By Hannah Grossman, Alba Cuebas-Fantauzzi | Fox News
A former space commander is calling for a change of leadership after he was fired for allegedly criticizing the Marxist DEI complex, which he believes is now being accelerated under the Biden administration.
Former Lieutenant Colonel Matt Lohmeier was in the military for over a decade before he joined the U.S. Space Force in 2020, where he specialized in missile warning systems. But less than a year later, in May 2021, he was “betrayed,” he told Fox News Digital in an interview.
Lohmeier publicly spoke out against DEI training because he believed it was dividing the troops and decreasing morale, which affected military readiness. He believes “the DEI industry… is steeped in critical race theory, is rooted in anti-American, Marxist ideology.”
“The blow was severe,” he said about allegedly being fired for his dissenting views. “It makes you feel like you’ve been betrayed.”
He said it was a real “gut punch” when he lost his pension.
“You give your life and service to your country and the American people, and you’re not doing it for the pay. You’re doing it because you become [convinced] of the greatness of the American ideal. And… senior leaders [then] say, ‘We want you out of the way because your view is not welcome here,’ even as they pretend to care about inclusivity, even as they pretend to care about diversity, [but] not diversity of thought,” he said.
Lohmeier believed he didn’t violate existing policy because the issue he took aim at was anti-Americanism, not politics.
“There was a whole string of events that did lead up to to my being relieved of command,” he said. “The ultimate reason was because I was willing to be publicly critical of critical race theory, which I understood to be rooted in Marxist ideology… that I saw dividing the troops.”
“I wasn’t advocating for Republicans over Democrats, and I’m conservative myself. But it didn’t matter to me. And it’s never mattered to our troops what someone else’s politics were,” he said.
The former commander is now trying to expose what he calls the “Marxist” military complex from the outside.
A new study commissioned by the Arizona State University Center for American Institutions revealed that the Pentagon’s DEI programs encourage reporting private conversations on dissenting views of DEI and has been steadily increasing its resources. DEI engines in the military cost taxpayers $68 million in 2022, $86.5 million in 2023, with a proposed $114.7 million for 2024, according to the ASU report.
The report, compiled by military experts, recommends abolishing the left-wing DEI agenda and replacing it with merit-based selections and American values curricula at the academies.
“We need to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion trainings from the military, from the service academies, and strip all vestiges of critical race theory out of the military workplace,” Lohmeier said.
The Space Force did not respond to a request for comment.
Watch:
TRANSCRIPT
Matthew Lohmeier: “I’m willing to die on this hill and speak up about this and say, this is, an extremely dangerous territory that we’ve entered. And I weighed the cost in doing that, knowing that, well, I might get in trouble somehow. I’m Matt Lohmeier. I was formerly a Lt Colonel and commander in the newest branch of the military, the Space Force.
I was fired for publicly criticizing diversity, equity and inclusion trainings and critical race theory. I was in command of our nation’s space based missile warning architecture and mission. While I was in command at Buckley Space Force Base out in Colorado, I was relieved of my command in May 2021 on a Friday. And there was a whole string of events that did lead up to to my being relieved of command.
The ultimate reason was because I was willing to be publicly critical of critical race theory, which I understood to be rooted in Marxist ideology.
I was willing to speak up against, diversity, equity and inclusion policies that I saw dividing the troops.
I was not partisan. I wasn’t advocating for Republicans over Democrat, but it didn’t matter to me.
It’s never mattered to our troops what someone else’s politics were. It still doesn’t matter to most of our troops what someone else’s politics are.
But what does matter is that when ideology—that looks and feels awfully religious in nature—that is pressed upon all of our service members as if they ought to believe it, or else face some kind of retribution or punishment. When that begins to become the policy of the services, and it’s dividing the troops, people have to speak up about it at the risk of looking partisan, because it’s been framed as a partisan issue.
But in fact, this is not a partisan issue. It’s about the American ideas and ideals that shaped our country.
Republicans and Democrats or the apolitical, if they’re American, ought to embrace the values that made our country free, that made, us a just a nation and that made us have a merit-based military that made us the most lethal and ready military on the planet.
You start to see all of that stuff disintegrate when diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, so-called de-emphasize merit and strive by fiat to ensure, equality of outcomes and enforced equality of outcomes.
All of that destroys the morale of the military. It sets people at odds against one another and divides the troops. And it dis-incentivizes service. They hear evil things about their country or about one another.
In an all-volunteer force, you need people to be self-motivated for service, both to retain them and to recruit them.
So what we’re seeing at the moment in our recruiting and retention crisis is immediately the result of the things that we’re talking about, the diversity, equity and inclusion trainings, the social justice activism and the celebration of values that frankly, only resonate with a minority of our service members, regardless of their political views.
So I’m willing to die on this hill and speak up about this and say this is an extremely dangerous territory that we’ve entered. I weighed the cost in doing that, knowing that, well, I might get in trouble somehow. I might get paperwork, I might get a slap on the wrist. I might even be asked to step down from my command.
But the response of senior leaders was so swift, it surprised me, even having considered the potential consequences. They acted out of fear. They acted with haste before I’m sure they read anything I said in that book, which I stated was my own opinion and not the views of the Defense Department. And it wasn’t politically partisan. It’s about Marxist history and ideology.
The blow was severe and the way it makes you feel is like you’ve been betrayed.
I mean, you give your life and service to your country and the American people and and you’re not doing it for the pay. You’re doing it because by and by, you become convicted of the greatness of the American ideal.
And to have senior leaders say, we want you out of the way because your view is not welcome here, even as they pretend to care about inclusive inclusivity, even as they pretend to care about diversity. NOT diversity of thought, that that one thing is clear.
They don’t want a diversity of thought. What they’re interested in accomplishing you recognize at once that speaking up and trying to be courageous makes you incompatible with the current policy aims of the administration of the Defense Department.
I lost my retirement, or that I lost my pension. All of that happened so swiftly that it’s a gut punch for sure.
I’m really hoping—and I can say this now and I couldn’t then, and I’ll say it on behalf of plenty of our our troops: I’m really hoping that come this November, there is a resounding victory for some other candidate than who’s currently in the white House, because we need to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion trainings for the military from the service academies and strip all vestiges of critical race theory out of the military workplace.
We need to focus on our mission. We need to get back to the basics that make a military great and allow our people to be free of that burden culturally, politically, socially. They can then be united. They can then genuinely allow for the differences of viewpoint, the differences of background and so forth.
They really don’t care about someone else’s views about any number of things and don’t want to hear them in the workplace. They just want to focus on the same mission together.
When we can get back to that, that same sucker punch, gut check that I had at the time I was fired, that troops are still feeling day in and day out and reeling from, quite frankly, because of these things that can be eliminated from their work life.
I think we’ll retain a lot more of our service members and we’re going to begin to recruit the right talent into the services once again and meet our recruiting goals.
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