Early last December the West Point/Pete Hegseth kerfuffle burst into our news feeds. At that time the odds of Hegseth being confirmed as our next secretary of defense were long and getting longer by the day. It was very clear that both the military and media establishment didn’t want him in that role. The character assassination was its own machine, nonstop, and no holds barred. Then West Point entered the fray by twice denying that Hegseth had been accepted there. Hegseth was a public figure and had, as any public figure does, told the story of his life many times, including that although he was accepted into West Point, he declined and attended Princeton instead.
You would think this is an easy detail to confirm. Yet, somehow, an elite military school got it wrong — communications staff denied he had been accepted there, including a second time when a reporter followed up by again asking if Hegseth had been accepted. West Point reversed course after being confronted with the evidence of Hegseth posting his acceptance letter on X.
West Point either showed incompetence and sloppiness or told a willful lie to hurt Hegseth’s nomination. For us civilian patriots, we hold institutions like West Point in high regard. We expect honesty and transparency. Yet its staff seemed willing to change the trajectory of a man’s life right up to the moment they got caught. It was shocking that West Point could be so cavalier about another man’s future.
Just as I was forgetting all about what West Point did to Hegseth, I learned about West Point Cadet Isaiah Hurst. He should graduate in May. Instead, he was thrown out of the military and hit with a $200,000 bill. The more I learned and read the documents pertaining to his case, I kept thinking that this cannot be happening. West Point would never do that to a cadet. I was wrong.
Military Family
Hurst comes from a military family. His grandfather served 22 years of active duty with three tours of Vietnam and is a Purple Heart recipient. His father retired from the Air Force after 29 years (nine active) with one deployment to Iraq. His brother is also a West Point graduate, currently serving. His fiancé (their wedding is this summer) is also a West Point graduate. She branched into military police and is currently finishing basic officer leadership course training. The odds of two brothers getting into West Point are slim. This is a proud military family and Hurst is the product of that service. He enlisted in 2019, became a 68W combat medic, graduated from airborne school in 2020, and a year later received his appointment to the class of 2025 at West Point.
I have known Cadet Hurst’s parents for more than 25 years. My wife went to school with his mother and for a season we all lived in the same state until they moved away in 2009; they remain friends today. That’s how I became aware of Cadet Hurst’s situation at West Point. Although I haven’t seen him since he was a very young boy, once I learned about his situation it became impossible to do nothing.
The Accusation
West Point alleges that Hurst lied about a physical fitness test called the Indoor Obstacle Course Test (IOCT) — West Point vacillated between accusing him of not taking the test or falsifying his time. The test is held in a gymnasium on campus and proctored by staff.
How did this happen? At the starting line, cadets hand Department of Physical Education staff their scorecards before they can begin. The clock starts, and the staggered start times are recorded on the card, with cadets going in pairs. At the end, the cadets are handed yellow sticky notes with their finishing times on it, and proctors then write the times on the scorecard, leaving the notes for verification, and file them away. Cadets advise each other to take a photo of themselves with their yellow sticky note to prove they did the test in case their paperwork disappears, which I’ve heard is a regular occurrence.
The military needs to update these error-prone paper-based methods.
The Evidence
Hurst has such a photo, dated and time stamped. Seven cadets gave sworn statements that they saw Hurst that day in the gymnasium holding the IOCT. In sworn statements, three cadets said that they saw Hurst doing parts of the obstacle course.
Like with Hegseth, West Point, instead of admitting that they lost his index card, doubled down and alleged that Hurst cheated the test somehow (without any plausible description of how).
The Department of Physical Education instructor overseeing the IOCT that day emailed Hurst that they had never lost paperwork on her watch. From that moment on it seems that at every turn in the disciplinary process West Point was more interested in the narrative that they weren’t sloppy with his paperwork than in the truth.
Throughout the process, Hurst was pressured to admit he lied in return for leniency, but he refused.
That a cadet would throw away his entire military career over this short physical fitness test is hard to believe. Although it is a graduation requirement, cadets who fail get to take the test again. West Point has settled on lying (thus violating the honor code) as the reason for his expulsion. The witnesses who testified they saw Hurst have not been brought before an honor board yet, but it remains a possibility.
Once West Point decided Hurst had lied, the superintendent, Lieut. Gen. Steven W. Gilland, had several options for punishment, including:
- Put him into the army mentorship program, where cadets go into enlisted ranks for a time and then are allowed to reapply to West Point.
- Separate the cadet from West Point and place him into enlisted ranks to fulfill the recoupment bill.
- Separate the cadet with the cadet paying recoupment.
He chose the harshest penalty and added a $200,000 recoupment bill. That figure shows how arbitrary the process is. The figure should reflect the cost to the military of having that cadet at West Point. It sounds too round of a number.
Even in discharging him, West Point couldn’t do the paperwork correctly. They claimed he came as a civilian to West Point, but he was enlisted. At least this time they admitted the error and Hurst is awaiting corrected paperwork.
To me, sloppy doesn’t begin to describe West Point. Sloppy paperwork on their part has cost this cadet his entire military career, wasted three years of his life, and forced him to pay $200,000 for the privilege of being railroaded by government employees administering sloppy and lazy justice.
Hurst is just waiting for the Army to rubber stamp the paperwork and formally finalize his expulsion from the military.
The West Point Honor Code is “A cadet will not lie, cheat or steal, or tolerate those who do.”
Hegseth’s photo forced West Point to admit their error. Cadet Hurst’s photo made them double-down.
Aaron DeCorte has worked in sales and marketing for more than 25 years. His wife is a 9-1-1 operator for their local police department.
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