By Doug Truax, USMA ’92
CEO Restoration of America

Under War Secretary Pete Hegseth, America’s military is rediscovering its true mission of forging warriors, not social justice activists.

He’s already purged divisive DEI and race-based admissions policies from our elite service academies, but one seemingly benign obstacle remains: academic accreditation. And like the wall on the training course, it must be overcome.

From West Point to the Air Force Academy, all five military service academies are accredited by a handful of private, unaccountable agencies with enormous influence over higher education.

Unless the academies adopt these gatekeepers’ standards, their degrees may not be recognized when graduates pursue advanced degrees at civilian universities. That gives a handful of unelected, pro-DEI activists control over curriculum at schools founded to produce warfighters, including my alma mater, West Point.

That’s a serious problem.

West Point, established by Thomas Jefferson in 1802, along with the Naval Academy and the Merchant Marine Academy, are all accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, which lists “reflection on diversity, equity, and inclusion” among its “guiding principles.” That includes applying DEI to admissions targets, student assessments, and curriculum design.

Never mind that the Supreme Court ruled race-based admissions unconstitutional in 2023, the commission insists that DEI reflection should “address disparate impacts on an increasingly diverse student population if discovered.”

Its leadership reflects this far-left agenda, including commission president Heather Perfetti, a DEI champion, and board members like Valerie Lehr, a professor of “LGBTQ politics” and author of Queer Family Values.

The Coast Guard Academy is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education, whose standards also reference DEI at least five times.

While the commission is reportedly considering ditching DEI in October, it remains under the control of a gun control extremist who urged the Obama administration to ban “military-style assault weapons” and has praised the children of illegal aliens as embodiments of “America’s promise.”

The same holds true for many of the military’s Professional Military Education institutions, full of leftist ideologues and subject to the same diversity accreditation mandates.

It’s bad enough that these commissions push radical ideologies on civilian universities. But America cannot afford to waste resources indoctrinating the next generation of military officers, especially as China poses a rising threat.

The military’s biggest problem isn’t meeting diversity quotas; it’s restoring a warrior ethos to military culture.

For decades, political mandates imposed by Democratic presidents undermined unit cohesion and combat readiness, while leaving the U.S. military dependent on foreign manufacturing to supply critical equipment.

The organization I lead, Restoration of America, has laid out a blueprint for reenvisioning the military at RestoretheMilitary.com. It includes legislative solutions for reforming our service academies.

Fortunately, President Trump is turning things around. Under his direction, the War Department is reinstating physical fitness standards.

He’s also removing woke senior officers, such as Merchant Marine Academy Superintendent Joanne Nunan, an anti-Christian bigot he fired in June.

In July, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll blocked the West Point superintendent from hiring Biden’s “disinformation” czar to head the Social Studies Department.

These are major victories that should be celebrated, but we cannot rest on our laurels.

The next logical step is removing all outside influence over academy curricula by withdrawing the academies from these accreditors.

The service academies should either be accredited by a new War Department accrediting body or accreditation should be eliminated altogether.

Accreditation exists to prevent fraudsters from issuing worthless degrees from a phony “college,” and to ensure that students know the basics.

West Point, Annapolis, and the others have nothing to prove. They’ve demonstrated their excellence on the battlefield, time and again. It’s time to let them make warriors, not quotas.

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Doug Truax is a West Point graduate, former 4th Infantry Division Army Captain, Ranger, and successful entrepreneur. He is the volunteer, unpaid founder, and CEO of Restoration of America.

First published on The Daily Wire

Some comments on the article:

“My granddaughter attended the Naval Acadamy. She graduated and is as woke as they get. It was astonishing to see how much she changed. Victor Davis Hanson has said it was the most woke college he ever taught at.”

“I don’t know how people can be surprised by wokism at the military institutes. The military has been a laboratory for DEI for decades. When I worked as a DoD civilian a few decades ago, DEI was rife. I’m certain it still is. You cannot inculcate such over decades and expect the system to easily collapse, no matter how winning and constitutional the argument against it is.”

“Their leadership and development material at the Academy and preparatory schools are full of DEI propaganda. As a military instructor at one of them, before and during COVID, I lost faith in leadership in the military. Since Obama, the libs in uniform have multiplied and elevated other libs into leadership positions by destroying the evaluation system to value liberal ideals over job performance and competence.”

“Well it is time that military schools accredit themselves. Besides the 5 military academies and a few branch military colleges, you have Texas A & M Corps of Cadets, The Citadel, VMI, and other schools. There is enough to set their own standards.”

“I had to deal with leftist officers when I was in the Navy; It was a huge culture shock. I thought, “If you don’t believe in what we’re fighting for, why are you even here?!?”

“As an USAFA academy grad, I was there with the first class of women. We would run with rifles. Women were unable to carry rifles and run. As a unit we were expected to carry their load. I remember running with 5 rifles. I remember thinking something is wrong with this women in combat idea…lol. Now they don’t run with rifles.”

“As an Academy Grad from class of 2008, USAFA is unrecognizable to me. What a shame.”