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Doesnβt Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth realize that push-ups are passΓ©?
His speech to an audience of generals heβd summoned to Washington has mystified and outraged critics who think his obsession with physical fitness is out-of-date at best and ridiculous at worst.
βFrankly, itβs tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops,β Hegseth told the assembled brass. βLikewise, itβs completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon.β
βToday, at my direction, every member of the joint force, at every rank, is required to take a PT test twice a year, as well as meet height and weight requirements twice a year, every year of service,β he continued.Β
Cue the eye-rolling.Β
A piece in The Atlantic observed that Hegsethβs βdream world is the world of Ranger schoolβ β an Army training program β βnot the actual world of complex military operations involving land, air, sea, space, and cyberspace.β
He was accused of fat-shaming, and the ladies on βThe Viewβ didnβt get it.
Joy Behar called him out for βhis very retro vision for our armed forces,β and asked, βWhy is he obsessed with fat?β
Her colleague, Sunny Hostin chimed in, βYeah, and fitness?β
Thereβs no doubt that physical fitness is very personal to Hegseth, who said on the day of his confirmation hearing that heβd done five sets of 47 push-ups that morning.
βIf the secretary of war can do regular, hard PT, so can every member of our joint force,β he told the generals.
But you know whoβd agree with him about the centrality of fitness to the military profession? The great 20th-century statesman George C. Marshall.Β
In a 1920 letter, Marshall called being βphysically strongβ one of the foundations of the military profession.
As he said of military leaders in 1940 congressional testimony, they have to inspire their men βwhen they are hungry and exhausted and desperately uncomfortable and in great danger,β and βonly a man of positive characteristics of leadership, with the physical stamina that goes with it, can function under those conditions.β
Needless to say, combat is an inherently physical activity. It requires incredible exertion for long stretches of time under great stress. It is necessary to carry heavy objects β a wounded comrade, artillery shells β in the worst conditions imaginable.
The age of AI and drones hasnβt changed this ineluctable fact of human existence.Β
Itβs simply a fact that, as any platoon leader will tell you, out-of-shape infantry arenβt as good at their jobs.Β
The emphasis on fitness is especially important when the recruiting pool, reflecting an American society where 40% of people are obese, is in poorer shape than it used to be.
And troops do notice and resent it when they are meeting height and weight standards and their comrades arenβt, or when their superiors are out of shape.
If the colonel who is enforcing disciplinary matters is fat, it is corrosive of his credibility.Β
Physical-fitness standards were dumbed down over the years, and for DEI reasons.
The Army had been developing a fitness test that was supposed to have gender-neutral standards.
When it emerged, not surprisingly, that women werenβt doing as well on the test, the Biden-era Army decided to gender-norm the scores and lower the standards generally.Β
In a telling exchange with Sen. Tom Cotton, the secretary of the army at the time said that the Army βdidnβt want to disadvantage any subgroups.β
This is why itβs so important that Hegseth ordered that theΒ requirement for combat positions βreturns to the highest male standard.β
Obviously, having a physically fit force doesnβt guarantee victory in, say, a war with China, which would require much else besides.
But Hegseth was right to make it as clear as possible to our military leaders that the basics are back.
Making our force more proficient doesnβt begin and end with push-ups, but it does start there.Β
X: @RichLowry