quotes from the email in the Banner but declined to release it to Military.com, citing its nature as an internal document whose release could have a chilling effect on internal communication at the academy.
"That email wasn't necessarily telling anybody to change certain things," Hockycko argued. Instead, she said its message was: "Make sure that you're reviewing course material and content that would be against the executive orders."
Hockycko said the email offered "guidelines" and examples of what to look for in course material "to ensure that we are continuing to teach and educate and also remain in alignment with these executive orders."
The Banner's reporting said that the email instructed faculty to search course materials for words like "diversity," "minority," "belonging," "bias," "representation" and "oppression."
The Naval Academy is not alone in quietly making changes in response to the executive orders and answering questions on the topic only when confronted with internal documents.
Last week, Military.com reviewed a Feb. 7 email to Marines from a senior official within Training and Education Command saying the Department of the Navy was halting four training programs on harassment and discrimination until updated training is available.
The email specifically cited the Navy Department halting training on harassment prevention, supervisor equal employment opportunity training, and No Fear Act training -- none of which had been publicly disclosed.
The email also mentioned a pause in training for Civilian Sexual Assault Prevention and Response, or SAPR, training but that halt was previously reported. It's not clear how Business Insider, which first reported on the news, became aware of the halt.
After a week, a Navy official, who spoke on background in order to be able to offer more candid information, confirmed that the email was genuine but stressed the impact would be minimal because the programs themselves were still in place and the civilians for whom the training is intended access it only once per year.
"As of this morning, two of the four training presentations are already back online and available for employee viewing," the official added.
It was unclear what changes have been made to the programs.
Officials across the branches have not explained why there is a reticence to openly discuss actions they are undertaking under executive orders from Trump and not service leaders. They repeatedly asserted the services are "executing and implementing all directives outlined in the executive orders issued by the president."
While some of the actions undertaken as a result of the orders have been significant -- for example, most of the services cut ties with a prestigious Black engineering event that was supposed to be a source of top recruits -- the services claimed that the effects are minimal, without providing additional information.
According to the Navy official who spoke with Military.com, the reviews of harassment, equal employment and sexual assault training were brief. Yvonne Carlock, a spokeswoman for the Marine Corps' Manpower and Reserve Affairs, said that its changes to the SAPR training were "minimal."
Carlock said the edits were, "for example, 'gender' was replaced with 'sex.'"
"Edits made will not impact the respective courses' learning objectives, which target the prevention of sexual assault and the response to individuals impacted by the crime of sexual assault," she said.
Yet when Military.com asked the Navy for a commitment to provide the same insight on the same training, those requests were ignored.
However, one theme that has emerged as the effects are discovered by reporters is a distancing of the military from women and Black Americans.
The Maryland National Guard canceled a planned flyover of an event celebrating Frederick Douglass, one of the most important Black civil rights advocates of the 19th century, set for Feb. 22. The Army Band canceled a concert at George Mason University in Virginia, where it was set to play music by Janelle Monáe, a Black singer and rapper.
The Army also cut ties with the Ashley Hall girls school where it had participated in the preparatory school's annual "Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day."
Late in January, the Air Force scrubbed training material related to the Tuskegee Airmen, the historic Black aviators, and the Women's Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs, who helped pilot planes stateside during the war, prompting outcry and public backlash.
The training was restored days later.
Earlier in February, both the Army and Navy also took down, then restored, webpages that featured the histories of female soldiers and sailors.
-- Jenny Morber and Drew Lawrence contributed to this story.
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