U.S. military base tasked with ‘confronting china’ told by commanders to ‘ not use pronouns, age, race, etc’

The United States Military’s latest “giant sucking waste of time” is its instruction for senior leaders and commanders at the Anderson Air Force Base in Guam to “not use pronouns, age, race, etc.”

The orders come from a division of the U.S. Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), the branch which is currently tasked with confronting China, specifically, has ordered its senior leaders and commanders to stop using gender pronouns in written formats, saying the shift to more neutral language will help improve the fighting force’s “lethality.”

Rebeccah Heinrichs, a defense policy expert and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank, told the Free Beacon that the Pacific Air Forces’ intense focus on pronoun issues is “a giant sucking waste of time.”

“In accordance with the Diverse PACAF priority, ‘We must embrace, promote and unleash the potential of diversity and inclusion,” states a May email sent to senior leaders and commanders at the Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, which operates under the Pacific Air Forces, according to a partial copy of the order obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Leaders at the base are instructed, “Do not use pronouns, age, race, etc.” when writing performance reviews or other materials, such as recommendations for awards. “Competition against near-peer adversaries requires a united focus from the command, the joint team, and our international partners. Welcoming and employing varied perspectives from a foundation of mutual respect will improve our interoperability, efficiency, creativity, and lethality.”

A spokesman for the Anderson Air Force Base confirmed the authenticity of the email, telling the Free Beacon that the Air Force is shifting “to a narrative writing format for awards and performance reports.”

The ban on “pronouns, age, race” and other written descriptors is “intended to eliminate any information that could identify the nominee’s name, gender, age, or race so that all members had a fair and equal chance at winning.”

The email goes on to list “authorized” and “unauthorized” examples of pronoun use. The “unauthorized examples” include: “He/She did,” “Best male/female,” “Youngest/Oldest,” and “Sergeant Murray.” The list of “authorized examples” include: “This sergeant,” “This NCO [Non-commissioned officer],” and “This member.”

The policy shift jibes with the Pacific Air Forces’ overarching goal to promote “diversity and inclusion” at all levels of the service, according to the military spokesman.

Military leaders who should be focused on defending the United States from an ever-increasing array of threats—particularly in the Pacific, where China is flexing its military might—are instead spending valuable time thinking about rules on proper pronoun use.

“It is painful to think about the amount of time servicemen have already spent writing these rules instead of figuring out how to beat China,” Henrichs said. “Somebody needs to remind DoD leadership that they’re in the business of preventing and winning wars and not in the Oberlin lounge.”