Air Force recruits will continue to learn about the history of the history of the Tuskegee Airmen and the Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) after bipartisan backlash following reports that videos about both groups were removed due to concerns related to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) content.

The initial removal of the videos was part of swift action after President Donald Trump’s executive order blocked DEI content throughout the federal government.

“From day one, I directed our Air Force to implement all directives outlined in the Executive Order issued by the President swiftly and professionally – no equivocation, no slow-rolling, not foot-dragging,” said General David W. Allvin, the Air Force’s Chief of Staff in a statement Monday.

“When policies change, it is everyone’s responsibility to be diligent and ensure all remnants of the outdated policies are appropriately removed, and the new ones are clearly put in place.”

Allvin said while all training courses are under review to ensure compliance with Trump’s orders, “no curriculum or content highlighting” the Tuskegee Airmen or WASP has been removed from basic military training.

Allvin called news of the removal of Tuskegee Airmen videos and curriculum a “rumor.”

Republican U.S. Senator Katie Britt said that that federal bureaucrats, “should now be on notice that malicious compliance will not be tolerated and will be swiftly corrected.”

She said newly appointed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will “correct and get to the bottom of the malicious compliance we’ve seen in recent days.”

An official with Britt’s office said “malicious compliance” refers to what they believe is a “bad faith effort” to cast the history of the Tuskegee Airmen as DEI in an effort within the federal bureaucracy to attack and undermine Trump’s executive order.

“Secretary Hegseth sent a clear message to the administrative state that resistance style antics meant to undermine President Trump’s agenda and usurp the will of the American people will be publicly swatted down, and I’m confident responsible parties will be held accountable,” Britt said.

Hegseth did not mention the issue as he reported to work Monday morning, the Associated Press reported. But, in other comments, Hegseth said “military training will be focused on the readiness of what our troops in the field need to deter our enemies.”

Democratic lawmakers, over the weekend, called out the removal of the instructional videos – first reported Saturday by the San Antonio Express-News – as not a matter of DEI, but one of history.

U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Mobile, said it was “pathetic, disgraceful, and disrespectful” to remove the training videos to not only the legacy of the historic World War II-era fighter pilots, but also to the city of Tuskegee and to the State of Alabama.

Britt, in her statement, said the lessons from the Tuskegee Airmen’s story isn’t about DEI but “rather greatness shattering a glass ceiling,” and she credited Trump, during his inaugural address of saying that “in America, impossible is what we do best.”

“As the Pentagon under Secretary Hegseth’s leadership restores its focus on lethality and promotes merit, the Tuskegee Airmen will continue to inspire the next generation of courageous, selfless American service members,” Britt said.

The Tuskegee Airmen, known as the “Red Tails,” were the nation’s first Black military pilots who served in a segregated World War II unit. Their all-Black 332nd Fighter Group had one of the lowest loss records of all the bomber escorts in the war.

Historians credit their successes as fighter pilots, during segregation, toward helping integrate the U.S. military and paving the way toward the wider civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

All of the nearly 1,000 Black military pilots who trained in the U.S. during World War II did so in Tuskegee, a city of about 8,700 residents today that is 87% Black.

“The air war in Europe was central to the outcome of World War II,” said historian Wayne Flynt, a professor emeritus at Auburn University.

“In order to reflect the unity of the nation and tap into one-tenth of the American population who were not white, full mobilization meant African Americans in all phases of warfare, including aviation, which required a higher level of education and training which at the time were considered by most white Americans as beyond their mental capacity.”

Flynt said Alabama’s role in the story is that it “received the honor of housing this program” at Tuskegee University, one of the nation’s first and most famous Black universities.