John Teichert, a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force, served as commander of Joint Base Andrews and Edwards Air Force Base.
A few weeks ago, I donned my old Air Force uniform and walked into the Pentagon. It was an honor to return for a moment to officiate at the retirement ceremony of a stellar officer whose 22 years of active military service were honorable and impactful.
During the ceremony, I made a flippant comment about how his career furthered “lethality and readiness before they were cool.” When I added an aside, “In reality, they have always been cool,” there was some nervous laughter in the audience.
We were in a building where “lethality and readiness” is the current catchphrase. But the genuine article has always been a critical component of American power and must be carefully cultivated.
During my own career, I saw a variety of political styles and areas of emphasis regarding lethality and readiness. Though military members at the lower levels have always focused on these qualities because they are essential to successful operations, the upper echelons have sometimes drifted from that emphasis.
I served in the Pentagon under President Barack Obama. The stench of social engineering in the military force was evident. Several years later, that stench became noxious under President Joe Biden. The Biden administration’s feckless withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 exposed a military that seemed to be in retreat, its potency gone. Adversaries took notice. We appeared to have lost our way, and lethality and readiness suffered.
The pendulum has swung sharply under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Now, lethality and readiness are on the tip of everyone’s tongue, with a directive to purge wokeness and weakness. Boosting testosterone, slashing shaving waivers, controlling media coverage and scrubbing history have risen to the top of the priority list. Obama-Biden diversity, equity and inclusion policies have been met with counter-DEI policies.
However, actual lethality and readiness seem to be falling by the wayside yet again, while ideologically driven programs take center stage and distractions gain the spotlight, with a particular focus on physical fitness.
Pull-ups, push-ups and bench presses have gained attention and prominence. Do we need our warfighters to be strong? Yes. But we also need warfighters to be smart, creative, courageous, disciplined, discerning, moral, skilled and savvy. Those characteristics don’t align as well with the bravado of the current warrior narrative and don’t post as well on X and Instagram. Thus, they have become afterthoughts while real American lethality and readiness wanes.
The retirement ceremony I attended recently celebrated an officer who had no problem passing his physical training tests throughout his career, though I’ve never seen him post on social media about pull-ups or push-ups. Interestingly, though, none of his significant contributions to lethality and readiness — such as skyrocketing a struggling squadron’s combat mission readiness rate — had to do with physical prowess. Instead, his two-decade impact had everything to do with leadership and dedication to the mission. These characteristics must not be drowned out by ideological swagger.
The Pentagon’s determined purge of experienced, dedicated military leaders is stripping away some of the U.S. military’s best minds. I’m all too familiar with the Biden administration’s bias against Christians in the military. Such ideologically driven policies on either side of the political spectrum create a harmful national-security vacuum.
Secretary Hegseth’s actions have taken ideological cleansing to the next level. They have had a chilling effect in the Pentagon, where silent caution is the safer career alternative to bold initiative. The environment is rife with groupthink, while the nonpartisan credibility of the military is dwindling.
In his lifetime of leadership lessons, Gen. Colin Powell regularly emphasized a powerful axiom: If you have a yes-man working for you, one of you is redundant. Unfortunately, there are a lot of redundancies these days in the Pentagon, and they run counter to creating a real culture of lethality and readiness.
The next war will be won by the best minds, not by the most might. Strategic success requires experienced and principled leaders who are strong, but who are also smart, creative, courageous, disciplined, discerning, moral, skilled and savvy. Such characteristics among its military members are vital to the well-being of the United States and to America’s ability to achieve its interests.
Yes, lethality and readiness are indeed cool. The real kind always has been.
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