Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth has stood up yet one more evaluate course of — this time targeted on officer promotions. It will likely be run by a Marine officer who rose to fame slamming the Biden administration over its Afghanistan withdrawal, in response to a video and memo launched Sunday.
“America’s little kids who serve in our army deserve one of the best leaders commanding them, which is why we have to reform the promotion system at DoD,” Hegseth stated within the video, whereas providing no specifics on what he believed the issues had been.
This evaluate is simply the most recent of a number of that Hegseth has ordered since taking the highest army submit. Since January, the protection secretary additionally has ordered the Pentagon to evaluate fight requirements, disqualifying medical circumstances for army service, bodily health and physique requirements, homeschooling help, and the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
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The memo, which was posted on-line Sunday alongside Hegseth’s video, stated that the promotion and choice evaluate will have a look at officer evaluations, promotion and command choice boards, and the way skilled army schooling is performed “with the intention to improve the lethality of the power.”
The memo was dated June 20, 2025.
Officers on the Pentagon would not supply any additional particulars on what the division felt wanted altering amongst these subjects, however the man charged with main the trouble has beforehand stated that the army had “weak management” that wanted “eliminating.”
Operating the evaluate might be one-time Marine Lt. Col. Stu Scheller who gained fame in 2021 amid the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan for his public movies wherein he sharply criticized different senior army officers and leaders within the Biden administration. In a single social media submit, Scheller stated that he would make a public advice of prices of dereliction of responsibility in opposition to Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, then the pinnacle of U.S. Central Command.
“In contrast to the Marine generals who failed you within the earlier administration, my technology is not going to fail,” Scheller stated in his submit whereas referring to President Donald Trump.
In October 2021, Scheller pleaded responsible to 6 prices that stemmed from 4 movies and different posts he uploaded to social media websites. The costs ranged from disrespecting public officers to conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.
At his trial, Scheller argued that his movies and critiques had been “about Individuals and never about divisions, to incorporate Republican and Democrat.”
“That is about accountability of my senior leaders, not about politics,” Scheller stated in courtroom.
But in a weblog submit made Jan. 20, Scheller took a way more partisan tone in opposition to the Biden administration.
“I’m certain the nationwide safety state of affairs left by the incompetence of the final administration will monopolize [Hegseth’s] time,” Scheller wrote.
Scheller joined the Pentagon after Hegseth’s affirmation and has been working as a senior adviser to Jules Hurst, who till lately was performing the duties of the beneath secretary of protection for personnel and readiness.
“We have to have officers who perceive the place their compass is,” Hegseth stated within the video posted Sunday, including that such officers are “not danger averse, they are not enjoying the sport, they are not merely checking the field to get to the following stage, which creates all of the fallacious incentives.”
Hegseth described Scheller as somebody who “had the braveness to talk up when nobody else would.”
Nonetheless, Scheller declined to speak to Army.com about his function in overseeing the newly introduced evaluate, and he has beforehand declined to speak about his function within the Pentagon’s ongoing evaluate of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Broadly, the army’s promotion course of has had complaints from officers over time.
A Authorities Accountability Workplace report from final yr did discover that, whereas every of the companies usually integrated the identical practices into the promotion course of, resembling coaching and steerage, they different of their implementation of these processes.
Most senior officers charged with score their subordinates have solely a restricted quantity of prime blocks to dole out, and whereas that will promote competitors amongst junior leaders to get these coveted scores, it has led to many complaints a couple of system that values inflated analysis standards and politicking.
The memo launched Sunday made no point out of any deadlines for a report or a abstract of conclusions. Every of the army companies had till Monday to offer Scheller a degree of contact for the evaluate.
— Drew Lawrence contributed to this report.
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