Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced early Sunday that he was already hard at work in stripping Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies and infrastructure from the service academies, saying that under his direction they would return to their primary focus: graduating warriors.
Hegseth made the announcement in a post via X, adding a photo of a meeting with the heads of the three service academies: the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York; the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland; and the Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Last week, I met with the leadership of @westpoint_USMA, @navalacademy and @af_academy. 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… pic.twitter.com/BPV0GkW4YX
— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) February 9, 2025
“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.”
Hegseth has been clear since long before he was confirmed in his role as Defense Secretary that one of his key missions would be to root out DEI in the U.S. military. He even wrote the book on the topic — The War On Warriors — in which he detailed just how DEI and “woke” culture had infiltrated the military that he loved and served in for so many years.
William Thibeau, the director of the Claremont Institute’s American Military Project and an Army Ranger veteran, told The Daily Wire — prior to Hegseth’s confirmation — that he believed the decorated combat veteran was just the guy to get DEI out of the military.
“If future-Secretary Hegseth’s public comments are any indication, he will restore accountability to the Pentagon with a ruthless push for accountability for uniformed officers who have broken the institution. He has a proper scope of the problem, and his independence is cause for optimism that he will not hold back in favor of potential future employment,” he said at the time.
Spencer Lindquist contributed to this report.
