Hegseth launches task force to ideologically review the military's senior service colleges

On the evening of March 12, 2026, Secretary of War (Defense) Pete Hegseth announced the creation of a task force to evaluate the U.S. military's Senior Service Colleges — the Army War College, National Defense University, the Naval War College, Marine Corps University, and the Air War College. "Professional Military Education should produce warfighters and leaders—not wokesters," Hegseth said in announcing the 90-day review, adding that the department would "make sure that what we've seen in our civilian institutions never surface in our military education institutions" and that where similar courses and ideologies appear, "we need to rip 'em out."

Under Secretary of War for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata was tasked with standing up the review, which is directed to scrutinize the professors, administrators, and curriculum of the colleges and to ensure they are "focused on national security strategy, history and overall excellence." The department framed the effort as removing content it deems DEI-related or ideological and refocusing the institutions on warfighting.

The task force places the curriculum, faculty, and leadership of the military's premier professional-education institutions under direct ideological review by political appointees, with an explicit mandate to excise material the administration labels "woke" or "DEI." Critics warn that this pressures career officers and scholars toward ideological conformity rather than independent strategic judgment, and that it is part of a broader campaign to assert political control over the uniformed services — alongside the forced retirement of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, the striking of women and minority officers from Navy and Army promotion lists, and reviews of the services' independent legal offices.