He seems to have come up thru Harvard? He’s written several books, one on the subject of restoring the defense dept to how it should be.
His number one qualification? Total loyalty to Trump.
In my opinion he isn’t qualified. I like him, he seems like a good guy. I think he’d do a good job as director of the VA, but not SecDef.
Picking fly Sh$t out of pepper? How many SoD’s do you think could of answered those question going into the job. Very few.
Hegseth went on to receive his Bachelor of Arts in politics at Princeton University in 2003.[6][7] While there, he wrote for The Princeton Tory magazine[8] and played basketball for the Tigers under coach John Thompson III.[9][10] Their team made the NCAA tournament in 2001.[11][12]
In 2013, he received a Master of Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.[13]
Military career
Early career
After graduating from Princeton in 2003, Hegseth joined Bear Stearns as an equity capital markets analyst and was also commissioned as an infantry officer in the Minnesota National Guard.[14] In 2004, his unit was called to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, under the operational control of the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, of the 101st Airborne Division, where he served as an infantry platoon leader and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal. Shortly after returning from Cuba, Hegseth volunteered to serve in Baghdad and Samarra, Iraq, where he served first as an infantry platoon leader and later as civil-military operations officer. During his time in Iraq, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, and a second Army Commendation Medal.[15][citation needed]
Return to active duty
Hegseth returned to active duty in 2012 as a captain.[16] He deployed to Afghanistan with the Minnesota Army National Guard and acted as a senior counterinsurgency instructor at the Counterinsurgency Training Center in Kabul.[citation needed] In 2014, Hegseth was promoted to the rank of major and left active duty to be assigned to the Army Individual Ready Reserve.[17][18]
National guard service
In 2019, Hegseth rejoined the National Guard after five years in the Individual Ready Reserve.[18]
Biden inauguration controversy
Hegseth was one of 12 troops who were removed from the group of National Guardsmen providing security for the inauguration of Joe Biden after he was discovered to have a tattoo that has been associated with some white supremacist and nationalist groups.[19][20][21]
In 2020, he volunteered to be one of the up-to-25,000 Guard troops authorized by the Pentagon to be put on active duty to help safeguard the January 20, 2021, inauguration. On January 14, 2021, a fellow Guard member who was the unit’s security manager and on an anti-terrorism team sent an email to the unit’s leadership notifying them of a tattoo on Hegseth’s bicep reading “Deus Vult”, a phrase the security manager determined was associated with the Crusades and, in the 21st century, with white supremacists who use it to invoke the idea of a white Christian medieval past.[19] Shortly thereafter, Hegseth was told to stay home from the event.[19]
Hegseth has said that his National Guard superiors removed him because of his Jerusalem cross tattoo,[20] which they determined was connected to extremism but which he said is simply a Christian symbol.[22] He wrote in his book that this caused him to resign in disgust, and his last day in uniform was March 31, 2021.[18]
In January 2024, he officially separated from the National Guard’s Individual Ready Reserve, he said in his book.[23]
HENRY KNOX
Source: Founder of the Day"By age 20, Knox had opened his own bookstore in Boston. His establishment was frequented by British soldiers as well the local elite. His reading and conversation often turned to military tactics and history."
When Henry Knox joined the rebels outside Boston, General Artemus Ward ordered him to instruct the artillery units during the Battle of Bunker Hill.
When George Washington arrived he quickly developed a friendship with Knox that would last a lifetime. Washington put Knox in charge of artillery for the entire Continental Army.
Branch/service United States Army
Years of service 2003–2014, 2019–2021
Rank Major
Unit Minnesota Army National Guard
Battles/wars
Iraq War
War in Afghanistan
Awards
Bronze Star Medal
Army Commendation Medal (2)
Combat Infantryman Badge
There’s not a chance in hell he would pull out of Afghanistan and leave a few billion dollars worth of weapons for China to reverse engineer.
Democrats woudl like him better if he put on a dress and demanded unqualified people be put in positions of authority based on skin color and sexual kink...
Liberals have brought us to the brink of World War III and they think WE should be like them? Are they nuts?
Some are understandably suggesting that Hegseth may be under qualified, and I admit to having mixed feelings, but Trump seems to be taking a very different tack during his second administration, he is putting loyalty at a higher premium than almost anything else. It will be interesting to see how this works out…I’m betting it goes better than last time.
Give me a break! We have SecDef after SecDef with no apparent clue what our services are supposed to do to be ready for war. We have had dilettantes, blowhards, people in bed the the defense industry, DEI imbeciles and so on.
It’s time for a real leader - with real world experience- to take over.
You head on back to Hillary.
Do you want another beltway suit or someone who has smelled the cordite?
He is intelligent, combat experienced and knows how the military works. He might be considered an outsider by the politicians but that is a good thing.
Officers do not attend Basic Training, they attend the Infantry Officers Basic Course.
All depends how he was commissioned. West Point, ROTC, OCS
Some officers go thru basic and the MOS they choose dictates where they go to basic trainng.
If you enlist in the infantry, you go to Ft Benning. If you choose to pursue a commission, you put in for OCS. When you graduate OCS you choos what branch you want.
If you choose Infantry Officer, AFTER you graduate you go to the Infantry Officer school. Then off to Jump and Ranger school.
If you choose tanks, you go to the Armor Officer School
None of the democraps picks could answer those questions. None.
It's a pretty low bar to beat what we've had in the last 4 years. A major feather in his hat will be that he supports Trump and won't sell him down the river at the drop of a hat. I'm sure there will be loads of testimony from former team mates that know his reactions under fire. Planning for battles and war is done by egg heads anyway.
The way it's going to work under Trump is Trump will make the decision and pass it on to Hegseth and he will say "Yes Sir" and make it happen. Having a base of patriotism and common sense is pretty much the requirements needed by Sec of Defense. Planning will most likely come from CIA, NSC, and other secret organizations. We need to remove more of the secret clearances of the traitors in the last regime. We don't need people that sided with Biden or the enemies of the US. They certainly don't need jobs at CNN and MSNBC. I'm frankly against these people being within throwing distance of sensitive information. Let's let Trump pick his own people. These guys with medals pinned to their chests have probably done less war fighting than Hegseth. Sec of Defense in the past have usually been peacocks that could speak on TV rather than war fighters.
I genuinely appreciate your service, and I expect most of what I say will not be a surprise to you.
Hegseth, if confirmed, is not going to be running the details of the Pentagon. He is going to have subordinates who do that, and bring him information on which to base his decisions.
He is a combat veteran, I feel confident he has significant skill in leadership. He knows what the mission is (he will get that from Trump directly, who will no doubt let him do his job the way he sees fit.). He also, as a combat veteran, possesses the skill to size people up and measure them. It is a known and valuable characteristic of people who are classified as combat leaders, “door-kickers” who can size up a group of people at a glance and have the lay of the land.
You were a Major, so I expect you know all this.
One thing to keep in mind-you do know that there was a significant rift between decorated Generals such as Milley, Mattis, and Kelley and Trump? Did you ever wonder why there was a rift?
One of the major causes was that when Trump wanted to find out the situation on the ground in Afghanistan, he didn’t bring in the Flag Officers who all think they are the first ones who should be consulted. He brought in a dozen or so enlisted men who had served in combat in Afghanistan to find out what they thought about the situation.
And Trump specifically ordered that no officers should be present, so he could get honest opinions on what the enlisted personnel thought of the situation.
It is said that Kelly was irate at this, typical from a gasbag general. He thought everything should filter through him, providing the President with information likely supplied by Perfumed Princes concerned with their next star, all fed information by a platoon of ass-kissing officers.
Conservatives who love this country are far beyond about caring how high or low on the totem pole a man is, and we REALLY don’t give a flying crap about who he spent time in bed with. We have a country that needs saving, and we want someone who is not going to be turned into a pushover for other people’s agendas as soon as he sets foot in Washington DC. He doesn’t come across as that kind of person.
What is not necessary is the handle on the details of a budget, the administrative lag of an extended bureaucracy, how many women or minorities are promoted to flag rank.
He doesn’t need to know how to manage the budget. He will find loyal and knowledgable people to do that for him. He isn’t one of those jackasses who run the show but need to know every detail so they can micromanage everything and screw it up. He will find competent people he trusts, and he will depend on them to do their jobs, the same way he did in combat. We don’t need someone who can manage a budget. There are tens of thousands of people who can do that.
What they need is someone to give them direction and let them do their jobs. He will do that.
He is someone who understands the mission is to put ordinance on target. Everything else is just fluff. If we have to depend on our military (and we no doubt will have to) we need someone like him to root out the rot.
We need someone who will put an instant stop to the mandatory DEI training going on. Every second spent on that steaming pile of dog-squeeze is a second spent not keeping equipment up to date so airplanes can fly, training watch standers to be competent on the bridge of a naval vessel at sea, and training soldiers in combat to put ordinance on target.
That is what we need, and we need it right now. Not today. Not tomorrow. We need it YESTERDAY.
Do you think even a quarter of the senior DoD leadership over the last four years could answer these questions.
Good heavens, what a thread full of nail biting.
If you want to know who Pete is, read his latest book, The War on Warriors. It’s written as if he knew he would be nominated, and he offers a set of solutions that will clean up the Pentagon for generations. He excoriates, Austin, Milley, and the current head of the Joint Chiefs, Brown.
What do Milley, Austin, and Brown have in their resumes to recommend them over Pete, who is a straight shooter? If a record of rising through the ranks by kissing politician’s butts is your criterion, you’d choose them over Pete. He’s been messed over by the Pentagon, and if he gets the job his command of DoD will be personal, ruthless, and sweeping.
As to personal life. Kavanaugh was practically an alter boy, and they made him out to be a rapist. I say get Pete through just as Kavanaugh made it to the SCOTUS.
Then get out of the way.
Read the book. Pete is one of us. Not a RINO. Not a politician.
Whatever you do, do NOT join the press and RINOS in attacking him.
My brother enlisted in the USAF. He had a degree and had already received an endorsement from Senator Sam Nunn and another Georgia politician. They made him a Red Rope from the start and after a few months he was promoted from Airman to Staff Sergeant with an OTS slot at Medina Annex, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.
What you said here is not quite right. You are talking about OTC that is a mode outside of college, not concurrent with it.
Individuals who enlist into the Army ROTC in exchange for college funding DO attend Basic Training that any enlisted not-yet-commissioned person receives, knowing that if one does not complete the requirements for obtaining a degree and a commission, he/she still has to complete the time in service for which he/she signed up. The Basic Training period is completed while the candidate is still in college.
U. S. Army ROTC recruiting details:
"Become an Army leader through Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) (click here), which teaches valuable skills and covers your college education."