In other words, warfighters. Not every officer has to end up as a fighter pilot or a rifleman, but every officer must, above and beyond anything else, be able to contribute to our military's winning wars. Nothing else, in military circles, matters - and there is no place in our service academies for such crap as, say, gender theory.

That's why, on Saturday morning, I was delighted to see this:

In case you can't read the post, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) wrote:

I recently spoke with the father of a U.S. Air Force Academy cadet

He told me that the Air Force Academy’s official forms refer to him (the cadet’s father) as the cadet’s “non-birthing parent,” and to his wife (the cadet’s mother) as the cadet’s non-birthing parent”

Thoughts?

Hegseth replied: "Not for long."

Those three words, from the combat veteran and former Airborne soldier who is in nomination to be our next Secretary of Defense, fills me with hope.

See Related: Pete Hegseth Nominated to be Secretary of Defense (Updated)

Soon-to-be Secretary Hegseth saw this coming some time ago. Last June, my colleague Jim Thompson gave us an excellent review of Mr. Hegseth's book, "The War on Warriors - Behind the Betrayal of The Men Who Keep Us Free." 

In that review, Thompson wrote:

In the final chapter, Hegseth discusses the state of our military academies. West Point no longer employs mostly uniformed officers to teach at West Point, and it shows. Ideologues dominate their teaching curriculum. It isn’t just in the classrooms, it flows downhill from the superintendent’s office. LTG Darryl Williams released a five-year plan (2020-2025) that placed as much importance on “inclusivity” as marksmanship under fire. Lethality was no longer the goal of  our Army. 

If you assumed that our military academies would be immune to “gender studies” majors, you would be wrong. At West Point, the 2024 Redbook of course studies include:

 “Diversity and Inclusion Studies”

“This five-course minor includes classes like PL377: Social Inequality, N325: Power Differences, SS392: The Politics of Race Gender and Sexuality.”

And, as he points out, this is the result:

The world is laughing at us. pic.twitter.com/U06xtd1iLi

— Joshua Walker (@RedsRepair95) May 21, 2024

See Related: REVIEW: Pete Hegseth's 'War On Warriors', The Cultural Rot Infecting Our Military

This is intolerable. This is the effect that the acceptance of crap like "gender theory" has wrought on our military - and note that this... person appears to be on the deck of a U.S. Navy warship. What will he do when the missiles start flying?

Our service academies, like our armed services in general, have been infected by a virus that has the potential to do much more damage to our country than COVID-19. We've covered the effects of this virus before.

See Related: West Point 'Updates' Venerable Mission Statement, Disgracefully Removes 'Duty, Honor, Country'

Air Force Academy Has Transgender Colonel Lecture Cadets on Character

Here's What Happens When Liberals Run the Military - Study Says It Is Now a 'Vast DEI Bureaucracy' Mess

That virus is the implementation of DEI and gender theory in our service academies. This is damaging to the intent of those academies. It's dangerous. It's harmful. And it could cause us to lose a major war. Pete Hegseth obviously understands this. As I wrote on Wednesday:

 Pete Hegseth has been there. He has led men in a war zone. He has smelled the smoke, and knows what it is like to be in a foreign place, to be in danger, to face possible death or maiming - and to have his men look at him and say "Sir, what do we do now?" Making a decision and acting under those conditions is like nothing else in any other field of endeavor. The wrong decision may get the officer and all his men killed, and he may have only seconds to make that decision. Pete Hegseth knows what that is like.

That's what makes him a good choice, not only to conduct required reforms in our military services but also in the service academies. To that end, he will have to do several things.

First: Bring in experienced combat leaders as instructors. We still have young officers who have seen the elephant. These officers know what war is like, what works and what doesn't. Let them, not civilian contractors, not DEI and gender-theory advocates, instruct the next generation of combat leaders.

Second: Scrub any mention of diversity, equity, inclusion, and gender theory from the curricula. Any body of instruction at our service academies must be focused on fighting and winning wars, in whatever capacity one is assigned to do so.

Third: Strengthen our recruiting standards. Forget melanin content, plumbing, or any other non-warfighting criteria. Recruit the fit, the motivated, the patriotic; recruit young people whose priority is to "...support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic."

I believe Pete Hegseth will do these things. That's why I think he's a good choice. That's why I have hope that, soon, this crap will be stricken from the curricula of our service academies.