Across the force · Marine Corps

Marine Corps

Under the Department of the Navy chain — and the only service GAO listed with an active service-level DEI review board going into the rollback.

Public-source context, not Army FOIA evidence. Every item below links to its public source.

The Marine Corps took the January 2025 closure order in the same window as the Navy: MARADMIN 034/25 (23 Jan 2025) closed agency DEIA offices and terminated DEIA-related contracts (B17). GAO's pre-2025 data listed a USMC "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Review Board" as active — the only service-level DEI body so rated in that snapshot (B03). Its later status was not found in the open sources pulled for this site.

The build-out started earlier. A June 2021 Marine Corps Gazette piece by the Deputy Commandant for Manpower and Reserve Affairs said the Corps "released its strategic plan for diversity, equity, and inclusion and created the billet of Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer (CDO)" (C23). Same department policy, same collectivist premise: manage the force by identity group and call it readiness. The Corps' fighting reputation does not immunize the paperwork.

The build-out, 2020–2024

2021-06Professional journalconfirmed

In a June 2021 Marine Corps Gazette article, the Deputy Commandant for Manpower and Reserve Affairs and the Director of Manpower Plans and Policy wrote that the Corps had released a DEI strategic plan and created a Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer billet; the article also describes a Diversity Review Board and lines of effort including recruitment and talent management.

“released its strategic plan for diversity, equity, and inclusion and created the billet of Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer (CDO) for the Service”

Source: C23: Marine Corps Gazette (June 2021): Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: Why this is important to the Corps as a warfighting organization (by the Deputy Commandant for Manpower and Reserve Affairs and the Director, Manpower Plans and Policy) (mca-marines.org)

The 2025 rollback

2025-01-23Service messageconfirmed

MARADMIN 034/25 closed all agency DEIA offices, terminated DEIA contracts, and asked staff to report any contract or position-description changes since 5 Nov 2024 made to obscure DEIA links.

“All agency Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) offices are closed and all DEIA-related contracts terminated”

Source: B17: MARADMIN 034/25 Guidance on Termination of DEIA Offices and Contracts (DTG 232245Z JAN 25) (web.archive.org)

2025-04-17GAO reportconfirmed (status) / likely (count, OCR)

GAO rated the Marine Corps DEI Review Board active (it met in the 12 months before GAO's data request), the only service-level DEI body so rated. GAO counted about 2 Marine Corps DEI positions.

Source: B03: GAO-25-107397 DoD DEI Workforce Reductions (slides 13 and 32 and Fig. 2) (web.archive.org)