Command Assessment Program Cancelled: Does Fairness Take a Hit?
Earlier this month, the U.S. Army officially cancelled its Command Assessment Program (CAP) — a promotion system introduced under former Secretary Christine Wormuth that used peer, subordinate, and psychological assessments to help choose battalion and brigade commanders. In place of CAP, the Army is reverting back to its legacy Centralized Selection List (CSL), which relies mainly on superior officer evaluations and performance history.
CAP was designed to reduce both conscious and unconscious bias by incorporating behavioral data and expanding who could weigh in on a candidate’s leadership.
Its elimination is being viewed as a return to the “status quo” — and raises tough questions about fairness in military promotions.
Why It Matters for Veterans …
- Bias Reinforced or Reduced?
CAP’s design sought to broaden perspective beyond traditional metrics — but those insights are now being sidelined. Does that mean we drop accountability for how inclusive our leadership process is?
- Veteran Leadership Impact:
Disabled vets or those from underrepresented communities can benefit when evaluations come from diverse sources — peers, subordinates, and mental fitness data — not just long chains of command.
- Reliability and Representation:
The old system often relied on handwritten evaluation summaries — some as short as two tweets — making it easier for hidden biases to slip through undetected.
Beyond the Headlines
CAP’s origin story gives it weight. It launched in 2019 as a pilot, became official in early 2021, and was praised for helping root out toxic leadership, identify emotionally intelligent officers, and elevate those with better command instincts. In one telling example, an officer ranked last under the traditional board rose to first via peer-informed CAP scoring.
But if CAP was flawed — it wasn’t perfect. About 54% of officers opted out in 2024, up from a 40% default participation rate, suggesting resistance to change or other concerns.
What Disabled Veterans Should Know
- Transparency Matters: Especially in roles where hierarchy and vetting are opaque, CAP offered insight into who evaluates leadership — and how those judgments are made.
- Representation Counts: In systems limited to superior rater evaluations, trusted subordinates or supporters may not get to recognize leadership traits — especially for disabled vets leading from multiple perspectives.
- Guard Against Regression: If institutional models retreat from modern assessments, disabled veterans and historically marginalized groups might lose ground in equitable representation.
Voices on the Record
“CAP put a priority on screening out individuals who exhibit counterproductive leadership behaviors… It helped ensure commanders emerging from the process were far less likely to disrupt cohesion.” ~ Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, explaining the intent behind CAP (before it became official in 2021).
On the flip side, Army officials describe the rollback as aligning with broader changes across the Defense Department’s promotion oversight — which is still under review.
Final Thoughts …
Eliminating CAP reads like a rollback of progress — one that shifts power back into older, more hierarchical structures. For disabled veterans seeking fair representation and leadership opportunities, this isn’t just a bureaucratic switch — it feels like watching the doors close.
If leadership advancement is still meant to reflect values like integrity, empathy, and emotional intelligence, then veterans must insist on fairness — no matter which system is in place.
For more in-depth insights on leadership, fairness, and veteran advocacy, visit DisabledVeterans.org.
The VA is a failed system. It must be sold for as cheap as it is. It’s not worth two shits or a flying fuck so I’m guessing they’ll barely get enough for the infrastructure to cover all the medical procedures that veterans need because they denied care. They’ve been given over a trillion dollars since 2019 and simply used that money to put on a bad theater performance for everyone.
The arbitrary denial of care at VA must end. We got people hiding in basements denying care and sweeping it under the rug. This is hidden from the public and so are some of the suits. We must expose every scandal or they’ll sweep everything under the rug. We need Medicare for Veterans, not this derelict and incompetent entity. The place is full of nut jobs.
What is the denial of care rate at VHA for medically necessary procedures? No administration yet has mandated that they publish that information. They sweep shit like that under the rug. Until they come clean about things like that, then this is not a legitimate entity. It’s really something you’d find in Russia. Just bad government.
读完这篇文章，我深感CAP系统对像我们这些残疾退伍军人来说曾是宝贵的进步。它至少提供了一个相对透明的评估领导力的机会，而不是完全依赖那些可能存在偏见或缺乏了解的上级。现在它被取消了，我真的很担心这会让我们在争取公平代表性和领导机会的道路上倒退。如果军队真的重视像正直、同情心和情商这样的价值观，那么他们应该坚持公平，无论采用哪种系统。对于残疾退伍军人来说，这不仅仅是官僚机构的变动，而是我们争取公平的门户正在关闭。我们绝不能接受这种倒退。
At VHA, if they do something stupid and you say something, there’s gonna be retaliation and abuse every damn time. Management will not application and you just have to fuck off. If there’s evet any controversy or argument about anything surrounding you, your care is basically over and you’re gonna have to leave or face denial of care and abuse for who knows how long. Folks, we need Confessional subpoenas flying, courts issuing orders against the human rights issues in there.
Dude doing pushups in the picture looks to be about 60 or 70 years old. This country will ride old grey mare until he collapses. Then the VA will offer free headstone instead of much needed care for necessary procedures. Offer “physical therapy” for pain. An insult to people’s intelligence…a slap in the face. They get paid while you go without healthcare.
So glad I’m not in service. The ball breaking, the constantly having to worry about what someone else thinks, the petty bullshit, the manufactured competition, the long hours, the intolerance of the normal range of human needs, the rules and regulations, takes a nut case to do 20-25 years in that environment. It doesn’t stop at VA either. Same kinda people end up in there and you end up dick in asshole.🥒👉🍩
Seen another article on here said “VA Study Suggests Non-VA Care Linked To Higher Opioid Risks.” So in other words, pain pills and outside care bad and VA not prescribing opioids good and VA superior. I doubt it. How the fuck is no pain medication and no surgery good? These bogus ass clowns sell shit for sugar and sugar for shit.
The VHA is a big scam. They try to fuck you on the mental health side with all sorts of bogus claims and bad philosophy. Then denial of care whenever they please on the “primary care side.” They have unlimited legal resources and immunity to fuck you over and the courts and Congress have nothing to say. Then complain about political violence. Hopefully they haven’t seen anything yet because people are fed up with nothing left to lose, and no civilized recourse thanks to our broken political system.