By Doug Truax, USMA ’92  |  Restoration News

U.S. Military Academy leadership bears final responsibility for turning the world’s premier institution for molding elite officers into a haven for woke ideology.

If President Trump and Defense Secretary Hegseth are committed to restoring America’s military into the fighting force our country deserves, they should make purging West Point of its corrupt high officials a top priority.

They’ve already made a terrific start. Since the 1960s, West Point has maintained shameful race-based admissions targets—rewarding cadets according to the color of their skin, not merit.

Hegseth just abolished that relic of Affirmative Action.

In another blow to the woke Left, he also repealed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives across all services, including offices that “promote radical ideologies related to systemic racism and gender fluidity.”

That’s part of President Trump’s broader order prohibiting DEI discrimination within the Armed Forces on the basis of sex, race, color, or creed.

Both Trump and Hegseth agree that DEI, Critical Race Theory, and other divisive ideologies undermine our military’s warrior ethos, lethality, and force readiness.

They’re absolutely correct.

But as a proud West Point graduate sickened by the Army’s avoidable decline, I ask: Who put those disruptive policies in place?

Superintendent LTG Steven Gilland and Dean of the Academic Board BG Shane Reeves must be held accountable for pushing DEI on a generation of cadets—and removed from their positions immediately.

Each man was appointed by far-left President Joe Biden, has demonstrated unthinkably poor judgment, and bears ultimate responsibility for embracing toxic policies.

Gilland boasted of West Point’s “race-based composition goals” and commitment to “build a diverse and inclusive Corps” before Congress. Gilland calls diversity initiatives “operational imperatives” and says racial quotas create “a stronger and more adaptable force.”

Under Gilland, West Point hosted its biggest-ever DEI conference with the theme: “Shaping Tomorrow’s Defense: The Intersection of Diversity Innovation, and National Defense.”

Last March, he replaced the academy’s motto—”Duty, honor, country”—with the bland “Army Values,” with support from Biden Army Secretary and DEI supporter Christine Wormuth.

Recall that Wormuth transformed the Army into a petri dish for the Democratic Party’s radical social agenda, declaring February a month for celebrating DEI as “key to the Army’s success.”

These are the words and actions of an activist, not an officer merely following Biden’s orders.

Yet the new administration has given Gilland the task of dismantling the same race-obsessed project he architected.

Are we foolish enough to trust him?

The rot extends throughout West Point’s curricula and faculty under BG Shane Reeves, Dean of the Academic Board since Biden appointed him in 2021.

Government contracts signed under Reeves’ tenure reveal West Point’s adoption of “a robustly diversified Corps of Cadets” and “equity goals” as “the future of the Academy and the U.S. Army officer corps.”

Unsurprisingly, Reeves has been described as the “custodian” of the academy’s transformation into a bastion of wokethink, introducing race-centric materials, Critical Race Theory, and coursework on “whiteness.”

In 2023, he gave three Dean’s Awards for DEI Excellence to professors who pushed far-left politics in the classroom. One recipient, Professor Ericka Rovira, was praised for “spearhead[ing] innovative approaches to Design Equity for Women, as well as Gender and Racial Equity Design.”

We expect this sort of divisive indoctrination at Harvard and Berkeley, not the institution responsibility for forging the next generation of warriors.

With China, Russia, and Iran beating the war drums, cleaning up Biden’s mess cannot wait a minute longer.

Our soldiers, sailors, and other servicemen do what civilians need but can’t do themselves: Win wars. That’s the military’s sole purpose. It’s the dividing line between the true warriors who go down-range and everyone else. By blurring that line, we risk America’s chances of winning the next war.

West Point’s leadership’s top responsibility is preparing future officers for combat. That’s been the academy’s mission since 1802.

As a young lieutenant, I knew my job was to lead men into battle and bring them home victorious—or die trying. I learned that lesson from my years as a West Point cadet. I bear it proudly.

I’ll never forget the best advice from my father-in-law, a Purple Heart recipient who served in the 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam: “No matter what the enlisted guys may say about you, believe me, when the bullets start flying they’re all going to turn to you and say, ‘What do we do now, sir?’”

Yet West Point’s current command have spent years destroying unit cohesion, jeopardizing that mission.

Their emphasis on leftist politics has dissuaded patriotic young men from seeking a career in the Armed Forces.

Not only is their behavior shameful and immoral, it’s a total dereliction of duty—and Gilland and Reeves must be held accountable for their failure and lack of judgment.

America is less secure because of these and other woke officers; they must never be allowed back into positions of authority again.

We’re naming names and charting a path for a 21st century military at RestoretheMilitary.com—check it out today

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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, Restoration PAC, and the Foundation for the Restoration of America.

First published on Restoration News

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