WASHINGTON — Rep. Greg Steube said troops who cannot meet the physical demands of combat “shouldn’t be on the battlefield,” and that he “1000%” supports “getting back to warrior ethos.”
The Florida Republican said it on the Oct. 1 episode of Real America with Dan Ball on One America News. Ball opened the segment by describing “kicking out and getting rid of the woke DEI in our military.” Steube did not use that phrase. He answered a beard line, then a fitness line.
If you can’t do that, you shouldn’t be on the battlefield. You know why? Because if I get wounded or my brother gets wounded and we’re advancing on an objective and you can’t carry me or carry another guy, we’ve got problems.
He set the test as the one he said applied when he served: a ruck march, hitting a target, and “the things that are required in battle.” “You’ve got to be able to physically do the things that are required in a combat type environment,” he said. He called for “athletic, outstanding, strong individuals” and said the department “should be focused on winning wars.” “It is the Department of War for a reason,” he said. He did not cite a regulation or a separation number.
His office biography says he enlisted while in law school, reported to infantry training at Fort Benning, and graduated from the Infantry Officer Basic Course on the commandant’s list. It says he transferred to the Judge Advocate General’s Corps after an injury in Ranger School, and served in 2006 and 2007 as chief of detainee operations for Multinational Division-North in Iraq with the 25th Infantry Division. The carry test he described is the infantry standard he said he trained under. The biography does not state a current height-and-weight record.
He split with the secretary on beards. “Well, I don’t know about the beardo comment. I’m kind of for guys with beards, especially our Special Forces operators,” he said. “But outside of that, I 1000% support getting back to warrior ethos.” A Sept. 30, 2025, Army implementing memo for the Aug. 20 grooming directive says all personnel must keep a clean-shaven face, and that beards are prohibited unless authorized. It also says Special Operations Forces units “may request modified standards via validated mission-essential requirements,” and that those personnel “will be clean-shaven when deployed to environments with a high threat of CBRN attack.” Steube’s exception is the category the memo already leaves open. He did not cite the memo.
The line he is answering is in the Sept. 30 State of the Force address at Marine Corps Base Quantico. In the as-delivered text, Secretary Pete Hegseth said that for almost two years he had talked about “reviving the warrior ethos,” and that “the warrior ethos has been revived.” He said the department was “no longer the Woke Department or the Weak Department,” and listed “No beardos” among the categories he said were out. “Just warriors,” he said. A department story the same day says he told about 600 officers and noncommissioned officers that standards from 1990 “are back in 2026.”
Steube’s Oct. 3 post on the same appearance was a different cut. He wrote that there are “too many generals sitting in the Pentagon pushing paper” and that “cutting the top brass is long overdue.” On air in that segment he said he “1000%” supported reductions at the general-officer level. This segment is the body standard, not the head count.
Hegseth’s speech says the ethos has already been revived. Steube says he is glad it is coming back, keeps the beard for Special Forces operators, and describes the test as whether a soldier can carry a wounded soldier off an objective. The 2025 memo is the written beard rule. Neither man cited it on Oct. 1.