So here’s the story [1]: Brigadier General Christopher Sage – a career Air Force officer lauded for service overseas – is being forced out on Dec. 31, even after the Air Force’s own board concluded he was unfairly targeted for expressing concerns about COVID policies under the Biden administration where an an order signed by former President Joe Biden’s autopen removed Sage from a promotion list.
The board said the investigation was tainted by discussions of his views on vaccines and mitigation policies, and that he acted honorably. Yet someone higher up overruled them and now Sage is heading for an early retirement. You’d think that now Donald J. Trump is president and we have the un-woke Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth in charge, this wouldn’t be happening.
Hegseth has been on a headline-grabbing crusade against all things “woke” in the Pentagon since he got there – rallying military brass to reject DEI, pushing strict warrior ethos norms, nixing beards, lamenting fat generals, and generally waging a culture war inside the armed forces.
But here’s the million-dollar question: If Hegseth is the anti-woke sheriff of the Department of War, the guy who claims the military is too soft and too woke – why hasn’t he stepped in to defend a decorated general who appears to be a victim of Biden bureaucratic overreach?
Isn’t fighting bureaucracy an important anti-woke hill to die on? Where’s the cavalry, Secretary? The silent treatment sure isn’t fighting the culture war.