The commander of a U.S. Space Force unit charged with detecting ballistic missile launches has been relieved following comments he made promoting his self-publishing of a book railing against what he sees as creeping Marxism throughout the American military.
Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier was dismissed from his post on Friday by Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting, chief of Space Operations Command, who cited a loss of confidence in Lohmeier’s leadership abilities, according to Military.com.
Lohmeier was commander of the 111th Space Warning Squadron, which is located at Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado.
“This decision was based on public comments made by Lt. Col. Lohmeier in a recent podcast,” said a Space Force spokesperson in an email to Military.com “Lt. Gen. Whiting has initiated a Command Directed Investigation on whether these comments constituted prohibited partisan political activity.”
The outlet went on to note that it’s not clear what Lohmeier’s temporary assignment will be, though generally speaking, being relieved of command is often a career-ender for an officer.
Lohmeier’s self-published book titled, “Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military,” claims that a “neo-Marxist agenda” is taking hold in the U.S. military.
“Irresistible Revolution is a timely and bold contribution from an active-duty Space Force lieutenant colonel who sees the impact of a neo-Marxist agenda at the ground level within our armed forces,” a description of the book says.
But Whiting’s action comes after Lohmeier, a former F-15C fighter pilot and one-time instructor who transferred to the Space Force, sat for an interview with L. Todd Wood of the “Information Operation” podcast which is hosted by Creative Destruction Media (CD Media) to promote his new tome.
During the interview, Lohmeier talked about American institutions to include the media, universities, federal agencies and the U.S. military, all of which he said are becoming more left-wing. He also said that practices including the addition of so-called diversity and inclusion training are rife with Marxist ideology.
The former Space Force commander said that from his view as a leader, he wasn’t criticizing anyone in particular and did not call out Defense Department officials in his book. Instead, he said that he’s focused on the policies that military members are being subjected to which seem to fall in line with particular agendas “that are now affecting our culture,” according to Military.com.
In regards to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a retired four-star Army general, Lohmeier said, “I don’t demonize the man, but I want to make it clear to both him and every service member this [diversity and inclusion] agenda, it will divide us, it will not unify us.”
Shortly after the Senate confirmed him as defense chief, Austin, who is black, ordered the entire U.S. military to observe a one-day stand-down on alleged extremism within the ranks — an order which appeared to take many military observers off-guard since there had not been any reports of problems with extremism beforehand.
As part of the stand-down, Lohmeier said he was given a booklet from the Defense Department that cited the Jan. 6 Capitol riot as an example of extremism, but did not cite any of the rioting and violence stemming from the George Floyd incident a year ago.
In addition, Lohmeier did take issue with “the Pentagon spokesperson” without naming names, though it appears he was referring to DoD Press Secretary John Kirby who he claimed said recently that “there are too many white pilots” despite a steadily-growing pilot shortage.
“If you want to provide that kind of messaging to your already struggling pilot force, you can already expect to see further retention problems,” said Lohmeier.
In a statement to Military.com, Kirby denied the white pilots comment while referring to comments made by the SecDef last week in which he said it was important to continue pushing diversity programs.
For his part, Lohmeier told the outlet he consulted with his chain of command, military public affairs, and legal counsel about his plans to publish a book. He also said he was informed that the manuscript could undergo scrutinizing by the Pentagon over security concerns, but that it wasn’t required.
“My intent never has been to engage in partisan politics. I have written a book about a particular political ideology (Marxism) in the hope that our Defense Department might return to being politically non-partisan in the future as it has honorably done throughout history,” he told Military.com.
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Jon is a staff writer for BizPac Review with 30 years' worth of reporting experience, as well as an author and U.S. Army veteran. He has a BA in political science from Ashford University and an MA in national security studies/intelligence analysis from American Military University.
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