SecDef Pete Hegseth Will Be a Welcome Injection of Vitamin I (Infantry)
Kurt Schlichter
While the nomination of Pete Hegseth stunned me at first, upon further reflection its genius became clear. Donald Trump isn’t bringing Pete Hegseth, a decorated Infantry major and longtime Fox host, into the Pentagon to don the green eye shades and closely manage every element of the military behemoth like a reborn Robert McNamara. Trump hired Hegseth to channel George Patton and apply a jump boot to the buttocks of our deadweight military along with an injection of combat arms leadership and attitude.
The combat arms are different than the other branches of the Army. In the combat arms – particularly Infantry, Armor/Cavalry, and Special Forces – extremely aggressive and uncompromising leadership is the standard. After all, these are the folks who close with the enemy and kill them. There’s talk about how Pete Hegseth will need to win over the DoD bureaucracy, but that’s not what combat arms officers like Hegseth do. He’s not going to be about winning over bureaucrats and flag officers. Commanders command. When the Army gives you command of a unit, you sign a memorandum stating that you formally “assume” command. When you put your John Hancock on the paper, you’ve got the job, but you’re not the commander yet. You are not the commander until you take command.
The combat arms is a land of wolves, people. It’s all predators. And you better bring a whip and a chair because they will eat you alive. Of course, the Pentagon is a land of wolves too, but these are fat, toothless wolves more concerned with their petty prerogatives and pending pensions than with accomplishing the mission. In the combat arms, if you show weakness, if you show hesitation or doubt, your men are going to look at you, shake their heads, and you’re going to fail.
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https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2024/11/18/secdef-pete-hegseth-will-be-a-welcome-injection-of-vitamin-i-infantry-n2647885
