Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a memo Monday ordering women and men to fulfill the identical bodily health necessities in the event that they wish to serve in fight roles, saying the Pentagon had “allowed requirements to slide.”
“Totally different requirements for males and girls in fight arms, MOS and jobs, that’s not acceptable,” Hegseth stated in a video posted to X, utilizing the abbreviation for “army occupational specialty,” or job kind.
“Now we have to have the identical normal — male or feminine — in our fight roles to make sure our women and men who’re below our leaders, or in these formations, have the absolute best leaders and the very best doable requirements that aren’t primarily based in any respect in your intercourse.”
The memo, which orders the army branches to “develop complete plans to tell apart fight arms occupations from non-combat arms occupations,” specifies in hand-underlined textual content that the soon-to-be-developed requirements should not “lead to any present service member being held to a decrease normal.”
“All entry-level and sustained bodily health necessities inside fight arms positions should be sex-neutral, primarily based solely on the operational calls for of the occupation and the readiness wanted to confront any adversary,” Hegseth wrote.
“The hassle will guarantee fight requirements are clear, mission-focused and reflective of the distinctive bodily calls for positioned on our service members in varied roles,” his memo added.
The memo additionally laid out what sorts of requirements all troops in floor fight, particular operations or “specialised” roles corresponding to explosive ordnance disposal technician should match.
For instance, Hegseth’s steerage says troops on the entrance traces ought to be capable to “carry heavy hundreds, endure extended bodily exertion and carry out successfully in austere, hostile environments.”
“Service members in these roles should exhibit pace, power, agility and endurance to navigate the calls for of fight conditions,” the doc reads.
Service secretaries now have 60 days to submit their proposed combat-role requirements to Hegseth, and army branches will then be required to implement the adjustments inside six months.
“Quickly we can have nothing however the highest requirements for women and men in fight,” the secretary stated.
Hegseth has repeatedly commented on the problem of girls in fight earlier than he was nominated to guide the Pentagon. On Nov. 7, the ex-Fox Information character instructed podcaster Shawn Ryan he “straight up” believed “we should always not have girls in fight roles.”
“It hasn’t made us simpler, hasn’t made us extra deadly, [and] has made preventing extra difficult,” he stated on the time.
Nonetheless, Hegseth later softened his opinion to say that each women and men may serve in fight roles as long as they met the identical bodily requirements.
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