The U.S. Air Force has removed web content honoring several trailblazing female pilots—including the first woman to fly with the Thunderbirds, the elite air demonstration squadron—in an effort to comply with Trump administration directives aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) content from federal websites.
The purge includes webpages, photos, videos and biographies, many of which celebrated historic firsts for women in military aviation. Among the most prominent cases is retired Colonel Nicole Malachowski, who served for 21 years and broke barriers as the first woman to pilot with the elite Thunderbirds demonstration team.
Why It Matters
Since President Donald Trump returned to office, federal agencies have been removing information flagged for ties to DEI initiatives from military and government websites.
This effort, driven by executive orders, has led to the deletion or archiving of tens of thousands of pages that recognized the contributions of women, LGBTQ+ people and people of color.
The Department of Defense admitted that some content was removed by mistake and has restored parts of it after public backlash.
What To Know
A spokesperson for Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina confirmed to 9NEWS that articles were removed as part of the compliance process with new presidential directives. The missive from the White House has drawn criticism from former service members who argue that scrubbing such achievements distorts military history.
Malachowski, who flew F-15E Strike Eagles in multiple operational squadrons, said erasing such stories sends a damaging message. “You’re good enough to serve but not good enough to be remembered,” she told 9NEWS. “I can’t believe that something like this is happening in the country whose uniform I wore.”
The deletions extend beyond Malachowski. According to reporting by the Air Force Times, multiple online resources related to retired Major General Jeannie Leavitt—the first woman to serve as a fighter pilot in the U.S. military—have also disappeared. Leavitt, who flew more than 3,000 hours including in combat, and held leadership roles such as Air Force chief of safety and commander of the Air Force Recruiting Service, had her biographies, commentary pieces and a retirement tribute taken down.
Among the most prominent websites removed is that of retired Colonel Nicole Malachowski, who served for 21 years and broke barriers as the first woman to pilot with the elite Thunderbirds demonstration team. Among the most prominent websites removed is that of retired Colonel Nicole Malachowski, who served for 21 years and broke barriers as the first woman to pilot with the elite Thunderbirds demonstration team. Screenshot / Foundation for Women Warriors
A video titled “Diversity is a competitive advantage,” originally posted by Airman Magazine in 2019, has also been made private.
Other historic female units have also been impacted. Pages dedicated to the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) of World War II—who ferried aircraft domestically during wartime to free up male pilots for overseas combat—have been removed, as well as associated museum exhibits and educational materials.
Even materials recognizing minority military contributions, such as those about the Navajo Code Talkers and Private First Class Ira Hayes, a Pima tribal member who helped raise the U.S. flag at Iwo Jima, have been scrubbed in recent weeks, the Air Force Times reported.
The move has sparked concerns over selective erasure. “For us to act like those barriers never happened or those barriers were never broken, is to completely ignore our history,” Malachowski told 9NEWS. “We need our military to reflect the America that it represents.”
Archived versions of the deleted content remain accessible via the Internet Archive, which confirmed that certain pages were still active as recently as February. While some pages remain live in obscure corners of military websites, others now return error messages or have been tagged with internal references to “DEI.”
What People Are Saying
Malachowski told 9NEWS: “It’s been really just shocking to me to see that we would censor the historical fact, the historical stories, the historical contributions of service members and veterans.”
An Air Force spokesperson told the Air Force Times: “Our intent is to restore purely historical content after we review it to ensure it complies with the guidelines.”
What Happens Next
While the Air Force did not confirm how many pages were removed or if they would be restored, an unnamed spokesperson told Air Force Times that “purely historical content” might be reinstated after a compliance review.
