Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stunned Washington last month when he summoned hundreds of generals and admirals to Marine Corps Base Quantico and delivered a blunt declaration: the era of a soft, “woke” military is over and the force will return to hard standards focused on combat readiness. He didn’t mince words about “fat troops” and said physical fitness, grooming, and uniform standards will be tightened across the board so the joint force can actually fight and win.
Hegseth announced he’s ordering a slate of new directives — ten memoranda, including a department-wide “Military Fitness Standards” policy — that push for gender-neutral, age-normed benchmarks aligned with the highest male standards for combat roles and require more frequent physical testing. He also outlined a combat field test for combat arms units and made clear that overweight troops and unprofessional appearance will no longer be tolerated in uniformed leadership.
Patriots should cheer this kind of leadership. After years of cultural experiments and bureaucratic softness, our military needs commanders who care about lethality, discipline, and the lives of the men and women who depend on their squadmates in combat. Trusting softness — whether labeled diversity initiatives or sensitivity training — over toughness is a luxury we cannot afford when rivals are rearming and America’s foes are watching for weakness.
Critics are predictably howling, and some female veterans have argued that gender-neutral combat standards are already in place and upheld by women who have proven themselves in battle. That is a fair point to acknowledge, but the conservative case is simple: standards must be uncompromising, objectively measured, and enforced uniformly; if current policy or leaders are allowing exceptions that undermine combat effectiveness, those policies and leaders must change.
Hegseth didn’t stop at rhetoric — he followed with orders. A Pentagon memo now requires service members to watch or read his Quantico address as part of a “Warrior Ethos Tasking,” and commanders must document completion, signaling that this isn’t theater but an enforceable reset of expectations. Accountability is the long-overdue ingredient in a culture that has too often rewarded excuses over outcomes.
The left-wing media and late-night comics reacted with mockery, choosing to ridicule a secretary who is trying to restore common-sense standards rather than debate the substance of readiness. Their jokes reveal more about the elites’ contempt for a fighting force than they do about the merits of Hegseth’s push — the priority should be whether our troops are trained and ready, not whether coastal comedians find the language uncomfortable.
If Washington is serious about deterrence and real national defense, Congress and military leadership must back this course. Hegseth’s speech was a wake-up call to restore discipline, demand excellence, and ensure that every American serving in uniform can be relied upon in the crucible of combat — anything less is a betrayal of the men and women who wear the uniform and of the families who expect their service to count for something.
