Warriors Don't Fear Ideas
Enough of this Orwellian bullshit. We wrote a piece in the Naval Institute's Proceedings about the SecDef trying to wreck the Naval Academy and officer corps.
As our wannabe-fascist administration tries to intimidate citizens by sending 700 active duty marines to L.A., I trust that the training of these marines, and their moral foundation, is sound. I expect that they are led by seasoned officers and NCOs who maintained their discipline while following rules of engagement in our recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. No active duty servicemembers want to be deployed on US soil with the potential to harm or kill their own citizens. These marines aren’t thugs, or looking to rough up or massacre their fellow citizens on the street. They are highly trained professionals who follow a code and act honorably. There’s also a system of rules and laws that prevents them from committing atrocities and acting dishonorably. Individual unit commanders turn these rules and codes into orders and actions. They set the example with what they do and say, and what they tolerate among their peers and those they lead. They expect their superiors to also give proper orders and be role models. They do this not just on the battlefield or command center, but in peacetime and on base. It’s this collective culture composed of individual characters that makes our US military top notch.
For me, learning this culture and code started at the Naval Academy. We learned about the battles won by courageous graduates, but also the ones that failed dishonorably. We talked about the grave errors, and took ethics classes taught by seasoned senior officers with gravitas. We had guest speakers like James Bond Stockdale. At some point over those four years, I went from thinking that we’re all invincible to we could each be fallible. Reflecting on our training as naval officers, three of my classmates and I wrote about why we need to protect the way the Academy educated us.
The Naval Institute’s Proceedings is the monthly print and online journal for professional naval officers. It goes out to a readership of 80,000. It is time for veterans, citizens, and patriots to stand up publicly for the institutions we value.
Warriors Don’t Fear Ideas
By Jason Chen, Kristen Kavanaugh, and Michael Smith
June 2025
Proceedings
Vol. 151/6/1,468
On 27 January, an executive order directed the Department of Defense (DoD) to abolish Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) programs and prohibit its educational institutions from promoting what the document called “un-American, divisive, discriminatory, radical, extremist, and irrational theories.” The order further directed a comprehensive review of the “leadership, curriculum, and instructors of the United States Service Academies.” Two days later, DoD issued a similarly titled memorandum to military and civilian leaders, stating that, “No element within DoD will provide instruction on critical race theory, DEI, or gender ideology as part of a curriculum.” The justification for these policies falls under Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s overarching priority to “forge warriors, rebuild strength, and restore deterrence.” The U.S. Naval Academy’s military and civilian leaders have followed the DoD’s direction, as they are duty-bound to do.
While Hegseth’s oft-repeated goal of maximizing warfighting and lethality is laudable, it cannot be achieved by suppressing ideas or stifling academic inquiry.
A timeline of recent events at the Naval Academy demonstrates a concerted effort to suppress and stifle:
● October 2024 - The Naval Academy rescinds an invitation to speak for Dr. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a scholar of authoritarianism and fascist movements, to deliver the annual Bancroft Lecture. The Academy claims the speech has not been cancelled, but rescheduled, though no new date has been announced.
● February 2025 - The Academy launches a review of midshipman clubs and affinity groups for cancellation. Groups organized around religious affiliation are exempted, but some formed around gender or ethnicity are targeted, such as the Midshipmen Black Studies Club, the Society of Women Engineers, and “Moms in Flight Suits”—a mentoring group of experienced female aviators for female midshipmen interested in naval aviation.
● March 2025 - In anticipation of a visit by Secretary Hegseth, a display featuring the achievements of female Jewish graduates is removed. The Academy’s director of communications confirmed the action but said it was done mistakenly, and the display was returned after the Secretary's departure.
● March 2025 - The Naval Academy cancels the annual Michelson Lecture speaker, Dr. Susan Solomon, who was to give a speech the following month on atmospheric science, because it was “not well aligned with executive orders and other directives.”
● March 2025 - Famous documentarian Ken Burns’ screening for midshipmen of his documentary on the American Revolution is cancelled, and then later rescheduled to next year, although no date has been announced. The reason given for the cancellation was Burns’ public criticism of the president.
● March 2025 - 381 books are removed from Nimitz Library circulation, including:
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the internationally heralded memoir of Pulitzer nominee and Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Maya Angelou
Memorializing the Holocaust: Gender, Genocide and Collective Memory, by Janet Jacobs
Leadership in a Diverse and Multicultural Environment: Developing Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills, by Mary L. Connerley and Paul B. Pedersen
The Second Coming of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition, by Linda Gordon
● April 2025 - The Naval Academy Foreign Affairs Conference is canceled. Since 1960, this conference has been one of the premier undergraduate conferences on foreign affairs in the United States. This year’s theme was going to be “The Constellation of Humanitarian Assistance: Persevering Through Conflict,” but it was canceled “to ensure alignment with Presidential Executive Orders and Department of Defense . . . Directives.” Of note, humanitarian assistance is a military mission, and in the past several decades U.S. military forces have carried out that mission numerous times on multiple continents.
● April 2025 - Best-selling author Ryan Holiday is disinvited from his fourth and final speaking appearance on the philosophy of stoicism, its importance to James Stockdale as a leader, and how his reading of Marxism allowed Stockdale to stand up to his tormentors in Vietnam. Holiday’s cancellation resulted from his intent to discuss the removal of books from the Nimitz Library, a discussion that had not previously been planned and was not aligned with the new DoD guidance.
● May 2025 - The Naval Academy returns the majority of the books it had removed to the shelves, although 21 remain “sequestered,” including some that had not previously been pulled. A DoD-directed library committee has been selected to determine the ultimate disposition of the books. The committee's selection process and its membership are unclear. Though many books have been returned, the censorship of books has been further formalized.
The decisions of the past eight months seem to indicate that the Naval Academy now permits only politically approved thought, speech, literature, and writing. This undermines the Academy’s mission and compromises the education of midshipmen by censoring speakers, books, and organizations that are not consistent with the political views of the current administration.
These decisions have led two staff faculty members to resign. Eighteen more are opting for early retirement, and students are considering transferring to other schools. Leading speakers and thinkers are avoiding the school or are not even being considered. The capacity of the Naval Academy to attract, retain, teach, and lead already has been degraded.
This cannot continue. It must be corrected. Censoring reading lists, limiting exposure to controversial ideas, and selecting content and guest speakers by political affiliation conflicts with the moral and mental development of naval officers. It belies the purpose of the Naval Academy and highlights a shallow understanding of the nature of duty.
What It Means to Be a Naval Officer
John Paul Jones wrote that it is “not enough for a naval officer to be a capable mariner. . . . He must also be a gentleman of liberal education, refined manners, punctilious courtesy, and the nicest sense of personal honor.” Restated within a 21st-century context, it is not enough for a naval officer to be just a competent warfighter—he or she also must be an honorable, fair, and independent thinker.
Indeed, were a naval officer only judged by tactical warfighting proficiency, there would be no need for higher education within the force at all. The military would be better served by sending everyone through boot camp and straight to tactical schools.
Instead, naval officers are expected to understand how tactical activities fit into operational and strategic goals, why those goals exist, and that sometimes those goals supersede tactical outcomes. They also must understand that tactical activities can have national outcomes. Historical examples abound, from the Barbary Wars through Afghanistan. Officers are the first and sometimes last line of national policy.
Naval officers must be capable tacticians, but they must also be a great deal more.
The Purpose of the U.S. Naval Academy
For more than 180 years, the U.S. Naval Academy has embodied John Paul Jones’ call for naval officers of liberal education and personal honor. It has produced graduates who serve in the Navy and Marine Corps with warfighting competency, moral courage, and civic responsibility to the nation.
Fittingly, its mission is:
To develop Midshipmen morally, mentally and physically and to imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, honor and loyalty in order to graduate leaders who are dedicated to a career of naval service and have potential for future development in mind and character to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government. [Emphasis added.]
This clear statement of purpose rises above any political ideology and extends beyond the technical skills of naval science. The Academy is not simply producing technicians; it is forming character and intellect in service of national defense, civic duty, and a career of public service.
Famous examples of graduates who led with intelligence, independence, and virtue abound, such as James Stockdale, Chester Nimitz, Jimmy Carter, Jim Lovell, Hyman Rickover, and John McCain. But less-well-known heroes such as Ernest Evans, Wade McClusky, Megan McClung, Jeremiah Denton, Wendy Lawrence, John Waldron, and Dick O’Kane show that when our nation calls on Naval Academy graduates to act with honor, intelligence, conviction, and bravery, the United States can rely on their critical thinking, creativity, and ability to lead in times of trouble. These are the types of leaders sailors and Marines need and whose development will be hindered if the current trajectory continues. It also is worth noting that, under the current standards, the backgrounds of some of these individuals are not to be discussed: Evans was Native American; McClung and Lawrence women.
The Naval Academy’s mission cannot be achieved in a climate of censorship and groupthink. In fact, policies structured around such attributes undermine efforts to prepare for the next conflict. They endanger tactical proficiency, threaten strategic thinking, and compromise the development of future leaders who must be prepared to assume the highest ranks of “command, citizenship, and government,” because they will lack the breadth of knowledge and experience to lead a diverse force in a rapidly changing world.
Ethics, Duty, and Legality
Yes, the Naval Academy followed a legal order in removing books, but for military officers, following legal orders is the baseline of duty—it is the lowest bar, not the standard of excellence. While legality is an essential criterion, it does not automatically make an action right or wise. Military officers, especially those charged with upholding and executing the Naval Academy’s mission, are not just executors of authority; they are entrusted with the responsibility to lead, to think, and above all, to act with moral courage. Meeting only the requirement of legality may fulfill a regulation, but it often falls short of what leadership and ethical responsibility demand.
In complex environments, officers face decisions that are not clearly black or white. Orders may be legal yet ethically troubling, strategically flawed, or harmful to the long-term mission or civilian population. In such cases, it takes moral courage—not just discipline—to pause, question, and, if necessary, push back. History is replete with examples of when military officers upheld legal orders but failed moral responsibility. This often leads to lasting harm and dishonor, even when the individuals involved operated within legal parameters. There are instances of officers following illegal orders that should have been disobeyed, such as Marine Corps 1st Lieutenant Lewis Ambort at Sơn Thắng, Vietnam, but the legal orders that fail moral responsibility can be even more insidious. Failing to adhere to a higher duty damages the service and the nation, often costing lives but always bringing discredit.
Moral courage separates true leaders from mere functionaries. It means standing up for what is right, even when it is politically unpopular or professionally harmful. It means protecting subordinates and institutions from reckless decisions, ensuring compliance with the spirit of the law—not just its letter—and preserving the military’s integrity in the eyes of the public and the world.
Military officers swear an oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States." This clearly implies a duty to obey, but it also implies a duty to uphold values such as honor, justice, and accountability. In doing so, an officer must model the kind of leadership that builds trust within the ranks and maintains the ethical foundation of our armed forces. Without moral courage, legality becomes a shield for inaction or complicity—and that is a failure of leadership.
Legal orders are the floor; officers must aim much higher.
Pursue Intellectual Courage
Naval Academy graduates, from different backgrounds and different times, have found themselves in situations far outside the curriculum of standard naval officer training, yet have adapted and led with tenacity and courage. These were values honed in a system dedicated to more than mere naval training, one focused on personal development through open academic inquiry. Their individual actions epitomize the demands of the naval officer, the mission of the Naval Academy, and understanding that duty far exceeds the lowest thresholds of legality.
If the Naval Academy is to develop future warriors, scholars, leaders, and citizens of the highest caliber, it must encourage them to think independently. It must be unafraid to invite unpopular speakers and encourage midshipmen to read difficult books and engage in uncomfortable or divisive discussions. It must strive to remain independent from partisan politics.
This is the keel of the officer educational system and without it, the ship of moral and intellectual leadership will drift and run aground. The consequences will be fatal for sailors and Marines, disastrous for the service, and destructive for the nation.
Editor's note: An active-duty coauthor was ordered to remove his name from this article.