WASHINGTON – Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) is pushing back against efforts to erase Native American veterans’ contributions to U.S. military history. Per capita, Native Americans serve in the military at the highest rate, five times the national average. Native veterans have fought in every major armed conflict, and erasing their service is a dishonor to all who have worn the uniform.
Recently, mentions of Ira Hayes — a revered Gila River Marine veteran who helped raise the flag at Iwo Jima in 1945 — and Lori Ann Piestewa — a Hopi Army veteran who killed in combat in Operation Iraqi Freedom — were removed from the Department of Defense (DoD) website. In response, Senator Gallego, along with fellow Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, urged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to reinstate all references to Pfc. Hayes and Specialist Piestewa.
“To erase Pfc. Hayes’s and Specialist Piestewa’s contributions to our history is to erase American history,” the Senators wrote.
Last week, Senator Gallego and colleagues from the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee wrote to Hegseth and President Donald Trump raising concerns that the removal of these pages will further hinder recruitment efforts and make our military weaker.
“Removing these records exacerbates an already concerning recruiting crisis, undermines morale across the Joint Force and betrays our Nation’s commitment to honoring the service of Veterans. First, by removing the records of Americans who bravely answered the call to serve our country in uniform, these short-sighted actions discourage eligible Americans from volunteering to serve and send a message that they will not be welcomed in the Armed Forces,” the Senators wrote. “We know that this just plays into the hands of adversaries who look for opportunities to divide us and undermine our military. Stoking a manufactured culture war to score political points at the expense of individual members of our Armed Forces hurts our national security.”
The erasure of Native history extends beyond the DoD. On March 18th, the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center in Phoenix removed the flags of Arizona’s 22 tribal nations. These flags honored the significant sacrifices of Arizona’s tribal communities in military service. The VA has since delivered them to the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community offices, stating that only certain flags can be displayed under a new Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) policy.
Senator Gallego called on VA Secretary Doug Collins to reverse the decision and has consistently pushed back against previous attempts to erase Native veterans’ contributions. When references to the Navajo Code Talkers — Marines who played a critical role in securing U.S. victories in WWII — were removed from military websites following an order from the Trump administration, he condemned the action as “shameful.”
“The Navajo Code Talkers were Marines and heroes who helped secure victory in WWII. We owe them a debt that can never be repaid. Trump can’t erase their history just because he feels like it,” Gallego said at the time.
As a result of Senator Gallego’s efforts, the Navajo Code Talkers webpages were restored last Wednesday.
3/25/25