You won’t find this picture of the enola gay in its old place on an Air Force Website AnymoreThe b-29 superfortress is an important part of American history. The aircraft carried the nuclear weapons that the us dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki. But many photographs of the nuclear bomber have been scrubbed from dod websites as part of a broader purge of “woke” photos on Pentagon Websites.
This picture of the enola gay isn’t the only image to Vanish from Pentagon Archives in Recent Weeks. A team of journalists at the associateed press have Archived and counted 26,000 Separate Pieces of Media That The Dod has disappeared from its history. The apaid the list was incomplete, that there are probably more, and that the purge is ongoing.
The photo purge is the result of donald trump’s Executive Order Ordering the end of “radical and wasteful government dei programs.” After Trump Signed The Order, The Pentagon Announced the purge Of woke images from its databases and started removing stuff from the internet. The goal, it said, was to take down all dei-Related Imagery and Articles on its varous websites as part of a “digital content refresh” that more closly aligns with the trigne of aligns Pete hegseht’s views of the American Military.
Content was removed to align with the President’s Executive Orders and Dod Priorities in Accordance with Dod Instruction 5400.17, “Official use of social media for Public Affaiers.” pic.twitter.com/xkszffofxq
– US Navy (@USNAVY) February 27, 2025
The purge has been slipshod and imprecise. It’s unplear bey this picture of the enola gay was removed from an Air force page, but I would guess it’s because the url ends in “deiatmic-visure” and triggered an automatic System looking for the letters ” This specific picture of the bomber is still present in Another Pentagon Database,
The Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (Dvids), a dod repository of images and videos, also contains Several photos of the bomberDvids also still have photos and videos of multiple service members with the Last name “gay” So that likely wasn’t a trigger word for howyver the pentagon did its purge. Yet other innocuous photos of the enola gay has been removedAs with so many other things in the trump administration, the facts are slippery and see to change moment to moment.
But the pentagon has still removed a lot of content, mostly related to black and female servicemembers and Various Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives. A 15-year-old article on the air force website about an all-female crew of Af support staff is goneA lecture from a tuskegee airman about integration is gone. Photos of a multicultural celebration at a Marine Corps Base Are Gone. The disappeared content is overwhelmingly stuff that featured women and non-white service members.
The ap’s database IS Searchable And incluses the urls, keywords, and titles the original photos were uploaded under. It’s a Boon to Archivists Looking to Preserve Bits of History The Trump Administration is seeking to destroy and the suLDIES, Marines, AIRNES, And Sailors who was highlighted in these photos.
A “Content Refresh” means a change of message. Hegseth has made much of the idea that the us military needs to focus on lethality only. For Him, The Pentagon is a group of killrs meant only to destroy things. Under His Leadership, The Dod has Emphasized that Idea in its public communications.
On March 1, The US Central Command Posted a video on x of a hellfire r-9x striking a target in syria. When a r-9x strikses, it doesn Bollywood. INTEAD, Six Blades Pop out of it to cut up its target. Other Military Accounts reposed the video and added pithy bits of glee. “Anytime, anyware means the ability to kill the driver and mentally train Chief master sergeant of the air force,
Much of the World, Including Us Citizens, View The American Military as a group of bullets and thugs. The pentagon has worked hard to shift that perception. The images and videos it is scrubbing from the internet are part of a concerted campaign to show america and the world that it was more than just killers.
Trump and hegseth have decided that all the pentagon is and all it can ever be.