By pyrene (MacArthur Society)

The Deputy Commandant of Cadets, United States Corps of Cadets, issued a memorandum for record on February 4, 2025 disbanding a list of cadet clubs. This is pursuant to guidance from the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Army.

Too bad the Superintendent and Commandant of United States Military Academy didn’t think to do it on their own.

It’s interesting to see what the new civilian leadership saw which professional soldiers missed.

The cadet clubs disbanded were known as Shared Interest Group (SIG) clubs. They weren’t common interest clubs, like chess, kayaking, orienteering, or skydiving, etc.

They were based on immutable characteristics of “race” or gender. And, one club was based on the sexual behaviors formerly celebrated during Pride Month.

They were exclusionary of all others – and by definition “racist” and “sexist” – in their singular inclusion of like members based on birth only.

Also, they only included a politically correct list of identity political affinities.

There wasn’t a club for Sons of Union Veterans, Daughters of the American Revolution, or the Fighting Irish, etc.

Subordinate organizations promoting affinity by race or ethnicity, gender, or country of origin divides any organization into “us and them.”

Hard stop.

The cadet religious organizations remaining at USMA aren’t based on race or gender or sexual behavior. The free exercise of religion is a First Amendment Right. The need for religious instruction, counseling, and services for soldiers in the Army was established with Army Chaplain Corps on June 29, 1775.

Ending affinity groups is good news for USMA, the Army, and the Nation.

The Duty, Honor, Country Commission (DHCC) proposed by the MacArthur Society, Calvert Task Group, and STARRS would investigate who established the affinity groups, when, and why. It would look at the records which have been ordered to be preserved to see what the groups did and espoused in fact.

Affinity groups may look harmless to everyone ignorant of the Cultural Marxism behind DEI and CRT. Unfortunately, politically-correct identity political groups definitively are part of the malignancy of a Cultural Marxist cancer.

Furthermore, a DHCC will identify the steps to build institutional barriers against the return of this division in a different administration. Restoring USMA to its foundational “Duty, Honor, Country” should make it impervious to any future attempt to corrupt it.

It’s doubtful that past administrations actually ordered USMA to have affinity groups. Officials at USMA approved them, funded them, and applauded them in official publications.

USMA, USNA, and USAFA must be the castle keep of national values and not the puppets to any political fad. Civilian rule and illegal orders never supersede the Officer’s oath to the Constitution.

Duty, Honor, Country.