Happy Friday! One of the biggest stories this week has been about how the Army announced it was slashing the number of training courses that soldiers are required to take each year from 27 to 16. This is a continuation of mandatory training cuts. In May, the Army cut 346 hours of Professional Military Education, or PME. As any E-4 or below will tell you, PME can be a gigantic time suck, and if they can get away with sleeping through it, they will.
Now, commanders can decide whether their soldiers need to meet these training requirements.
Cutting down the amount of online training that soldiers must take will allow them to focus on building “warrior ethos” through “tough, realistic training,” Command Sgt. Maj. Chris Mullinax said on Tuesday.
While some on social media have questioned why certain courses will no longer be mandatory, such as Combat Lifesaver training and law of war training for operational units, this is not the first, or even second attempt to lessen the amount of training that service members are required to take.
In 2017, then-Defense Secretary James Mattis ordered a review “to improve warfighting readiness” that included looking at “requirements for mandatory force training that does not directly support core tasks.” The following year, the Army announced it would let commanders reduce or eliminate training not directly related to combat.
It’s worth noting that service members have long complained about being overburdened by cumbersome, confusing, and mind-numbingly dull computer-based training. In February, Austin von Letkemann, who runs the MandatoryFunDay social media accounts, jokingly begged Elon Musk to not let the Department of Government Efficiency cut any of the online training troops must take because it’s “totally not a waste of time and teaches us great skills that we use every day.”
Musk responded on X, writing, “How much time is spent doing pointless ‘online training’? Sounds pretty bad. Even I have to do some of this stuff.”
With that, here’s your weekly rundown:
- DOD IG looks into “Signalgate.” The Defense Department Inspector General’s Office announced on Thursday that it was looking into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the Signal messaging app following news reports that Hegseth shared operational details of imminent strikes in Yemen with a chat group that included a reporter. Hegseth and other Trump administration officials have said that no classified information was shared in the chat. The inquiry, which comes at the request of the chair and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, will look into whether Hegseth and other defense officials followed Defense Department procedures for using a commercial messaging app to conduct official business.
- Soldiers who died in Lithuania identified. All four soldiers who died when their M88A2 Hercules armored recovery vehicle sank in a Lithuanian bog on March 25 have been identified. They were all assigned to the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division out of Fort Stewart, Georgia. “To the families, please know you are not alone in your grief, as they were immensely loved by this division; we stand with you united in honoring their memory,” Maj. Gen. Christopher Norrie, head of the 3rd Infantry Division, said in a statement.
- Ukraine expects a new Russian offensive. Russia could be preparing to launch a major offensive in eastern Ukraine that could last between six to nine months. The expected offensive would come on the heels of Ukraine’s recent withdrawal from Russia’s Kursk region after seven months. Hegseth does not plan to attend an upcoming meeting of 57 countries to coordinate military assistance to Ukraine, marking the first time since the group was established that an American defense secretary will not be there.
- Defense Department hiring freeze exemptions. The Pentagon announced that it will exempt “mission-critical positions” from its hiring freeze to allow the Defense Department to keep hiring civilian employees for shipyards, arsenals, medical treatment facilities, and other positions “that contribute to our warfighting readiness.” The Pentagon is trying to cut up to 8% off its civilian workforce, likely including thousands of veterans.
- Remembering “Iceman.” Actor Val Kilmer, who played “Iceman” in both “Top Gun” and “Top Gun: Maverick,” died on Tuesday at the age of 65. One of his most famous roles was one the bank robbers in the 1995 movie “Heat,” which featured a climactic shootout that Marines at the School of Infantry were shown during the Global War on Terrorism era to illustrate the concept of bounding overwatch.
- Have you seen Pam, the missing python? And now, for something completely different: A soldier’s three-foot pet python has gone missing in the Keltenwall Housing Area at U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria-Hohenfels, Germany, said Kayla Overton, a spokeswoman for U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria. The python’s name is Pam, and the soldier did not have written approval to own the snake, Overton said. The U.S. Army W.T.F! moments Facebook page first posted on March 27 that Pam was missing. “Pam has not been found,” Overton told Task & Purpose on Thursday. “The soldier’s unit is assisting with the search in the local housing area.”
Good luck to the soldiers looking for Pam! See you all next week.
Jeff Schogol