According to failed General Mark Hertling, "it's not clear why" the Pentagon has decided to test senior officers. I could end this post there and have the internet tell it how it is. But I'm not. I actually read this rag of an article.
My response to Hertling (who blocks me but he will see this) is that let's talk about YOU. Since you've dedicated oh so much time making it political about Hegseth and Scheller.
Mark Hertling has:
>publicly announced “I consider myself woke,” opposed rolling back DEI and transgender accession policy, and called Hegseth’s DEI critique “insulting” to the force
>lectures that the military must stay apolitical while writing a steady stream of partisan attacks on the sitting Secretary and defending Mark Kelly’s political video as professional duty
>tripled down on every failed policy of GWOT like mOnEy aS A wEaPoN sYsTeM
>removed the bayonet from Army basic training as DCG for Initial Military Training, then acted shocked that old infantrymen objected
>cut .50 cal familiarization and convoy live fire from BCT in the same “we teach too much stuff” overhaul
>commanded MND North in 2007–08, sold a “historic turnaround,” and watched that same ground become the spine of the ISIS caliphate six years later
>wrote in April 2021 that Biden “made the right call” on Afghanistan, then spent 2026 treating Stu Scheller as too stained to design a promotion screen
>built his late career brand on Soldier Athlete and PT reform, then framed “fat generals” talk as crude culture war the moment someone else said it
TLDR on his article but know this: he firmly states nothing is wrong with the old system. He said that. He literally said those words. Totally cool. Zero to refine in the promotion process.
You know what problem we are trying to solve, General? You.
You are the problem we are trying to solve. Because you can't fight yourself out of a wet paper bag yet somehow think you're the greatest gift to the military since Napoleon. If Napoleon thought men could get pregnant.
Keep hammering away on your partisan rag. If anything, you've given America that much more of a glimpse into why testing future generals and admirals is necessary.
So they don't become.... you.
*picture posted for no useful reason whatsoever than illustrating this man is a joke*
"Before rushing to use this new assessment, the Pentagon should determine whether performance on the evaluation correlates with demonstrated performance in the real world....I can think of an intriguing way to conduct that proof of principle."
lnk.thebulwark.com/3VPscuV