In a memorandum sent to leaders across the U.S. military today, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the creation of a task force to oversee the strengthening of a military based entirely on merit.
“The Department of Defense has an obligation to the American public to ensure their sons and daughters serve under the best leadership we can provide them,” said Hegseth. “Doing so is a national security imperative. A foundational tenet of the DOD must always be that the most qualified individuals are placed in positions of responsibility in accordance with merit-based, color-blind policies.”
The “Restoring America’s Fighting Force” Task Force, the secretary said, will be established by the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness and is charged with overseeing department efforts to eliminate organizations, offices and policies that perpetrate non-merit factors such as sex, race or ethnicity over factors such as lethality, meritocracy, accountability, standards or readiness.
“To ensure DOD focuses on its core mission of providing the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation’s security, the department will ensure all decisions related to hiring, promotion and selection of personnel for assignments are based on merit, the needs of the department, and lastly, the individual’s desires,” Hegseth said in the memorandum.
As part of its mission, the task force will oversee the standing down of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion offices across the department and military services along with the cessation of actions initiated by those offices which promote, among other things, ideologies related to systemic racism or gender fluidity.
The secretary has set a March 1 deadline for an initial report from the task force regarding its activities and June 1 as the deadline for a final report.
As part of the memorandum, Hegseth spelled out clearly an array of ideas the Defense Department will adhere to going forward, and which the task force will in part help it achieve.
Among those is that DOD will no longer regard an individual’s sex, race, or ethnicity when considering that person for promotion, command or special duty. At the same time, the department will eliminate sex, race or ethnicity-based goals for organizational composition, academic admission and career fields.
When it comes to training the force, including within military service academies, the secretary said the department would no longer provide instruction on concepts such as Critical Race Theory, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, or gender ideology.
Finally, advisory boards, councils, and working groups related to gender ideology, DEI and CRT will stand down.
On Monday, President Donald J. Trump released an executive order titled “Restoring America’s Fighting Force,” which prohibits any preference or disadvantage for an individual or a group within the armed forces on the basis of sex, race or ethnicity. The task force will ensure the department meets the goals set out by the president.
“The DOD mission is to win the nation’s wars,” Hegseth said. “To do this, we must have a lethal fighting force that rewards individual initiative, excellence and hard work based on merit.”
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