Department of the Air Force personnel Chief said why Diversity should scare the hell out of U.S. Military Adversaries.
Change takes time, and Wagner praised the work of his predecessors in the Department of the Air Force for the effort.
The top civilian of the Department of the Air Force on those matters, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs Alex Wagner, is a political appointee of President Biden but has spent most of his career at the Pentagon like his superior, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall.
The Department of the Air Force in the Pentagon has an increasingly diverse country and the Department of the Air Force has demographic trends creating even more diversity. Department of the Air Force has to be, to succeed, a mirror of the country that we claim to and do defend.
A lot of good work started in the Pentagon Department of the Air Force during the Obama administration, and a constant drumbeat continued during the previous administration,” said Wagner, Chief of Staff to the Secretary of the Army from 2015-2017.
There are a lot of discrepancies within the Department of the Air Force,” said Kendall in September 2021
The efforts to increase diversity and inclusion in the military particularly in the Department of the Air Force have become hot-button cultural issues, with critics arguing the Pentagon is attempting to be politically correct at the expense of readiness.
Possibly the most high-profile recent example is that of Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who has placed a legislative hold on all flag and general officer nominations in protest of the Department of the Air Force Pentagon’s policy to provide paid leave and travel funds for troops requiring reproductive services, including abortions.