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Posted on 10/02/2025 4:39:47 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has identified real problems, veteran officers say, but by looking back 35 years for policy cues, he risks hurting, not helping, military readiness.
A ban on beards. A focus on physical fitness, and more protections for unapologetically aggressive leaders. In an unusual speech in front of hundreds of generals and admirals, and in a flurry of memorandums afterward, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth outlined his vision of a tougher and more disciplined military, without what he called “woke garbage” getting in the way.
But former military officers took issue with Mr. Hegseth’s list of policy changes, saying that some of them seemed redundant and others threatened to undermine his goals of increased readiness and lethality.
The secretary focused heavily on personnel matters. In are mandatory shaving, more harrowing basic training and daily physical training for everyone. Out are requirements that protect whistle-blowers from retribution and rules that require formally reviewing past misconduct when screening leaders for promotion.
Don Christensen, a retired Air Force colonel and former military lawyer who watched the speech, said it seemed “disconnected from reality.”
“The big issues in the military are not with beards and people being out of shape and rampant D.E.I.,” said Mr. Christensen, who after retiring from the military led Protect Our Defenders, a group that protects whistle-blowers.
Mr. Hegseth urged the assembled generals and admirals to apply what he called the “1990 rule,” and scrutinize any changes to training or standards that were made in the last 35 years. “1990 seems to be as good a place to start as any,” Mr. Hegseth told his audience.
It was also the last year before laws that excluded women from combat roles were changed, starting a long process that has led to women serving in nearly every part of the armed forces,...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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(My apologies to FReepers with weak stomachs.)
I loved every line of his speech. I’ve only been without some color of military ID card for six of my nearly 68 years. What he described is what I knew until the last two years of my military service.
Colonel, USAF JAGC (Ret)
Being well trained, physically fit, and efficient saves money and reduces risks. What moron doesn’t understand that.
ugh. Helen Thomas is easier on the eyes then that freak.
Weren't these guys part of the problem?
You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. John 8:32. These retromingent, evil bastards are not interested in truth. We have an agenda and how dare you challenge us!
When there are no absolutes to govern society, society becomes absolute.
The NY Slime is a case in point. Hope they repaid the loan from Carlos Slim.
This is what serious mental illness looks like.
They get a lawyer in the Chair Force to try to argue that DEI, Woke crap and a lack of physical fitness weren’t real problems? uhh....last I checked lawyers in the military are not warfighters. What the hell would he know?
Don’t they mean War Secretary?
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE
Mr. Christensen was part of the problem that Hegseth wants to fix. Hegseth only wants to go back to 1990? Ok, but I’d prefer 1985 or earlier, before the first Gulf War which began the slide.
Our military needs to return to POTUS Ronald Reagan standards meaning pre-1989. 1990 puts it in the Def Sec Dork Cheney era whom with Clinton’s Def Sec gutted our military.
All 2 of them were upset with the changes.
NEW YORK SLIMES is a filthy liberal rag.
As an enlisted Navy veteran, that always pissed me off. Why would that dude want to dress in dress blues for a woman?
And, he wasn’t in the military, which is even more nuts.
Should have been sent to medical, and got the Klinger discharge. LOL
Physically fit military personnel? Oh the Hugh Manatee.
Retromingent= LMFAO...
Gas light BS. I loved what Hegseth said and the direction the military is headed.
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