Task Force to Ensure Senior Service Colleges Focus on Building Warfighters

The War Department has launched a task force to ensure the curriculum at its institutions of higher learning is structured to build warfighters rather than social justice warriors, said Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

"At the Department of War, we have a duty to ensure that our professional military education develops real leaders, warfighters who dominate into the future," Hegseth said. "We're committed to making our own senior service colleges maintain the highest of standards, that those places align with President [Donald J.] Trump's commitment to the American people [and] that our military will remain the strongest in history."

In a memorandum signed this week, Hegseth directed the undersecretary of war for personnel and readiness to stand up and lead the Senior Service College Task Force, which has a 90-day mission to ensure the War Department and military service schools, which exist to teach men and women to fight wars, are not distracted by political ideology.

"The mission of that task force is to evaluate our senior service colleges, where we educate our own ... where our senior officers go to continue their education," Hegseth said. "We're going to ensure that the professors, administrators and curriculum of those institutions are focused on national security, strategy, history and overall excellence. [We'll] confirm that high standards and meritocracy are [at the] forefront. And [we'll] make sure that what we've seen in our civilian institutions never surfaces in our military education institutions."

The secretary said the task force will review schools such as the National Defense University, National War College, U.S. Army War College, U.S. Naval War College, Air War College and Marine Corps War College, for instance.

"This task force will have 90 days to assess whether our senior service colleges ... are actually effective," Hegseth said. "They are going to identify any deficiencies and make sure they're focused on core national security issues. We want military leaders who are critical thinkers, that have studied the principles on which our founding fathers established this republic and that are educated and prepared to win wars."

In recent weeks, the War Department cut ties with civilian universities that have, in the past, been partners in providing professional military education to military officers, because those universities are focusing less on leadership education.

"As the secretary of war, it's my job to make sure those who are rising to the highest of ranks are as prepared as humanly possible," Hegseth said. "If we are pulling officers out of civilian universities because they are too woke, then we better make sure our own universities are prepared to do the task properly. And we're going to do that."

Under the direction of the undersecretary of war for personnel and readiness, the Senior Service College Task Force will review the War Department's senior service college educational standards in advance of the 2026-27 academic year. The task force will assess institutional effectiveness by identifying deficiencies in standards and evaluating the colleges' alignment with the National Defense Strategy. It will also review the curriculum.