Pentagon Scraps Personal Identifiers to Remedy Promotion Bias

U.S. military leaders want to scrap photos and other personal identifiers from promotion and selection pitches to increase racial and gender diversity in the upper echelons, the nation’s top general said.

Each of the services’ civilian and military leaders recommend removing photos and “all other indicators of personal identity and characteristics in any of the files as you go before a promotion board,” Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a Pentagon town hall on Thursday.

“We are the world’s biggest meritocracy and take great pride in that,” Milley said. “On balance, we recognize ...