The Pentagon quietly reversed its gender pronoun policy for award citations on Tuesday after it had previously updated its Manual of Military Decorations and Awards to require the use of “gender-neutral” pronouns for six joint awards.
“This change revises the language used in Joint award citations … and updates references,” the adjustment, known as “Change 6” states.
In August, the Department of Defense (DOD) issued an unannounced change to the manual to require award citations to use “themself” — a word not recognized by standard English — instead of “himself” or “herself.”
The language was discovered by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation. The foundation reported that the end-of-tour award for Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was returned because he used gender-specific pronouns for his citation.