Our woke military needs volunteer units that hold to strict physical and mental standards

Last week, while at the United States Military Academy at West Point to make a television appearance to discuss my book, “The 56,” which seeks to prevent the “cancellation” of our Founding Fathers and the Fourth of July, I was approached by a Special Operator for the U.S. Army who is a West Point graduate. He literally pleaded with me to get the word out that West Point is going woke across the board — as are our other service academies, apparently — and has dramatically watered down its high physical, mental and accountability standards in the process.  

These changes in policy, he believes, will cheapen the values and code of conduct at the storied academy and ultimately weaken national security.

After speaking with him, I reached out to several other retired military officers from the Navy and Air Force. During our conversations, an important question arose: What if our military branches created all-volunteer units that adhered to the strictest physical, mental and accountability standards? Not Special Operators, but regular company, battalion and brigade units. 

No identity politics. No lowering of the bar. Race, religion, gender and sexual orientation would not matter. If you volunteered and met and maintained the highest standards, you’d be in, period. 

I suspect, as do those with whom I spoke, that if such units were created, there would be a great deal of interest in volunteering to be a part of one — to be a part of “the best” — and not just among the officer corps but also the rank-and-file enlisted personnel.

As “Top Gun: Maverick” demonstrated at the box office with its $1 billion-plus success, there is a great yearning for, and pride in, American exceptionalism. There likely are thousands of young men and women in our country who believe in high standards and also believe that rank, success, accolades and victory are to be earned, not granted.

There is nothing wrong with someone being “the best.” There is nothing wrong with real and fair competition that identifies and then rewards top performers.   

Make no mistake: The “We can’t hurt feelings” movement that puts identity politics before all and seeks to eliminate test scores, valedictorians and advanced placement courses, while ensuring unlimited participation trophies and inflated/layered test scores for the less qualified, has taken root in our military branches.    

If that is what those on the left — the Democrats and our current military leaders — want, well then, fine. We can continue down that path of woke conformity. But in watering down and weakening standards, let’s allow each of the service branches to create one unit that excels at maxing out on physical fitness, intelligence tests, training, simulations and combat. Why? Because our military — and by extension, our nation — will be in big trouble if we don’t.

Let’s look at obesity in today’s military as a glaring example of lower standards. It’s not easy to talk about because we’ve been told for a decade or so by many on the left that if we attempt to discuss obesity in the military — or, for that matter, the growing obese and unhealthy American population — we are “fat-shaming” people. Preventing hurt feelings, even if it threatens to perpetuate bad health, evidently comes before ensuring combat readiness. But isn’t that the reason we created a military — to be fully combat ready, to engage with enemies if needed? 

During the pandemic, many Americans came to view the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an organization with politicized leadership aligned with the Democratic Party. That said, some on both sides of the political divide may be surprised to learn that once upon a time, the CDC flagged obesity as a serious issue for our military. It did so via a slide presentation, “Unfit to Serve: Obesity is Impacting National Security.”

Of course, that presentation was from 2016 and there is every reason to believe that today’s CDC might disavow it for fear of backlash from the cancel-culture activists. But the CDC honestly reported some fairly shocking statistics. Chief among them was that “71 percent of young people in the United States would not be able to join the military if they wanted to.”

Let’s look at the reasons the CDC cited: “Overweight or obesity,” “educational deficits,” and “criminal and drug abuse records.” Again, that was in 2016. Things probably have gone from bad to worse in the six years since.

Beyond that, the CDC also reported that between 2011 and 2015, “overweight and obesity [status] among active-duty service members has risen 73 percent.”

The fact is that physical fitness, intelligence, competence, accountability and overall quality control do matter. For a recent example of really bad quality control in our military, look no further than the Stars and Stripes article titled, “Super Hornet on USS Truman blown off deck in Mediterranean Sea.” 

A $57 million aircraft was lost to the sea, presumably because a sailor (or sailors) did not properly do their job. But, hey, as long as they’re offered classes in the use of proper pronouns and how to report microaggressions, what’s the problem? It’s not as if the Chinese and Russian militaries would actually take hostile steps against us … as they increasingly threaten to do.

Like many in the media, academia, corporate America and the sports world, our military appears to be going woke at the expense of its mission: protecting the United States of America.

Knowing this, what would our military leaders have to lose by establishing elite volunteer units?  Surely they are not afraid that such units might make the rest of the branches look inept and feeble. Or maybe they simply wouldn’t want to upset the woke crowd. But if they can’t overcome a few thousand from the Grievance Generation tweeting nasty words about them, how will they ever defeat our real enemies?

Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration. His latest book is “The 56: Liberty Lessons From Those Who Risked All to Sign the Declaration of Independence.”