NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
A U.S. Air Force leadership group is directing the Non-Commissioned Officers not to use gender pronouns when issuing awards to individual Airmen, instead advising that they use gender-neutral language.
“Do NOT use names or gender specific pronouns in your narratives,” reads attached guidance in an email to leaders at Osan Air Base, South Korea, adding that award narratives should use neutral language such as “Airman,” “Member,” and “Individual” when referencing the awardee.
“Look to replace he/she his/hers with – they (this one can be both singular and plural),” the instructions continue.
The instructions, which were sent by the base’s 5/6 leadership group, were emailed to dozens of Air Force leaders at the Osan Air Base, outlining new guidelines for giving Airman monthly and quarterly awards that are meant to “recognize your Airmen for their time, hard work, and continued dedication.”
DOD BLASTED FOR TWEET TOUTING ‘DIVERSITY’ AND ‘INCLUSION’ AS ‘NECESSITY’ IN THE MILITARY
A Tactical Control Party Airmen and qualified Joint Terminal Aircraft Controller.
(U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. JT May III)
The 5/6 leadership group is an organization of Non-Commissioned Officers present on every Air Force Base and is not part of the Department of Defense, but whose members are all Air Force NCOs in the E5 and E6 pay grades. The groups are dedicated to “the service’s core values while establishing a network of motivated, dedicated and professional” NCOs.
The Osan 5/6 did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment on the guidance. Public affairs offices for both Osan Air Base and the Department of the Air Force did not immediately respond to a Fox News inquiry on if the guidance was in line with base or Air Force policy.
The guidance comes at the Department of Defense has been under fire in recent years for pivoting to what some critics have called a “woke agenda,” with the Air Force making moves to change the Air Force song, releasing videos aimed at tackling members “unconscious biases,” and even going so far as considering dropping the “man” from “Airman.”
According to one report, the Department of Defense spent over 5 million man-hours and $535,000 on what it called extremism “stand downs,” which drew accusations from some Republican lawmakers that the department was promoting a “leftist social agenda in the military.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“We face real threats across the world, yet the Biden administration is more focused on promoting its leftist social agenda in the military instead of countering China, Russia and Iran or creating an effective counterterrorism plan,” 12 GOP Senators wrote in response to the report earlier this year. “Our military is not an extremist organization, and our service members, by and large all good people, are dedicated, faithful patriots.”
