CAP was introduced to reduce bias

But Army program derided as 'woke' by Hegseth didn't elevate non-White officers

By: Davis Winkie
USA Today

..... An Army program for selecting unit commanders that a spokesman for newly designated Secretary of War Pete Hegseth condemned as "woke" selected White men for command roles at a higher rate than women and minority officers, according to internal data reviewed by USA Today.
..... In 2024, it thwarted a four-star general's attempt to boost an unfit subordinate.
..... The Army's Command Assessment Program, known as CAP, screened officers for career-defining command jobs by combining a series of physical and mental tests with feedback from previous peers and subordinates. It existed independent of the service's promotion system.
..... But Hegseth directed the program's cancellation, celebrating the move in a September 3 [2025] social media post saying, "Good riddance." Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson, in a statement to USA Today, said Hegseth alone ordered the move "because it was a failed, woke experiment."
..... "Secretary Hegseth has been clear: promotions across the Department of War will be based on merit and performance, not trendy social fads," Wilson said. "The Department's priority is building a lethal, effective military where leadership is earned, not handed out through flawed programs."
...... President Donald Trump signed an executive order September 5 [2025] allowing the sue of "Department of War" as a "secondary name" for the Department of Defense, and the use of "Secretary of War" and "Deputy Secretary of war" in official government communicants without officially changing the name, which would require action by Congress.
..... the CAP program was considered a "crown jewel" of the Army's talent management reforms, said Mike Arnold, a fellow at the right-leaning Hoover Institution think tank and former deputy director of the Army Talent Management Task Force. CAP was designed to resemble how elite special operations units identify their members and leaders.
..... When the Cap pilot began in 2019 during Trump's first administration, Army leaders celebrated the departure from the service's 1970-vintage practice of relying only on hurried paper-based personnel file reviews to pick key commanders.
..... "No longer will we spend weeks selecting a private for the Ranger Regiment,: a special operations unit, "while spending an average of two minutes to select battalion commanders," said now-retired Gen real James McConville, then the Army's chief of staff in a 2019 article.
..... at the multi-day NFL combine-style event, hopeful commanders had to pass fitness and body fat testing before undergoing psychological evaluation. an interview panel of senior officers weight the results and a candidate's verbal and written communication abilities before voting on their fitness for command. After passing, an officer ranking for command assignment was calculated form their CAP performance and their personnel file.
..... The Army will now return to its paper-based model of command selection, where a board of officers rapidly reviews a candidate's personnel file. that model, according to Arnold, "is based almost solely on subjective (performance) evaluations about the length of a tweet."

White men succeeded more in 'woke' program

..... CAP's "double-blind" method of hiding a candidate's identity form the senior officer panel voting on their file removed race from consideration.
..... Yet White men had the highest pass rate in the program, according to program data reviewed by USA today. Women and minority officers were more likely to be found "not yet certified for command."
..... "CAP is (designed) to reduce bias for everybody, not just ... for minorities," said Arnold. "It is intentionally designed to select the very best leader with an little bias as possible."

A general's failed interference

..... CAP also resisted an attempt by then-General Charles Hamilton to interfere in the selection process for his former assistant, a Black female subordinate, in early 2024.
..... The Army's inspector general found that Hamilton had improperly manipulated her performance records through a fudged evaluation and multiple prestigious awards, "strengthening her file for command consideration."
..... In a paper board review, the officer's file looked stellar: It earned 63 points out of a total of 66, according to the inspector general's report.
..... But CAP found her unfit: Her score at the event put her in the 1st percentile, meaning she scored worse than 99% of participants.
..... The interview board, according to the IG report, unanimously ruled she was not ready for command due to a poor operational psychology assessment and low leadership and strategic thinking ability. Her peer and subordinate evaluations were mixed.
..... Hamilton attempted to pressure CAP to change its assessment, the IG report said; a second interview panel also found the officer not ready for command.
..... He ultimately circumvented the CAP system to secure policy exemption from Army Chief of Staff General Randy George for the officer to be placed on the command list. (Hamilton did not respond to an inquiry from USA Today.)
..... When Military.com , a military-focused news publication, published an investigation based on a memo written by CAP's director documenting Hamilton;s interference, the Army placed him under investigation. He ultimately was fired and demoted to lieutenant general upon retirement. The officer Hamilton had attempted to assist was removed from the battalion command list.
..... In a letter to then-Army Secretary Christine Wormuth asking for reinstatement that was seen by USA Today, Hamilton said he intervened because of CAP's "disparate impact on Black officers."
..... Wormuth made CAP a permanent program after the Hamilton affair concluded. The directive establishing the program made it more difficult for generals, regardless of their motivations, to put their thumbs on the scale by circumventing the system.

..... Contributing" Josy Garrison, USA Today

HOME