Secretary of War (Defense) Pete Hegseth laid down the law during a meeting at Quantico with the top generals and admirals.
Shorter Hegseth: The military gets back to its high standards.
The Pentagon will eliminate all that leftist “debris” instilled by the Biden administration:
This administration has done a great deal from day one to remove the social justice, politically correct, and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department, to rip out the politics. No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship, no more division, distraction or gender delusions, no more debris.As I’ve said before, and we’ll say again, we are done with that s*it.
From this moment forward, the only mission of the newly restored Department of War is this: War. Fighting, preparing for war, and preparing to win, unrelenting and uncompromising in that pursuit. Not because we want war. No one here wants war, but it’s because we love peace. We love peace for our fellow citizens. They deserve peace, and they rightfully expect us to deliver it.Our number one job, of course, is to be strong so that we can prevent war in the first place. The President talks about it all the time. It’s called peace through strength, and as history teaches us, the only people who actually deserve peace are those who are willing to wage war to defend it. That’s why pacifism is so naive and dangerous. It ignores human nature and it ignores human history. Either you protect your people and your sovereignty, or you will be subservient to something or someone. It’s a truth as old as time.
Yes, you need to meet certain physical standards. Hegseth stressed that the move is not aimed at eliminating women, because if they meet the standard, then that’s great!
Hegseth said:
I don’t want my son serving alongside troops who are out of shape or in combat unit with females who can’t meet the same Combat Arms physical standards as men or troops who are not fully proficient on their assigned weapons platform or task or under a leader who was the first but not the best. Standards must be uniform, gender neutral, and high.If not, they’re not standards. They’re just suggestions, suggestions that get our sons and daughters killed when it comes to combat arms units, and there are many different stripes across our joint force.The era of politically correct, overly sensitive, don’t hurt anyone’s feelings leadership ends right now at every level. Either you can meet the standard, either you can do the job, either you are disciplined, fit and trained, or you are out.And that’s why today, at my direction, and this is the first of 10 Department of War directives that are arriving at your commands as we speak and in your inbox.Today, at my direction, each service will ensure that every requirement for every combat MOS, for every designated Combat Arms position, returns to the highest male standard only because this job is life or death. Standards must be met and, not just met at every level, we should seek to exceed the standard, to push the envelope, to compete.It’s common sense and core to who we are and what we do. It should be in our DNA.Today, at my direction, we are also adding a combat field test for combat arms units that must be executable in any environment at any time and with combat equipment, these tests that look familiar, they’ll resemble the army expert physical fitness assessment or the Marine Corps Combat fitness test.I’m also directing that war fighters in combat jobs execute their service fitness test at a gender neutral age normed male standard scored above 70%.It all starts with physical fitness and appearance. If the Secretary of War can do regular, hard, PT, so can every member of our joint forces.Frankly, it’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops. Likewise, it’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the country in the world. It’s a bad look. It is bad, and it’s not who we are. So whether you’re an Airborne Ranger or a chair born Ranger, a brand new private or a four star general, you need to meet the height and weight standards and pass the PT test.And as the Chairman said, yes, there is no PT test. But today, at my direction, every member of the joint force at every rank is required to take a PT test twice a year, as well as meet height and weight requirements twice a year every year of service.Also today, at my direction, every warrior across our joint forces is required to do PT, every duty day should be common sense. I mean, most units do that already, but we’re codifying it, and we’re not talking like hot yoga and stretching real hard. PT, others, either as a unit or as an individual at every level, from the joint chiefs to everyone in this room to the youngest private leaders, set the standard. And so many of you this do this already active Guard and Reserve.
Gender neutral:
This, and I want to be very clear about this, this is not about preventing women from serving we are we very much value the impact of female troops. Our female officers and NCOs are the absolute best in the world, but when it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender neutral. If women can make it excellent. If not, it is what it is. If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it. That is not the intent, but it could be the result. So be it. It will also mean that weak men won’t qualify because we’re not playing games. This is combat. This is life or death, as we all know. This is you versus an enemy hell bent on killing you. To be an effective, lethal fighting force, you must trust that the warrior alongside you in battle is capable, truly, physically capable of doing what is necessary under fire. You know, this is the only standard you would want for your kids and for your grandkids. Apply the War Department golden rule, the 1990 test and the e6 test. And it’s really hard to go wrong.
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