Colorado Air Force veteran's article restored after initial removal under new DEI policies

After first sharing her story with CBS News Colorado last month and then national news outlets, an article documenting the career of Nicole Malachowski, the first female U.S. Air Force Thunderbird pilot, is back online.

Many links to her other stories, however, still can't be opened, alongside thousands of other veteran stories taken down last month following the Department of Defense's new policy ending diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

"It's not about restoring a singular article. It's not about one service member or veteran's story. This is a much larger issue," Malachowski said.

Earlier this year, President Trump signed an executive order "ending radical and wasteful" government DEI programs.

Last month, the Department of Defense followed those directives from the White House and, in the DOD's own memo, moved to remove anything that promoted diversity, equity, and inclusion from websites and social media platforms. That also included some records of war heroes and historical firsts, like Malachowski's.

Mr. Trump, supporting the implementation at a public event earlier this year, said, "we are a country that's based now on merit for success, merit. If you're good at what you do, you're going to go places."

But after Malachowski's story gained national media attention, some of her service career milestones were put back online.

"The Air Force did, in fact, restore one of these articles, which certainly was a surprise. But what's important to note is that it restored a singular article. The rest of these articles are still showing 'page 404 not found,'" Malachowski said, referring to a common webpage error message.

The Air Force shared a statement with CNN saying, "the U.S. Air Force salutes Col. Malachowski's service as a leader, warfighter, and pilot. Digital content related to her career is currently being restored across all Air Force platforms."

The statement went on to say, "we continue to review all content under our purview to comply with Defense Department directives while honoring our history."

"I don't think we should stop putting the pressure on until every single one of those articles is restored," Malachowski said.

Some pages previously taken down have been restored, including documenting known veteran, civil rights leader, and baseball icon Jackie Robinson. But many others are still down, including some acknowledging the first black military pilots, the Tuskegee Airmen.

"At the end of the day, [the policy] is saying to all of these veterans whose stories have been erased, thank you for your service. It was good, but it's not good enough to be remembered," Malachowski said.