‘Diversity Is Our Strength’ Is the Dumbest Phrase in Military History: Hegseth Criticizes the Slogan”

A second record year in a row. That means you're about to train this group right here and lead 61,500 new soldiers. And next year, when we grow the size of the Army, it will be even more. When you're out there in your formations as platoon leaders at the tip of the spear, you will be at the tip of the spear of their snapback. You will not compromise, you will not seek color, and you will not try to meet arbitrary quotas based on immutable characteristics. You do not have time to celebrate identity months, and you will not make excuses for yourselves, and you will not accept excuses from others. You will lead. That's what this academy has trained you to do, to lead us. To lead from the front, relentlessly train your soldiers, listen to your NCOs who are the backbone of the Army and will save your life. Do harder PT. Push your soldiers to become more proficient, more lethal, and more prepared at everything they do. As I think back on my first platoon, if I could rewind the clock and talk to high-speed National Guard Second Lieutenant Hegseth before leading his infantry platoon at Guantanamo Bay and into combat in Iraq, here's a few things I'd tell him. Plan and rehearse for contingencies every time. There's no substitute for preparation ever. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Plan for recovery, resupply, alternate communications, rehearse, and refine. The first air assault I ever did leading a platoon in Baghdad in the middle of the night on an al-Qaeda objective, we had 36 hours to prepare, and I spent every minute of those 36 hours preparing. And it paid off because when, and I love pilots, but when the pilots dropped us a few hundred meters in the wrong spot, in the middle of a mud field, and the GPS didn't work, there was one man that platoon was looking at, and it was me. And because I'd done every map recon, every satellite imagery recon, every recon I could, I had a general sense of where we were and could orient at that moment in the right direction. If I had not prepared, they would have looked at me, and I would have looked right back at them. And nothing I did was perfect. Nothing you'll do will be perfect, but at least you can prepare. Always be the most prepared member in your unit. Be decisive and be aggressive. Pick a course of action and carry it through until you have a point to reassess. Don't keep second-guessing. Set the example and display courage, both physically and morally, to make the tough calls, especially when it's not popular. It doesn't mean you won't be afraid, but it means you will be prepared to push through it. Know the purpose of your mission and explain it to your soldiers. It greatly improves execution when you share with them the purpose and unlock their combined talent. And then take care of your soldiers. Take care of their families and each other. If you never leave a fallen comrade, you've done your job. If you're in trouble, if your men are in trouble, your women are in trouble, you are en route. Ask Dude 44 Alpha and Dude 44 Bravo how grateful they are that this spirit is alive and well. Down, pilots. Two mission, seven hours in, downtown Iran, straight up the middle. One in the middle of the day, one in the middle of the night. Two American pilots home. Never leave a fallen comrade behind. It's really not that difficult. Here's what we want, not only in the Army, but across the Joint Force. We want high, uniform, unwavering standards. We want meticulous discipline, the kind I see right here. We want true accountability, and we want it all in service of readiness and lethality. Readiness means preparation. It means training, realistic, tough training. We must train exactly like we fight, and that means real, practical warfighting skills. It means lethality. Let me be perfectly clear. You are not an Army of one. And you are certainly not an Army of woke. You are an American Army, an Army of warriors. Four years ago, you raised your right hand and said, Send me. And today, as you join the ranks of the greatest fighting force in the history of the world, we stand together as one Army, and we say, Send us. We say it not because of our differences, but because of what we share. The single dumbest phrase in military history was peddled in our Army only a few short years ago. You've all heard it, maybe in your first two years at West Point. Our diversity is our strength. The single dumbest phrase in military history. We had generals saying this with a straight face on national television. It was absolute nonsense. Now, these sorts of silly things can be laughed at when they occur in a civilian lounge or debated in graduate seminars. But they cannot be tolerated in our formations. These ideas are what get people killed. Diversity is not our strength. Unity is our strength. The call is send us. Not send he, not send she, not send they them. It's send us. Our strength is our shared purpose. Our strength is our oath to the Constitution. It's our embrace of the Army values, the idea of merit, our mission, our absolute commitment to duty and honor and country. These are the things that unify us. Send me becomes send us. Because you are one fighting force, just as we are one nation under God. And the American people are responding to our renewed back to basics approach. Recruitments are up across the joint force. And I'm pleased to announce that just two days ago, the U.S. Army met its 2026 recruiting goals four months early.