(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it receive 445 pages of records from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, revealing that speakers at the March 2024 “Founders Day” event were instructed to “AVOID saying ‘removed,’ ‘replaced,’ ‘deleted’ [when referring to the new mission statement] – just refer to the ‘updated mission statement and reinforce that the motto remains unchanged.” [Emphasis in original] The records also tie DEI efforts to the mission statement controversy.

In a March 12, 2024, “Message from the 61st Superintendent,” Superintendent LTG Steven Gilland announced the change, referencing the Army’s continued commitment to “Duty, Honor and Country” and then announced the new mission statement without explaining why the words themselves were deleted.

The records were produced in a June 2024 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch when the U.S. Military Academy failed to respond to a March 2024 FOIA request (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Defense (No. 1:24-cv-01757)). Judicial Watch is asking for:

1.      All documents which form the basis upon which the decision was made to remove the phrase “Duty, Honor, Country” from the United States Military Academy Mission Statement, according to various reports (such as https://armedforces.press/report-west-point-to-remove-duty-honor-country-from-official-mission-statement/).

2.      All emails between the following USMA officials and other email accounts ending in .mil or .gov regarding the removal of “Duty, Honor, Country” from the USMA Mission Statement: Superintendent LTG Steve Gilland, MG Lori Robinson, and BG Shane Reeves.

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