Defense Secretary Pete Hegses ordered a department-wide review of existing standards for each military division on physical fitness, body composition and grooming, including beards. Breitbart News has been an exclusive learning experience.
“We must remain vigilant about maintaining standards that allow men and women in our military to protect Americans and their homelands as the deadliest and effective combat forces in the world,” Hegses said in a memorandum ordered a review on March 12, 2025.
“Our work has not been degraded because our enemies are not weakened. This review reveals the level of standards required in the recent past and how we maintain the trajectory of changes to those standards,” he added.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Urito added in his statement to Breitbart News:
Unfortunately, high standards of the US military have been eroded in recent years, especially during the tenure of former co-chief president Mark Millie, who set a bad example from the top, through his own personal body. Secretary Hegseth is working on a high standard restoration, and this review is the first step to doing so.
Hegseth has directed the Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Preparation (USD (P&R)) for Human Resources and Preparation to set each military branch, review them, and collect existing standards that have been set by each military branch and reviewed them, as of January 1, 2015, how they have changed over the past decade.
The review also considers why these standards have changed and the impact of those changes.
Read the note:
A quick and forced review of military standards by Christina Wong With scribd
Hegseth has returned the army to its core mission to fight his top priorities.
Hegseth spoke about the importance of standards at his January confirmation hearing, and told Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) that it is important to ensure that standards are equal and high. [the president] And it's very important to me. ”
“In those ground combat roles, the truth is that the weight of the rack on the back remains the same. The weight of the 155 rounds you have to carry remains the same. The weight of the 240 Bravo machine gun you may have to carry remains the same,” he said.
“So, whether it is male or female, they must meet the same high standards, and the senators have changed to meet where those things have been eroded or where the course criteria have been changed (racial or gender assignment).
He also expressed support for physical fitness standards of gender neutrality depending on the job, not due to other determinants.
“The standards need to be the same, they need to be high. And they need to be set by people closest to the problem set, closest to understanding what is needed for the job. Commanders, 10 Commanders, and Common Officers, and other places where you understand the reality of the face, that is the feedback we should get. It's what we should be enshed and enforced,” he said.
“And when we talk about removing politics, ideological or political privileges, the other set of political privileges should not contribute to those decisions. There is nothing but the execution of missions.”
Since becoming Secretary of Defense, Hegseth has emphasized the importance of physical fitness by tying timeouts during trips to conduct physical training with the military.
Last month in Germany he conducted a PT with the 10th Special Forces Group. The session photos have now gone viral.
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