Cleaning Up Our Military Academies

For years, our military has been on a path to wokeness and weakness. Expecting our soldiers to be warriors was anathema to the achievement of diversity, equity and inclusion. And now we have reaped the pathetic outcomes of a military that is ill-prepared to protect our country and serve its people.

President Trump is determined, with the hard work of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, to turn this situation around. They know, as do the officials from the academies, that it will be hard work:

Speaking with The Federalist, former West Point and Naval Academy officials explained how the DEI ‘decay’ at these institutions runs deep. They also described how Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth can restore these previously coveted schools to their former glory, bringing meritocracy and lethality back to America’s military. ‘You need leaders that are going to go into those academies and prioritize the academies’ mission instead of protecting [their] reputations,’ former West Point instructor and retired Army Green Beret Ken Segelhorst told The Federalist.

Many issues will need to be addressed to restore the power and integrity of the military. Bruce Fleming, a former United States Naval Academy professor, made the following observations:

The former English teacher was on staff at the Naval Academy for 30 years, during which he briefly served on the school’s admissions board. He noted how ‘the academy [went] on about how it lets in the ‘best’ and the ‘brightest,'’ but ‘as it turns out, that’s not the case.’ ‘By our own standards, [the Naval Academy accepted] less qualified applicants merely because they self-identified as non-white,’ Fleming said. ‘We [got] people filling slots who are guaranteed to be the officers [and] who will defend taxpayers who come in as less qualified.’

In his book, Saving Our Service Academies: My Battle with, and for, the US Naval Academy to Make Thinking Officers, Bruce Fleming explained that not only were people who were not qualified admitted, but the impact on others was detrimental:

Throughout his book, Fleming further notes that the USNA’s obsession with race is creating ‘resentment within the ranks,’ and that students who speak out against the school’s DEI-focused promotion system are punished. ‘What I saw at Annapolis was that nonracist white midshipmen became resentful at realizing that leadership positions were awarded to less competent midshipmen on the basis of skin color, and that they themselves, if they noted this out loud, were punished for not being with the program — which increased their resentment,’ Fleming writes.

In addition to these damaging compromises, cadets were making statements that were diametrically opposed to the values of the United States:

A recent West Point graduate, still serving in the U.S. Army, shocked admirers of the venerable American military academy with his candidly pro-Communist views. How could such an institution, founded on ‘duty, honor, country,’ produce such a student? A junior Army officer who states his anti-American opinions so openly may seem novel, but we should quell our surprise. After all, his views are indistinguishable from many of his peers at other distinguished universities. The craziness so common at other American college campuses is now demonstrated to have infected even our military service academies. We should not be surprised, but we are right to be outraged.

The people who enter the ranks of military leadership are joining an entirely different world from the general population. The expectations, requirements, values and virtues that are expected are strict, even harsh:

What makes the military and its undergraduate education curriculum distinctive from the civilian world is the soldier’s ethic of duty, which Thomas Ricks describes vividly in Making the Corps. As far as I know, cadet attendance at home football games is still compulsory. Cadets sit together in their units. These are rituals, not simply entertainment. Once, a student who pled illness and studied in her room was expelled. She wasn’t expelled for not attending the football game but for lying for her personal advantage.

In another effort to bring the academies into compliance with military academy standards, books that support the DEI and “woke” agendas are being removed. Some are labeling the effort “book banning”:

‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ by Maya Angelou is one of almost 400 books removed at the Naval Academy, The New York Times reported Friday. Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee asked the military academies who directed the removal of books, how the books were selected and if they’ve been taken from the shelves. ‘If true, this is a blatant attack on the First Amendment and a clear effort to suppress academic freedom and rigor at the United States Naval Academy,’ according to a draft of the letter obtained by USA TODAY. ‘Moreover, it displays an alarming return to McCarthy-era censorship.’

The hyperbole of these representatives indicates they have no idea of the objective of removing books from the USNA library, or any other library. First of all, the cadets have all the academic freedom they’d like if they want to go to another school. Or they can purchase these books on their own. Books available in libraries represent the philosophy, agenda, priorities and concerns of the academies, and to offer books that contradict those priorities is counterproductive. It will continue to mislead the cadets about the most significant concerns they should address.

I believe in congressional oversight, but maybe the representatives should actually ask about the purpose of the military academies.

With Pete Hegseth in charge, and his determination to restore the reputation of the U.S. military leadership to its former respect among the nations, we will once more be able to be proud of our military and the military academies. His recent statement makes this point:

‘Last week, I met with the leadership of @westpoint_USMA, @navalacademy and @af_academy,’ Hegseth began. ‘My message was simple: stick to leadership, standards, excellence, war fighting, and readiness. These are MILITARY ACADEMIES, not civilian universities.’ ‘I was impressed by the changes already underway and look forward to visiting each institution. Social Justice and DEI are OUT; History, Engineering, and War Studies are IN,’ he continued. ‘We must restore the warrior ethos to the @deptofdefense — and it starts with our future leaders.’

President Trump and Secretary Hegseth are on a mission to finally restore the honor and integrity of our military academies.

[Originally published at American Thinker]