WASHINGTON — Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is fuming over the Army’s decision to withdraw new academic standards for college students in the ROTC program — including requiring a score of at least 1000 on the SAT — to ensure that “stupid people” are not becoming military officers.
The new standards were announced on Aug. 5 in an internal memo issued by then-assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and reserve affairs Jules Hurst, whom the Senate confirmed as Pentagon comptroller two days later.
“The Army must cultivate intelligent and adaptive officers to build a lethal and ready Army prepared to deter, fight, and win our nation’s wars. The strength of our Officer Corps is the strength of our Army,” Hurst wrote.
The requirement, which would have taken effect in January, was rescinded on Aug. 12 in a memo signed by under secretary of the Army Mike Obadal, who cited a need for “further staffing and analysis.”
Pentagon sources told The Post the pivot demonstrated dysfunction within the Army, whose Secretary Dan Driscoll has clashed with Hegseth over the past year, including over personnel decisions — with the men hardly on speaking terms despite the ongoing Iran war.
The memos did not reach Driscoll’s desk before being issued, one source told The Post. A different source confirmed that the Army secretary was not included in an internal email chain containing the initial memo.
Military sources said new academic benchmarks are desperately needed and that they align with Hegseth’s broader emphasis on tightening officer standards.
“I have friends that taught ROTC. They literally deal with some cadets that can’t put together a coherent sentence or write correctly,” a senior Pentagon official told The Post.
“A modest policy like this is a move in the right direction. Especially in an environment where the quality of a formal college education is less than what it was. 1000 on the SAT is nothing. If you can’t hit that you probably shouldn’t be an officer to begin with. We don’t want stupid people leading our soldiers.”
The now-rescinded standards would have allowed incoming ROTC cadets to alternatively submit an ACT score of 20 or a score above the 50th percentile on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), which is administered to enlisted troops.
“These are really common sense policies that everyone should be able to get behind,” the senior official said.
“Every branch of the U.S. military, except for the Army, has minimum requirements to commission via ROTC regardless of scholarship status. The fact that this was not in place to begin with is a bit strange. Enlisted service members, in many cases, seem to have stricter testing requirements to join.”
The Army ROTC does not currently require students to submit standardized test results.
College ROTC programs are the largest pipeline for incoming Army officers — ranging from 40-70% in recent years, according to publicly released statistics.
Hegseth has pushed to tighten other standards for military officers, including fitness and grooming policies for current officers to reduce the prevalence of “fat generals” and “beardos” whom he described as reflecting poorly on the armed forces’ professionalism.
