What Happened When DEI Came to the Military?
“Diversity is great, but you can’t sacrifice meritocracy,” retired Air Force Brigadier General Christopher “Mookie” Walker, photographed on January 24, 2025 in Denver, Colorado, told The Free Press. (Rachel Woolf for The Free Press).
A Free Press investigation reveals the extraordinary extent to which our armed forces put diversity over readiness. Pete Hegseth tells us that’s about to change.
Retired Air Force Brigadier General Christopher Walker, 59, spent almost two years as a senior adviser to the Air Force’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion at the Pentagon, attending dozens of meetings about implementing DEI initiatives. This was an unusual role given Walker’s career path: He had over 400 hours of combat flights and, most recently, had overseen West Virginia’s Air National Guard.
But in 2021, when the Air Force established its Office of Diversity and Inclusion, staffers assumed that Walker would be on board with their belief that DEI was a “warfighting imperative.” Why? Because Walker is black. But that assumption was wrong.
Walker was a mole.
Maintaining The Free Press is Expensive!
To support independent journalism, and unlock all of our investigative stories and provocative commentary about the world as it actually is, subscribe below.
Subscriber Benefits:
Full access to all articles, investigations and columns
Access to the comments section on every piece we publish
Weekly columns from Nellie Bowles, Douglas Murray, and Bari Weiss
First chance to purchase tickets for live Free Press events
Already have an account?
Sign In