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Late army veteran Charles Rogers is trending on social media after his name was temporarily taken down from the Department of Defense's website.
The black army general is renowned for serving in the Vietnam War and was bestowed with the nation's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor. As reported by The Guardian, on Saturday, US Army Maj Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers’s Medal of Honor webpage showed a “404” error message. Furthermore, the URL was changed, while the word "medal" was changed to "deimedal."
According to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, Rogers was wounded thrice while serving in the war. At the time, he was spearheading the position defense of a base. Despite this, he:
"continued to give encouragement and direction to his men in the defeating and repelling of the enemy attack."
"Lt. Col. Rogers' dauntless courage and heroism inspired the defenders of the fire support base to the heights of valor to defeat a determined and numerically superior enemy force. His relentless spirit of aggressiveness in action are in the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army," the page reads.
The controversy involving Charles Rogers explored:
As reported by the West Virginia military hall of fame, Charles Rogers was the highest-ranking African American to have been awarded the honorary. After his demise in 1990, he was buried at the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, DC. In 1999, a bridge in Fayette County, where he was born, was renamed in his honor.
On the webpage, the URL was changed to include the letters "DEI," which stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, which is a policy that the Trump administration has increasingly cut down on.
The situation first sparked interest online when a writer, Brandon Friedman, shared a screenshot of a Google page entry of Rogers' profile on the website. The entry, which was dated November 1, 2021, read:
“Medal of Honor Monday: Army Maj Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers.” Below it, the words read: “Army Maj Gen Charles Calvin Rogers served through all of it. As a Black man, he worked for gender and race equality while in the service.”
Friedman's caption read:
“This is blood-boiling. Charles Rogers was awarded the Medal of Honor in Vietnam after being wounded three times leading the defense of a position. Google his name and the entry below comes up. When you click, you’ll see the page has been deleted and the URL changed to include ‘DEI medal.’”
At the time of writing, the webpage has since been restored, and it now accurately depicts the name, image, and designation of the late Charles Rogers.
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