In a recent executive order, Trump has directed the Pentagon to reverse course on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies.

While this order ripples through the military, one Army base is ahead of the game: Camp Swampy. For those who don’t read the comics, Camp Swampy is where Pvt. Beetle Bailey has served with the other soldiers since invented by cartoonist Mort Walker in 1950, and carried forward by his son Greg following his death in 2018. Camp Swampy is famously non-DEI.

While the real Army is 40% soldiers-of-color, Camp Swampy has 2: Lieutenant Jackson Flap, the strip's only Black character, and Corporal Yo, the strip's only Asian character. While other characters are colorful, only these two are “of color.”

General Halftrack is the base commander – and alcoholic. Sgt. Snorkel is Beetle’s platoon sergeant with anger-management issues. Pvt. Killer fancies himself a “ladies’ man” but is, more accurately, a sexual harasser. And buck-toothed Pvt. Zero – aptly named for his I.Q. – is the occasional butt of jokes, playing on his intellectual shortcomings.

Such is Camp Swampy. It continues to amaze me that the Army has tolerated this depiction for 75 years, and that otherwise reputable newspapers have continued to carry the strip.

I’m sure that under the leadership of Secretary of Defense Hegseth, this will continue.

Tom Chase

Northwood