The DOD Prevention Deception

DEI in Disguise vs H2F

On January 20th, 2025 President Trump published the executive order entitled “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing” to eliminate counterproductive DEI policies and programs across the federal government. The order wisely directed “the termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear” (emphasis mine). I’m writing this short article to help bring awareness to the fact that the DOD missed a prominent DEI program hiding under another name, and that this oversight is about to have a substantial adverse impact on the program to which this blog owes its namesake.

DOD Primary Prevention

On the 20th of December, 2022 former Democratic Congressman and then senior Pentagon official Gilbert Cisneros published DOD INSTRUCTION 6400.11: DOD INTEGRATED PRIMARY PREVENTION POLICY FOR PREVENTION WORKFORCE AND LEADERS. The fact that Cisneros also published orders expanding DEI, promoting access to abortion, and enforcing the military COVID vaccine mandate should have been a clue that this policy was in line with his progressive agenda, but I seem to be one of the few who noticed. In any case, the link between DOD Primary Prevention and DEI is very obvious with a cursory reading of the policy. The ostensible goal of the prevention policy is preventing harmful behaviors like suicide, domestic violence, sexual assault, and DUI. Sounds good right? Well, not so fast. Consider that the policy dictates this must be accomplished by “Helping leaders establish a culture of prevention characterized by:

(1) Fostering community norms…

(2) Cultivating inclusivity, connectedness, dignity, and respect.

(3) Enhancing equity, rights, and engagement by:

(a) Identifying solutions for populations disproportionately impacted by harmful acts and climate issues that contribute to the problem.

(b) Adapting prevention plans, processes, and trainings as necessary to minimize inequalities and disparities.”

So the way to do this thing that sounds like a great idea is to promote inclusion and equity. Hmmm, that sounds familiar, doesn’t it? The policy also tells us that leaders must “Foster inclusion and equity for diverse social groups. This includes:

(a) Understanding and implementing DoD prevention guidance…

(b) Identifying solutions…

(c) Adapting prevention plans, processes, and trainings as necessary to minimize inequalities and disparities.”

It should be obvious to any thinking person that DOD Primary Prevention is a DEI program that essentially frames the problem of “harmful behaviors” as a product of insufficient commitment to DEI from leaders. To solve this, bureaucrats with degrees in fields like “health equity” are recruited and placed within operational units where they advise leaders on how to reduce “harmful behaviors.” How do they reduce harmful behaviors? With DEI of course! It is prescribed by the policy.

Prevention In Name Only, DEI In Practice

I have written here previously about how these prevention bureaucrats could be re-purposed to support enterprise health and wellness programs, but this fell on deaf ears leading to something of a crisis. As you may well know, the OPM has been directed to cut the federal workforce, and the military is in no way exempt from this directive. Every major command in the Army has been directed to cut civilian positions. They’re in the process of trying to figure it out, and many commands have wisely chosen to retain their H2F personnel (who are very obviously value added). One command came to a different conclusion: US Army Forces Command, or FORSCOM for short.

FORSCOM has decided that not only will they cut H2F positions, they’ll do so in order to retain some of these “Prevention” positions that exist in pretty much every one of their units now. I’ll say that again because I think it bears repeated. FORSCOM would rather keep a secret DEI program alive than retain all of their H2F personnel. Why? Well, I’m sure its just a mundane combination of ignorance and laziness. If anything, this is a good argument that FORSCOM and its staff should be eliminated/consolidated as planned. I mean, if they can’t figure something this simple out, then what use are they really? Perhaps that is a little callous, but as should be obvious I’m a huge fan of the H2F program and have little sympathy for those who fail to appreciate such a clearly beneficial program. I have even less for those who see it as equivalent to a “prevention” program that clearly violates the plain letter of President Trump’s order to eliminate DEI programs “under whatever name they appear.”