The U.S. military continues to defend current training standards more than a year after a “concerned Green Beret” outed commanders for lowering expectations to increase ranks and further their own careers.
The author of an email blast accusing leaders of “moral cowardice”was given an Article 15, which limits his ability to be promoted. The commander of instructors was removed and given the lowest evaluation score possible.
Now two more Green Berets who openly criticized standards before the email blast, say they're being punished by association.
Military commanders insist that standards have not been lowered, but have evolved over time.
Rod Windham was an Airborne Ranger in Vietnam. He says it's an argument that goes back generations.
“Other officers that were older than I was, they felt like that when I went through Ranger School compared to the old days, the standards had been lowered,”he says. “I felt once I graduated, from that point on the standards had been lowered.”
Windham says the perception is that standards are being lowered for women --two of which graduated Ranger School in 2015.
“My friend was a classmate to one of them, and his statement to me was'I'll go to battle with her before I will some of my classmates in Ranger School.”
Windham believes today's soldiers are at least as good, if not better than his generation.