The Pentagon has instructed military commanders to nominate only their fittest, best-groomed servicemembers to attend Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s upcoming “State of the Force” address, requiring candidates to pass waist-to-height body composition standards and maintain what officials called “impeccable” grooming before they can be considered for a seat in the audience.
According to emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, commanders were told that nominees must also pass their service’s physical fitness test, wear “impeccable grooming and uniform standards (no exception),” and be recognized as “consistently rated as top performers within their formations.” The criteria extend beyond appearance: candidates must additionally show a “clear record of integrity, discipline and selfless service” and “demonstrate strong presence, clear communication and sound judgment under pressure.”
The selection emails, one of which was dated Tuesday and sent to Army commanders, said the chosen servicemembers should “serve as role models for their peers and subordinates.” Officials said similar guidance went out across other branches of the military ahead of the Sept. 30 event. As an added incentive, some of the selected troops may have the opportunity to work out alongside Hegseth himself.
A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment on the nomination process when reached by the Journal.
This year’s address marks a shift in audience from the version Hegseth convened one year earlier. That gathering, held at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, summoned the nation’s top generals and admirals from around the world for an unusual mandatory assembly. This time, officials said, the audience will expand to include lower-ranking officers and enlisted servicemembers alongside the physically screened candidates nominated by their commands.
At last year’s Quantico gathering, Hegseth used the platform to declare “no more beardos” and to say he did not want to see “fat generals” leading commands around the country and the world. He told the assembled officers it was “completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the country and the world,” adding, “It’s a bad look. It is bad, and it’s not who we are.”
The Quantico speech was not merely rhetorical. Hegseth told the gathered leadership that “from this moment forward, the only mission of the newly restored Department of War is this war fighting,” framing the focus on physical readiness as inseparable from combat preparation. The Pentagon followed the address with a series of formal memos translating Hegseth’s remarks into binding policy across the services.
Chief among them was a 22-page “Physical Fitness/Body Composition Program” that directs commanders across all military fields to allow daily fitness sessions and establishes waist-to-height ratio standards for body composition, along with testing timelines for postpartum servicemembers. Under the policy, “body composition evaluations will align with medically validated, streamlined approaches, using height and waist circumference methods (waist-to-height ratio (WHtR)) to promote consistency and fairness across the Military Services,” with the services setting a goal of a WHtR below 0.55 for every servicemember.
The same policy pushed the Pentagon toward sex-neutral testing for combat roles. Troops in designated combat arms positions must now pass their service fitness test with at least a 70 percent average under standards described as sex-neutral, age-normed and set to the male standard. Hegseth had acknowledged when announcing the change that it could reduce the number of women qualifying for combat jobs, saying at the time, “If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is.”
Troops who fail to meet the body composition standard face escalating consequences. Servicemembers who exceed the limits are placed into remedial programs, and if they do not improve, they can be separated from the service.
Grooming enforcement has followed a similarly aggressive trajectory since Hegseth took office. An August 2025 memo directed the services to require male servicemembers to be “clean shaven” and maintain “proper military appearance,” effective immediately, with Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell saying the change followed “a rapid force-wide review of military standards.”
That review had been ordered months earlier. In a March 2025 release, Hegseth ordered a department-wide review of standards on physical fitness, body composition and grooming, saying, “We must remain vigilant in maintaining the standards that enable the men and women of our military to protect the American people and our homeland as the world’s most lethal and effective fighting force.”
The grooming crackdown escalated further this year. A March 11, 2026 memo directed the military to standardize how religious accommodation requests for beards are submitted, reviewed and approved, requiring applicants to submit a sworn written statement, a description of their belief, and supporting evidence such as statements from religious leaders.
The policy has drawn criticism from civil liberties advocates and some military voices. Critics have noted that the beard prohibition is especially controversial because of pseudofolliculitis barbae, a skin condition affecting many Black men that can make regular shaving painful, while troops who rely on facial hair for cultural or religious reasons may still have to challenge the policy or seek waivers. A retired Army Special Forces officer separately told CBS News that while Hegseth was “not wrong in some of his criticism of standards,” his level of personal focus on the issue was atypical for a defense secretary.
Hegseth has repeatedly framed the appearance and fitness campaign as part of a broader effort to reshape the culture of the armed forces. At last year’s Quantico address, he told the assembled commanders, “If you want a beard, you can join special forces. If not, then shave,” adding, “We don’t have a military full of Nordic pagans, but unfortunately we have had leaders who either refuse to call BS and enforce standards or leaders who felt like they were not allowed to enforce standards. Both are unacceptable.”
In describing the purpose behind the original “State of the Force” address, Hegseth said, “For too long, we have simply not done that. The military has been forced by foolish and reckless politicians to focus on the wrong things.” He added, “In many ways, this speech is about fixing decades of decay, some of it obvious, some of it hidden.”
The Sept. 30 event will test whether Hegseth’s standards, first imposed on the military’s most senior leadership, can be extended down through the ranks to the individual servicemembers now being vetted for fitness, grooming and leadership before they are even allowed in the room to hear him speak.