US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gathered numerous military officials on Tuesday at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, for an in-person meeting to establish new directives, including implementing gender-neutral physical fitness standards and eliminating what he termed “woke” culture from the military. Hegseth criticized the practice of promoting leaders based on racial and gender quotas or for achieving “historic firsts.”
“The era of politically correct, overly sensitive don’t-hurt-anyone’s-feelings leadership ends right now at every level,” Hegseth said. “I don’t want my son serving alongside troops who are out of shape, or in a 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,” he added. Hegseth announced plans to reduce disciplinary regulations and diminish hazing safeguards. The assembly, which included military leaders from across the globe, was kept secret until the morning of the meeting. He also emphasized physical fitness, saying, “It’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon leading commands around the country, in the world, it’s a bad look.” “It all starts with physical fitness and appearance,” he said. “If the Secretary of War can do regular, hard PT [physical training], so can every member of our joint force.” “Today at my direction, every member of the joint force, at every rank, is required … [to] meet height and weight requirements twice a year every year,” Hegseth added. “The military has been forced by foolish and reckless politicians to focus on the wrong things,” he argued, before adding, “This speech is about fixing decades of decay, some of it obvious, some of it hidden.” Hegseth also criticized physical fitness and grooming standards, environmental policies, and transgender troops, while emphasizing his and President Trump’s focus on “the warrior ethos” and “peace through strength.” He called for reforms to personnel records, saying, “Changes to the retention of adverse information on personnel records … will allow leaders with forgivable, earnest, or minor infractions to not be encumbered by those infractions in perpetuity.” “People make honest mistakes, and our mistakes should not define an entire career,” Hegseth said. “Otherwise, we only try not to make mistakes.” Further asserting his stance, he warned, “Military leaders should ‘do the honorable thing and resign’ if they don’t like my approach to the armed forces.” The Quantico meeting has drawn attention due to its unprecedented scale, urgency, and lack of transparency, with senior officers attending from locations including Middle Eastern conflict zones. “The notion that the secretary is going to talk to the generals and give them his vision for running the department — and maybe also for strategy and organization — that’s perfectly reasonable,” said Mark Cancian, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and retired Marine colonel. “What’s mystifying is why it’s on such short notice, why it’s in person and what else might be involved,” he added. The meeting comes amid a potential government shutdown and follows Hegseth’s recent unexplained decisions, including reducing general officer positions and dismissing senior military officials. Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed the meeting Thursday but provided no additional details. When asked about the gathering in the Oval Office, Trump had said he would “be there if they want me, but why is that such a big deal?” A White House representative later confirmed his planned participation on Sunday.
