Warren: Hegseth's Early Actions Are Undercutting Recruitment Of Teachers For Military Academies

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At today's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) spoke about obstacles to military service academy recruitment.

Transcript

00:00Mr. Chairman, I'm also looking forward to continuing the bipartisan tradition of this

00:05subcommittee, and I hope to work with you and all of our members to make sure that we

00:11improve the lives of our service members, their families, and our civilian workforce

00:17so that they can stay focused on the mission of keeping Americans safe.

00:22I want to start by extending my condolences to the four families that just lost loved

00:28ones during a training mission in Lithuania.

00:31They remind us those who go into harm's way and their families are always at risk and

00:39put it on the line for the people of the United States of America.

00:42We are a deeply grateful nation.

00:46I am glad that we are starting this year by focusing on how we recruit and retain the

00:53next generation of military leaders.

00:56Our military service academies are among the top academic institutions in the nation.

01:02West Point, the Air Force Academy, the Naval Academy provide a high quality education and

01:08they recruit and train almost 20% of our military officers.

01:15Currently, our military academies are very selective, almost as tough to get into as

01:22the top colleges in this country.

01:25But that knife cuts both ways.

01:27Every student admitted to the military academies has other options.

01:33Academy students are often highly recruited by other schools.

01:36The competition for talent for tomorrow's leaders is already fierce.

01:42Attacks on our military academies or policies that shrink the pool of young Americans who

01:49will consider applying for military service will cause lasting damage to our military

01:55and to our nation.

01:57The latest U.S. Census found that the youngest generation of Americans is more diverse than

02:03ever.

02:04That means we need our military academies to continue developing successful leaders

02:09from all walks of life, not push away strong recruits because they feel unwelcome or undervalued.

02:19Unfisted efforts to reshape the academies are bound to backfire.

02:23For example, a mix of military practitioners and civilian instructors have successfully

02:29worked together for decades to shape students at the service academies into a lethal fighting

02:36force.

02:37In the same way that competition for talent exists for academy students, the same competition

02:44is true for faculty.

02:46All respected professors have options and many are aggressively recruited.

02:52When Secretary Hegseth seemed to suggest that academies should have fewer civilian professors

02:58and when the Department of Defense imposes a ban on travel by civilian personnel, it

03:04suggests that the military does not care about civilians supporting its mission and that

03:09it will make it harder to attract and keep top talent to teach tomorrow's military

03:16leaders.

03:17The foolishness of the travel ban was immediately apparent.

03:23Testing sites for military entrance exams were forced to close or reduce hours so fewer

03:28young people could apply to the military.

03:32While DOD has begun to allow civilians to travel to these testing sites again, these

03:38attacks on civilian personnel who help to support our military are worrying and civilian

03:44personnel are key to keeping our academies successful as well.

03:51Our military students deserve the best teachers, people who are experts in their field.

03:57Tying the hands of the academies as they compete with other top universities for talented faculty

04:03will undercut the academies and, over time, undercut the leaders the academies are teaching.

04:11Students need to develop their skills both inside the classroom and outside as well.

04:16I'm sure many of us can think of sports teams and extracurricular activities that help shape

04:22our experiences at school, that help build our communities, and that made us better leaders.

04:30Surely, as a coach, Chairman Tuberville saw students' leadership skills develop and

04:35grow through out-of-classroom work.

04:39The Executive Order's attacks on clubs at academies that it considers DEI isn't

04:47creating more effective warfighters, it's cutting off students from opportunities to

04:52grow as leaders.

04:55When we're trying to maintain a military force that can deter China, we can't afford

05:00to be shutting down engineering clubs.

05:03But under President Trump, West Point has already disbanded chapters of the National

05:08Society of Black Engineers and the National Society of Women Engineers.

05:14Both organizations have been praised repeatedly for helping recruit and retain more young

05:21engineers for military service.

05:25Closing those chapters at the military academies, while those chapters remain open at more than

05:30600 other colleges and universities, does not help our military recruit top talent.

05:39This committee held two hearings on recruiting last year, and both hearings made clear that

05:45the United States cannot meet its recruiting goals without women.

05:50The Army met its recruiting goals in 2024 primarily because of new female recruits.

05:57There was an 18 percent increase in women signing up for active duty, compared to an

06:02increase of just 8 percent for men.

06:06Let me be clear, these women are not looking for a preference or a handout.

06:11They just want a chance to compete straight up.

06:15But we won't be able to attract the women we need if they see a new glass ceiling on

06:21their opportunity to command.

06:23By removing women like the Chief of Naval Operations, Vice Admiral Franchetti, from

06:29leadership roles simply because they are women, and confirming a Secretary of Defense who

06:35has a long record of opposing women in combat, the Trump administration has already set a

06:42tone from the top that women are not welcome.

06:46We are already hearing concerns that women are hesitant to join certain military jobs

06:52because they believe they won't be welcome solely due to their identity, not because

06:58of their qualifications.

07:01Black recruits face their own challenges.

07:03When a black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a man who served honorably for over

07:0840 years, and who outlined our most successful strategy to deal with foreign terrorists is

07:15fired solely because President Trump cannot imagine that he earned the job on the merits,

07:21black military recruits across the nation get the message, your race makes you vulnerable.

07:28And when national organizations to support black college students who major in engineering

07:33are suddenly dropped at the military academies, while those organizations remain lively at

07:39600 other colleges and universities, the message that the military academies may not welcome

07:45you gets even louder.

07:48Recruiting and retaining talent, including black and female talent, is a critical job

07:54for the future security of our nation.

07:58Pushing away more than half our future leaders is wildly self-destructive.

08:04Mr. Chairman, 24 alumni from West Point and the Naval Academy have written to me sharing

08:10their stories about what the academies mean to them and why they are concerned about the

08:16direction this administration wants to take them.

08:19I would like to enter those into the record for their letters and their testimony.

08:26Let me read from just one of them, who wrote that these attacks on diversity are, quote,

08:31a direct affront to the principles upon which our military was built and a betrayal of the

08:37sacrifices made by generations of service members.

08:42Let those words sink in.

08:43A betrayal.

08:44We owe them better than that.

08:47I look forward to this hearing and hearing the testimony of the witnesses who are here

08:51today.

08:52I thank you for being with us.

08:54Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

08:55Thanks, Senator.

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