Posted on 07/27/2025 6:04:38 AM PDT by Twotone
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced a review into how officers will be promoted and selected for command that will be led by former Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, who was punished after he criticized senior military leaders for the Afghanistan withdrawal.
“America’s sons and daughters who serve in our military deserve the best leaders commanding them, which is why we need to reform the promotion system at DoD — how we get those leaders,” Hegseth announced on Sunday in a video in which he appeared with Scheller.
Hegseth said he has asked Scheller — whom he referred to as “my friend” — to oversee the assessment, which was ordered last month by Jules W. Hurst III, who was performing the duties of undersecretary for personnel and readiness at the time.
In a June 20 memo, Hurst directed the service secretaries to review how officers are evaluated as well as the processes for promotion selection boards, command selection boards, and the impact of professional military education on assessing officers. The memo also named Scheller as the point of contact for the effort.
No further information about what the review will entail was immediately available on Monday.
“Both Stu and I think about the possibility of our kids serving one day,” Hegseth said in the video. “And we want to ensure that we have the best of the best leading them. We have to get this right, and with Stu leading it, we’re going to get it done.”
Scheller, who has been working for the Defense Department since April, was court-martialed after posting videos while in uniform demanding that senior military leaders be held accountable for the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal. In October 2021, he was sentenced to receive a punitive letter of reprimand and forfeit $5,000 of one month’s pay after pleading guilty to showing contempt toward officials and related offenses.
“You had the courage to speak up when no one else would,” Hegseth said to Scheller in the video. “And we need to have officers who understand where their compass is, they’re not risk-averse, they’re not playing the game, they’re not simply checking the box to get to the next level, which creates all the wrong incentives. We’re reviewing the whole thing, because we’re here to make institutional change that brings warfighters to the top, and this is a historic opportunity.”
In the video, Scheller said he believed the effort to change the officer selection and retention process will “lead us to victory in the next war.”
“Having the ability to go after and identify talent and bring them to the top, there’s nothing more important that we could do,” Scheller said.
Scheller also posted on X, saying that unless systems adapt to changes, they become rigid, stifle innovation, and lead to declining performance, causing people to focus on avoiding mistakes rather than producing results.
In May, Hegseth announced that Scheller would also take part in a separate Defense Department review into the Afghanistan withdrawal. That effort is being led by Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs and Senior Advisor Sean Parnell.
Parnell told reporters earlier this month that the Afghanistan review could lead to changes in how both enlisted leaders and officers are promoted.
“If you think back to my time in Afghanistan as a young commander, giving battle update briefs as a captain to my battalion commander, if I were constantly saying that my area of operations was a disaster, it didn’t have the ammo or troops that I needed to accomplish the mission, the likelihood of me getting promoted was probably not great,” Parnell said during a July 2 Pentagon news conference. “So, how do we set the conditions in the [Defense] Department to create a sense of honesty where our officers are reporting what they believe to be accuracy — they’re concerned about maybe their area of operations; they’re concerned about the truth and, maybe, less about their careers.”
What amazes me is how the Dems responded to the pull out by saying it needed to be done and Biden did it.
Completely ignoring the HOW it was done:
“ Aircraft worth $923.3 million remained in Afghanistan. The US left 78 aircraft procured for the government of Afghanistan at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul before the end of the withdrawal. These aircraft were demilitarized and rendered inoperable before the US military left, the report states. The US military conducted its non-combatant evacuation from Afghanistan in August, primarily through that airport.
A total of 9,524 air-to-ground munitions, valued at $6.54 million, remained in Afghanistan at the conclusion of the US military withdrawal. The “significant majority” of the “remaining aircraft munitions stock are non-precision munitions,” the report states.
Over 40,000 of the total 96,000 military vehicles the US gave to Afghan forces remained in Afghanistan at the time of the US withdrawal, including 12,000 military Humvees, the report states. “The operational condition of the remaining vehicles” in Afghanistan is “unknown,” the report states.
More than 300,000 of the total 427,300 weapons the US gave to Afghan forces remained in Afghanistan at the time of the US military withdrawal, according to the report. Less than 1,537,000 of the “specialty munitions” and “common small arms ammunition,” valued at a total of $48 million, are still in the country, the report states.
“Nearly all” of the communications equipment that the US gave to Afghan forces, including base-station, mobile, man-portable and hand-held commercial and military radio systems, and associated transmitters and encryption devices also remained in Afghanistan at the time of the withdrawal, the report states.
“Nearly all” night vision, surveillance, “biometric and positioning equipment” totaling nearly….. ”.—-CNN
I still suspect sleepy joe did it on purpose.
Just damn! Another home run by the Trump team.
I wish David Hackworth were alive to see this.
Great news.
It was sickening to see the Taliban parading ON OUR equipment.
How it must infuriate flag officers active and retired to see O-5’s hired for reviews and reforms!
Sputter grumble whine….
Yay Pete!
Very.
This guy quit before his 20 years was up-balls. Glad there’s justice. Same for those that refused the shot.
I remember the grumbling when I was appointed to Operations Officer at a directorate at Fort Bliss. I was but a young Captain in a position slotted for a Lt Colonel. I knew I had a target on my back, because I was the Old Man's "fair haired boy". The GS-14s and GS-15s thought it was a questionable move.
He was my Battalion Commander in Germany, and we arrived at Fort Bliss about the same time. It didn't take long for me to demonstrate my fitness for the role, it wasn't that difficult a job. Plus, I knew the Colonel's mindset and was able to anticipate what he wanted.
There are hundreds of Field Grade officers out there who able to fill the positions of higher responsibility without missing a beat. My congratulations to Pete for another wise decision. In my view, his CIB trumps whatever the REMFs in Congress or the Pentagon try to throw at him.
As Congress furthers inquiries, will hopefully learn just how much Mister Biden was actually involved in Mister Biden's alleged major decisions.
Good, he was the only one to speak out about that complete fiasco.
Good leaders have nothing to fear.
No doubt.Hack was the best.
It makes me smile a little. A Commander hired instead of an Admiral!
As a platoon leader and company commander, I did always find it curious that my OERs were rated by my boss and senior rated by my boss's boss. Yes, I was responsible for implementing their policies and executing missions and tasks they assigned, yet, being in a leadership position, I felt that those best qualified to evaluate my abilities as a leader were those soldiers I actually led.
Welcome back Lt Colonel! Doing the right thing sometimes really pays off. Thank you!
I hope he hasn’t forgotten those who harassed him.
Absolutely.
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