Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth is ordering a assessment of army health and grooming requirements because the Trump administration continues to reverse insurance policies critics say have made America’s combating power seem weaker on the worldwide stage.
In a memo Wednesday to senior Pentagon management, Hegseth ordered Darin Selnick, the beneath secretary of protection for personnel and readiness, to collect present requirements in all U.S. army branches associated to bodily health, physique composition and grooming, together with laws on beards.
“We must remain vigilant in maintaining the standards that enable the men and women of our military to protect the American people and our homeland as the world’s most lethal and effective fighting force,” Hegseth stated in an announcement. “Our adversaries are not growing weaker, and our tasks are not growing less challenging.”
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U.S. Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth talks to the media throughout his go to to the headquarters of U.S. European Command and Africa Command on the Africa Command at Kelly Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Picture/Michael Probst)
The assessment will “illuminate how the department has maintained the level of standards required over the recent past and the trajectory of any change in those standards,” he added.
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Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth, proper, participates in bodily coaching with the first Battalion, tenth Particular Forces Group (Airborne), a U.S. Military Particular Forces battalion based mostly in Stuttgart, Germany. (DefSec Hegseth on X)
Leaders will have a look at how these requirements have modified since Jan. 1, 2015, and supply perception into how they’ve advanced and the impact of these modifications.
Hegseth has vowed to carry again more durable requirements whereas reversing “woke” insurance policies that do not align with restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding the army and reestablishing deterrence.

U.S. Military Capt. Kristen Griest participates in coaching on the U.S. Military Ranger College April 20, 2015, at Fort Benning, Ga. (Scott Brooks/U.S. Military by way of Getty Pictures)
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“Our standards will be high, uncompromising, and clear,” he stated in a Jan. 25 memo to service members. “The strength of our military is our unity and our shared purpose.”