The US Department of Defense (DOD) has removed a website with Charles Calvin Rogers, a general medal of the US Army and recipient of the US Army, which led to setbacks and concerns about the deletion of black military history.

The website on which Rogers’ heroism was reminded during the Vietnam War now leads to a “404 error”, and its URL was supposedly changed in such a way that the letters “Dei” are included.

The change follows broader political reversal in terms of diversity, justice and inclusion (Dei) in the US authorities under the administration of Donald Trump.

Who was Charles C. Rogers?

Rogers was born in Claremont, West Virginia, and was a highly decorated army officer and the highest black soldier who received the medal of honor for his actions in the Vietnam War.

On November 1, 1968, Rogers, then lieutenant colonel, commanded the 1st battalion, 5th artillery regiment on the fire base near the Cambodian border. Rogers was injured three times in the violent attack by the North Vietnamese armed forces, but continued to lead artillery fire and leading counterattacks until the enemy was warded off.

The Hall of Fame in West Virginia describes the battle: “While the team of the 5th artillery, which was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Rogers, were in a desperate struggle, enemy armed forces started an attack that wounded the base perimeter.

In 1970 President Richard Nixon Rogers awarded the medal of honor for his extraordinary bravery. Rogers later served in various leadership roles before his death in 1990. He is buried on the Arlington National Cemetery.

A sudden distance triggers controversy

The distance was initially noticed that to visit Rogers ‘Medal of Honor page on the DOD website, which tried to visit Rogers’ Medal of Honor, with a “404 -page not found page” message. According to reports, the URL itself was changed from “Medal” to “Deimedal” and speculated speculation about political motives.

As a user, attempted to visit the Ministry of Defense for Rogers, they came across the news: “The page you are looking for was possibly postponed, renamed or temporarily not available.”

Brandon Friedman, an MSNBC columnist and former Obama administration official, belonged to those who had triggered the alarm. Friedman condemned the distance in a bluesky contribution and explained: “This is blood-cooking. Charles Rogers was awarded the medal of honor in Vietnam after being wounded three times that she was led to defend a position.

Friedman’s post quickly obtained traction and promoted concerns that the removal of the Roger’s website is part of a more comprehensive rollback from Dei programs and the historical representation of the black military personnel.

The Pentagon has not confirmed whether Rogers’ website is restored.

Delete military history?

Rogers’ website is removed as part of a larger military review of DEI-related content, which has led to the fact that thousands of pages, photos and news articles are marked for deletion.

At the beginning of this year, a report showed that more than 26,000 images in all military branches were characterized for the removal according to an Executive Ordinance signed by Trump, the officials estimated that the final count could exceed 100,000.

The distances include historical pictures of the Tuskegee flyers, the first graduates of the Marine Corps infantry and even photos of the Enola Gay, the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, Japan.

The Pentagon Directive has led to confusion, whereby some images were only displayed because their file names contained words such as “gay” or other terms that are incorrectly connected to the content.