The current head of human resources at the Department of War (DOW), formerly the Department of Defense (DOD), was the “architect” of the military’s previous Diversity and Inclusion program, enforced the unlawful COVID vaccine mandate, and developed a program that expedited citizenship for noncitizen service members who were deported after being convicted of crimes.
Retired Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Samuel Shoemate sounded the alarm on X this week, drawing attention to DOW Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for Military Personnel Policy Stephanie Miller:
Miller oversees the “full spectrum of human resource policies for over two million military personnel serving in the Department of War,” Shoemate wrote.
Her old bio, which has been revised to remove any mention of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), states that her career includes “leadership positions as the DoD Director of Diversity and Inclusion Management, Deputy Director for Navy Diversity, and Director, Navy Women’s Policy.”
She also served as a Defense Legislative Fellow for Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) — a close associate of Hollywood Democrat donors and one of just three Republican senators who voted against the confirmation of War Secretary Pete Hegseth in January.
“Stephanie has been an advisor to, and architect of, every decision in the military over the last decade and a half that has harmed military readiness and overall military strength,” Shoemate wrote.
He continued,
As the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Personnel Policy, all accession and General Officer promotions run directly through her. You need not ask yourself why woke Flag Officers continue to accelerate through promotions, and personnel seeking reinstatement for unlawful discharges continue to run into red tape and road blocks. The answer is clear.
Another X user by the name of Lauren G pointed out that Miller also “developed” the Immigrant Military Members and Veterans Initiative (IMMVI), a program established by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that annually recruited 10,000 noncitizens to the United States military.
In a June 2022 hearing before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, Miller confirmed that her “responsibilities include oversight of the department’s military naturalization program” and shared that she worked with DHS to expedite the naturalization process for noncitizen servicemembers during “the challenges associated with the coronavirus 2019 pandemic.”
In that same hearing, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) uncovered the IMMVI’s unwillingness or incapability to share if victims of crimes committed by deported former service members were ever notified that the U.S. government was bringing them back and giving them citizenship.
“When a deported veteran who is deported for committing a crime is paroled or otherwise allowed back in the United States pursuant to IMMVI, does DHS contact the victim of the crime to notify them that the alien perpetrator’s being allowed back into the United States?” the congressman asked.
IMMVI’s director at DHS, Debra Rogers, replied, “Every single case is reviewed on an individual case-by-case basis.”
McClintock asked again, “Is the victim of the crime notified you’re letting this person back into the country?”
Rogers stuttered before the congressman pressed on, “Yes or no? Do you contact the victims of the crimes, notify them that the person who committed the crime against them is going to be back in the United States?”
“I think it depends on the crimes that the individual has committed, and they’re individualized–” Rogers replied, before McClintock continued asking, “Yes or no?”
Rogers argued, “Not all the crimes have victims that are involved — not all circumstances are there victims involved.”
The back-and-forth continued, with McClintock begging for a “straight answer.”
“If you don’t know, just say so,” the California Republican said.
Rogers finally conceded, “I will say that I cannot give you a specific answer on an individual case.”
While Miller was helping criminal immigrants get on the fast-track to citizenship during COVID, she testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee just a few months later, in September 2022, that the DOW had “no plans to eliminate the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.”
“We strongly do believe that vaccine requirements significantly enhance the readiness of our force and diminish the threat of serious illness,” she told Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) when asked if the department was “considering” revising the mandate that forced thousands of service members out of the military:
Speaking with Breitbart News on Monday, Shoemate shared information from his sources within the Pentagon on Miller’s obstruction of the Trump DOW’s goals.
“Folks within the Pentagon have spoken to me and told me that she has actively pushed back on efforts of other senior personnel in the [DOW],” he said, before connecting Miller’s left-wing work in the department to the “purge” of conservative-leaning service members who refused to take the experimental COVID vaccine.
“The DEI, the covid mandates, anything related to transgenderism, LGBTQ — all of these things kind of went hand in hand,” Shoemate explained. “What we’ve stated for years is that the purge of service members who were kicked out for refusing to take an unlawfully implemented experimental drug is tied to more conservative elements, not all of them, but the majority of folks who refused did so because of their religious convictions, right?”
He continued, saying that Miller was part of the “effort to purge religious conservative elements out of the military.”
Referring to Miller’s advocacy for deported criminals over unvaccinated service members, he said her actions “look very intentional” to push the “religious conservative majority out of the military.”
A group of retired service members, including Shoemate, met with Hegseth, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata, and Senior Advisor Stuart Scheller last week to talk about the ongoing issues with the slow reinstatements of unvaccinated individuals.
Two attendees of that meeting who were both coerced into retiring after 20-year careers due to the mandate told Breitbart News that they came away from the meeting with optimism and hope that Hegseth would speed up the process, while noting that a “large majority” of DOW officials “were complicit” in implementing the vaccine rules under former President Joe Biden and former Sec. Lloyd Austin.
Shoemate also shared positive thoughts on the meeting in a video posted to social media, and later told Breitbart News that the revelation of Miller’s department DEI activism “doesn’t change” his mind on Hegseth’s commitment to carrying out President Donald Trump’s executive order to “reinstate service members who were dismissed” with full “back pay and benefits.”
“It doesn’t change my mind. And the reason why is, we have known for a long time now that there are, there are numerous subversive elements within the Pentagon… We know they continue to be promoted. It’s such a systemic issue in the military that we were aware of what’s going on,” he explained.
“I truly believe [Hegseth’s] full intention is to see through Trump’s executive orders, and I’ve never thought otherwise,” Shoemate continued. “My concern has always been that he’s surrounded by so many subversives who want to make sure that he is slowed down.”
The way forward for a functional DOW that does not hinder Trump or Hegseth’s policy objectives is a “task force” dedicated to rooting out corruption, he concluded.
“If the [DOW] is serious about tackling the issue of Marxism/DEI and the kind of ideology that has has permeated throughout the ranks of the military, it must bring on a task force of people who will devote themselves to looking through the records of these elements and investigating the kind of rot and malfeasance that occurred over the last four and a half to five years in the military.”
The Pentagon has not commented on this story.
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
