PERSONNEL AND
READINESS
OFFICE OF THE UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
4000 DEFENSE PENTAGON
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20301-4000
MAY
- 9
2025
MEMORANDUM FOR SENIOR PENTAGON LEADERSHIP
COMMANDERS OF THE CO MBA TANT COMMANDS
DEFENSE AGENCY AND DOD FIELD ACTIVITY DIRECTORS
SUBJECT: Reviewing the Department's Military Educational Institution Library Collections
In his January 29, 2025 memorandum, "Restoring America's Fighting Force," the
Secretary
of
Defense directed the Department to eliminate "any program, element, or initiative
that was established to promote divisive concepts ... or gender ideology," which he described
as
contrary
to
Do
D's
"core mission
of
providing the military forces needed to deter war and ensure
our nation's security." The sole focus
of
the Department's military educational institutions
(MEis), including the War Colleges and the Military Service Academies, is to train and educate
the world's finest military leaders in support
of
that core mission.
Educational materials at the Department's MEis promoting divisive concepts and gender
ideology are incompatible with the Department's core mission. Therefore, the Secretaries
of
the
Military Departments and other DoD Component heads must: (1) promptly identify any
Department MEI library materials potentially incompatible with this core mission;
(2) appropriately sequester those materials; (3) confirm the initial characterization through a
deliberate review; and ( 4) determine an appropriate ultimate disposition for those materials. The
first two steps must be completed
no
later than May 21, 2025.
A temporary Academic Libraries Committee (ALC) comprised
of
knowledgeable
leaders, educators, and library professionals drawn from across the Office
of
the Secretary
of
Defense and the Military Departments will inform the preliminary identification and
sequestration, subsequent deliberate review, and decision concerning the disposition
of
material
confirmed
to
be inconsistent with direction from the President and the Secretary,
as
well as with
the Department's mission. The ALC developed the list
of
search terms (Attachment
1)
and
guidance (Attachment 2) to assist in your initial identification
of
materials requiring further
review. Those terms and guidance are to assist solely with the preliminarily identification and
sequestration
of
materials to be further reviewed.
The subsequent deliberate review by experts in the fields
of
education and the
Department's mission will determine the ultimate disposition
of
the material, based on the
totality
of
the circumstances and findings
of
relevant facts. The experts
of
the ALC will
recommend criteria and procedures consistent with the Department's mission to inform that
deliberate review no later than June 2025.
Throughout this process, the ALC will take a viewpoint neutral approach and apply the
definitions
of
"discriminatory equity ideology" and "gender ideology" from Executive Order
14168, "Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth
to
