'Angry': First female Thunderbird pilot 'shocked' after Air Force yanked articles on her

Col. Nicole Malachowski was celebrated for being the first woman selected to fly Thunderbird #3 with the USAF Air Demonstration Squadron and the first woman to fly on any Department of Defense military jet demonstration team. But all articles about her were yanked from websites in accordance with President Donald Trump's directive to remove all diversity, equity and inclusion content from government sites.

The Air Force later told CNN in a statement that the content was being restored. When CNN looked at the stories, they are now headlined saying, "DEI_A Life in flight for the first woman 'Thunderbirds' pilot."

Speaking to CNN, Malachowski said, "When I first discovered that these articles were disappearing, I think I had a mix of emotions. The first being a little bit of shock and confusion."

"The fact is that I have been retired for over seven years, and many of the articles that were deleted about me were more than a decade old," she said. "Then I started hearing that this was happening to countless other minority and women veterans, you know, across our country. And it occurred to me that this is a bigger problem than just my individual story. And I think that was when I started to feel deeply concerned and maybe a little bit angry."

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She said she was also surprised to see the articles restored.

"But what I want people to understand is that it's not just about my story being restored or any individual service member or veteran stories," Malachowski continued. "We know that tens of thousands of articles, social media posts, photos and videos have actually been deleted and removed. And those articles are all related to the honorable service of women and our minority service members and veterans. And so it's more than just my story. This is a great first start. I'd like to see them keep going."

The Department of Defense removed stories on its websites about legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson and his service in the military. It was ultimately restored. Other articles had to be restored about the Navajo Code Talkers, Tuskegee airmen and Ira Hayes, who was one of the six Marines who raised the American flag at Iwo Jima after the DEI scrub deleted them.

See the interview below or at the link here.

- YouTubeyoutu.be