By Victoria Manning  | Restoration News

Past Democrat presidents used America’s service academies as social justice experiments for pushing Marxist ideology on midshipmen and cadets. While War Sec. Pete Hegseth has taken positive actions to rid the military and its academies of divisive agendas, he needs to step up his game and immediately fire toxic leaders.

West Point still has senior leaders left over from the past woke regime. Superintendent Lt. Gen. Steven Gilland not only has promoted DEI agendas, but under his leadership this harmful rhetoric continues even as the Trump administration tries to de-woke West Point.

In July, Army Sec. Dan Driscoll stepped in when Brigadier General Shane Reeves, West Point’s Dean of the Academic Board, proudly announced he was hiring Jen Easterly to chair the Social Studies Department. Easterly was Biden’s former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director in 2021, when the agency was accused of ordering social media companies to censor speech.

Reeves himself is a posterchild for DEI. Under his oversight, West Point introduced race-centric materials, Critical Race Theory perspectives, and coursework on “Whiteness.”

Recently exposed documents by Restoration News contributor Will Thibeau show divisive training requirements of West Point cadets:

West Point includes a module in its “Intervention Training” that makes cadets role-play scenarios on “racial harassment and power dynamics.” The academy admits foreign nationals and then preaches to cadets to police politically correct conduct. pic.twitter.com/RskdP5TxSQ

— William Thibeau (@WilliamThibeau) September 8, 2025

While the Air Force Academy’s (USAFA) Superintendent hasn’t shown a desire to promote a woke agenda, his Director of Admissions, Candice Pipes, proudly presented before the USAFA Board of Visitors in July.

Pipes once claimed that the Air Force required “radical change” to fix what she denounced as its “racial disparity.” She also said she pays a “diversity tax” because she is a black woman and encouraged the Air Force to implement more DEI policies and strategies.

Restoration News reached out to the academy to find out if Pipes is still employed there, but received no response.

Kudos to Sec. Hegseth for recently firing Naval Academy (USNA) Superintendent Yvette Davids, but there are more that need to go at this institution.

The new Superintendent needs to start with the removal of Dean of Admissions, Bruce Latta. Latta was a named defendant in the 2023 Students for Fair Admissions Supreme Court case against the Naval Academy when it was sued for using illegal race-based admissions practices.

During a recent USNA Board of Visitor’s (BOV) meeting, one of the BOV members questioned Latta saying, “You testified under oath that enjoining race-based admissions would harm the Navy. Have you changed your mind?” Latta didn’t answer the question.

Restoration News previously reported that court documents prove that USNA did not weight SAT or ACT scores for students in class years of 2025 through 2028. Yet at the September USNA BOV meeting, Latta denied those facts. Latta was in charge when race-based admissions were used and should not be trusted to lead the admissions department.

Restoration News also recently exposed Captain Matthew Krauz, a permanent military professor in USNA’s Leadership and Ethics Department. Krauz was an award winner at a diversity and inclusion conference. He also lets his leftist views against the Trump administration be known on social media.

USNA’s superintendent has only been on the job for a few weeks, and he appears to be against the social justice agenda, but he must address these toxic leaders at Navy immediately.

The Democrats in Congress are slow walking confirmations of senior Defense Department leaders such as Undersecretary of the Navy Hung Cao. Republicans must push to get these confirmations through so people like Cao can help lead on these matters.

The service academy boards of visitors must also put pressure on leadership to remove anyone still promoting or allowing dangerous social justice initiatives anywhere in America’s military academies.

Congress should also adopt provisions in the upcoming National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to solidify into law merit-based admissions and other anti-DEI reforms for the nation’s military academies.

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Victoria Manning is a Senior Investigative Researcher for Restoration News specializing in education freedom, immigration, and military issues. She is the author of Behind the Wall of Government Schools. Victoria served 8 years as an elected school board member and has a master’s degree in law. She also brings the perspective of a military spouse and mother to her reporting. Email Victoria HERE

First published on Restoration News