The Department of Defense is moving to establish unified fitness standards for men and women in combat roles. UFC veteran and former Army Special Forces sniper Tim Kennedy recently appeared on Fox News to voice his strong support for Secretary of Defense’s decision to implement one standard for both genders in military combat positions.
“American lives matter. The Legacy and survival of our country, our Republic – those things matter,” Kennedy stated during the interview. “When you are having two different standards for our Warriors going into war, it’s idiotic. It’s going to get Americans killed and it’s ultimately going to lead to the demise of the most important country that’s ever existed in our species existence.”
For years, the military has maintained different physical fitness requirements for men and women. As outlined in the interview, men needed to perform a minimum of three pull-ups or 34 push-ups in two minutes, while women were only required to complete one pull-up or 15 push-ups. Similarly, men had to run 1.5 miles in 13 minutes, compared to the 15-minute allowance for women.
Kennedy, who has experience both as a Green Beret and as a professional fighter in the UFC, emphasized that combat roles should be based solely on merit and ability.
“It’s a meritocracy,” he explained. “The only metric of measurement is lethality, your ability to do your job.”
There’s no word yet on how the military feels about stolen valor – considering Kennedy was called out by a number of veterans outing the many embellishments and irresponsible claims from his book.
Kennedy is angling to have a career in politics it seems, he even accused said veterans of trying to derail him despite the fact that they agree on most issues.
The veterans criticized Kennedy for focusing on emotional appeals in his rebuttal video rather than addressing their allegations. Kennedy suggested the timing of these accusations was politically motivated, hinting at potential government appointments being sabotaged. However, the panel dismissed this as baseless:
“None of us had any knowledge of political appointments. That claim feels like another deflection tactic.”
“Except, I’m sorry, you brought that one. Right. We’re not the other side; we don’t do this. We agree on probably, like, 98% of things. Veterans are the ones who called you out—not the other side. So don’t even bring that argument to the table. That makes no sense at all.”
“But it was sent to us, saying that you’re being blamed for Tim’s political career coming to an end. So that’s convenient”
They went on to conclude that even the Department of Defense might take offense to his writing saying:
“And I want to say I feel like I know why they didn’t approve his book—because he admitted to war crimes that he didn’t even do. Like, the worst thing to do is to lie about a war crime that you didn’t even commit. So, you might get in trouble.”
Considering Kennedy is out there defending Hegseth’s changes it’s highly unlikely this will happen.
Kennedy further elaborated that having different standards for what ultimately amounts to the same outcome in combat situations is “beyond dangerous” and “intellectually dishonest.” According to Kennedy, such disparities are essentially “playing games with Americans’ lives,” which he described as “beyond cruel.”
The new directive focuses specifically on combat arms positions, not support roles. Kennedy clarified,
“We’re not talking about cooks, we’re not talking about somebody pushing pencils. We’re talking about people that are going to be infantry, that are going to be Riflemen, that are going to be special forces, that are going to be Navy SEALs, that are going to be going to Ranger school.”
The UFC veteran also touched on how different standards have affected military culture, saying it “has built resentment.” He emphasized that the military perspective is straightforward:
“We see no shades of color of skin color, of religion, of gender. We see your ability to do a job. We see two things: you can do it or you can’t do it. You contribute to the task, you contribute to the team, or you’re a liability.”
The policy change signals a move away from what some critics have called “woke” experimentation in the military, returning focus to combat readiness and operational effectiveness. As Kennedy concluded,
“We have to start winning our Wars.”
