You wo n’t encounter this picture of the Enola Gay in its old place on anAir Force web site anymore . The B-29 Superfortress is an important part of American history . The aircraft stockpile the nuclear weapons that the U.S. 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 ” photographs on Pentagon websites .
This pictorial matter of the Enola Gay is n’t the only image to fell from Pentagon archives in recent calendar week . A squad of journalists at the Associated Press hasarchived and depend 26,000separate while of media that the DoD has disappeared from its account . The AP said the list was uncompleted , that there are belike more , and that the purge is on-going .
The picture purging is the outcome of Donald Trump’sexecutive orderordering the ending of “ radical and uneconomical government DEI programs . ” After Trump signed the guild , the Pentagonannounced the purgeof arouse images from its database and protrude murder clobber from the internet . The goal , it said , was to take down all DEI - bear on imagery and article on its various websites as part of a “ digital mental object refresh ” that more closely aligns with the Trump administration and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseht ’s position of the American armed services .
The Enola Gay.© Pentagon photo.
message was remove to aline with the President ’s executive orders and DoD antecedence in accordance of rights with DoD instruction 5400.17 , " prescribed Use of Social Media for Public Affairs Purposes . “pic.twitter.com / XkszFOFfXQ
— U.S. Navy ( @USNavy)February 27 , 2025
The purge has been sloppy and imprecise . It ’s unclear why this picture of The Enola Gay was removed from an Air Force page , but I would guess it ’s because the uniform resource locator terminate in “ deiatomic - exposure ” and triggered an automatic system looking for the letters “ DEI . ” This specific image of the hero is still present inanother Pentagon database .
© Air Force photo.
The Defense Visual Information Distribution Service ( DVIDS ) , a DoD repository of images and videos , also containsseveral picture of the hero sandwich . DVIDS also still has photos and video of multiple service members with thelast name “ Gay”so that likely was n’t a trigger word for however the Pentagon did its purge . Yet other unobjectionable photos of the Enola Gayhavebeen removed . As with so many other things in the Trump administration , the facts are tricky and seem to exchange moment to second .
But the Pentagon has still removed a pot of content , mostly related to fatal and distaff servicemembers and various diversity and inclusion initiatives . A 15 - year - onetime article on the Air Force website about an all - female gang of AF support staffis get . A lecture from a Tuskegee Airman about integration is plump . exposure of a multicultural celebration at a Marine Corps base are gone . The evaporate subject matter is overwhelmingly poppycock that feature women and non - white service members .
The AP ’s databaseis searchableand includes the uniform resource locator , keywords , and title the original photos were upload under . It ’s a boon to archivists look to uphold bits of account the Trump administration is seeking to destroy and the Soldiers , Marines , Airmen , and skimmer who were highlight in these pic .
© Pentagon photo.
A “ content refresh ” means a change of message . Hegseth has made much of the idea that the U.S. military needs to focus on lethality only . For him , the Pentagon is a group of killer whale mean only to destroy affair . Under his leaders , the DoD has emphasize that estimation in its public communication .
On March 1 , the U.S. Central Commandposted a video on Xof a Hellfire R-9X striking a fair game in Syria . When a R-9X hit , it does n’t break loose . rather , six blades toss off out of it to cut up its target . Other military accounting reposted the video and added pithy act of glee . “ Anytime , Anywhere mean the ability to down the driver and mentally traumatize a passenger for sprightliness , without killing them , from 20 K feet , ” aver theChief Master Sergeant of the Air Force .
Much of the world , including U.S. citizens , consider the American military as a group of hooligan and punk . The Pentagon has worked severely to shift that perception . The images and videos it is scrubbing from the internet are part of a concert campaign to show America and the man that it was more than just killers .
Trump and Hegseth have decided that ’s all the Pentagon is and all it can ever be .
Donald Trumpmilitarypentagon
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