There will be a wide-ranging review of fitness standards across all services, including standards for physical appearance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced.
In a memo released on Wednesday, Sec. Hegseth ordered his under-secretary “to gather the existing standards set by the Military Departments pertaining to physical fitness, body composition, and grooming, which includes but is not limited to beards.”
The under secretary will then be tasked with reviewing how those standards have changed in the last ten years, since 1 January 2015, when all roles in the military, including combat roles, were opened to women.
“We must remain vigilant in maintaining the standards that enable the men and women of our military to protect the American people and our homeland as the world’ s most lethal and effective fighting force,” Sec. Hegseth says in the memo.
On Wednesday, Sec. Hegseth tweeted, “Our troops will be fit — not fat. Our troops will look sharp — not sloppy. We seek only quality — not quotas. BOTTOM LINE: our @DeptofDefense will make standards HIGH & GREAT again — across the entire force.”
The Defense Secretary has suggested on multiple occasions that standards have been lowered within the armed services in the interests of diversity, equity and inclusivity (DEI).
In a podcast appearance in early November, he said that women should not serve in combat roles, because it has made fighting “more complicated” and “hasn’t made us more effective.”
At his Senate nomination hearing in January, however, Hegseth moderated his position, saying that women will still have access to combat roles, “given the standards remain high.”
“We’ll have a review to ensure the standards have not been eroded in any one of these cases,” he added.
Each individual branch of the military sets its own fitness and grooming standards.