What's the deal with Pete Hegseth? Am I the only veteran that recognizes this guy's personality?
Can we have a candid discussion on the type of guy SECDEF Hegseth appears to be? Specifically, I’d like to lead off the conversation around his high bar being mediocrity.
Let’s start with his military career. He was an infantry platoon leader for a time. Then it appears he was tasked at the S-9 (Civil Affairs). Then it appears he volunteered to teach COIN in Kabul. Then IRR. Then ARNG in DC.
Let’s unpack this. He’s an infantry officer. But he didn’t complete Ranger School, Airborne School, or Air Assault School – and he was assigned to the 101st. Why not? I spent the vast majority of my time in the Army in the heavy side of things (1AD/1CD/18ABN), and as a medical service officer, I completed both Airborne and Air Assault. I struggled to think of a single infantry officer who I’ve met that hasn’t completed at least one of the three – and I could only think of one.
Any junior officer that’s ever served in a BCT can tell you the #1 captain, if not in command, is the AS3. The lower performing folks are put in charge of made up shops – Civil Affairs being an ‘imaginary’ shop in most battalions. Our battalion’s S-9 was staffed by a never-going-to-get-promoted fat Captain and a SFC with DUI and EO problems. Speaking to former peers, that’s the general consensus – the folks in the ‘made up’ shops are the lowest performers. Why was LT/CPT Hegseth put in that position?
Then it appears that CPT Hegseth volunteered to be an instructor of some sort at the COIN academy in Kabul where he taught one class. Again, these classes are typically taught by post-command Captains/early Majors and Master Sergeants. Why would someone with no real experience in COIN be teaching COIN at a theater level? Why would a Captain be working at theater-level if not to keep him out of trouble or because no one would pick him for their team?
Those are the things we know about. Let’s talk about some things that are missing. His highest level of leadership experience appears to be Platoon Leader. His most impactful job appears to be a battalion-level Civil Affairs OIC/AOIC position. In the civilian world, even FoxNews relegated him to the weekend morning show – the doldrums of TV ratings. He apparently parted ways with the charity(s) with which he was affiliated over some alcohol related incidents – and the charities weren’t terribly impactful either.
After reading the signal conversation, it reads like a battalion/brigade battle captain briefing his boss. The granularity of the detail and tick-tock of it make it seem like he’s trying to brief an operational leader – not a group of strategic folks. It’s no wonder there aren’t many people chiming into the conversation – they were likely ignoring it because it just wasn’t being briefed to their level. It’s almost like he was trying to get attention – fishing for compliments on DoD’s actions. I don’t know why, but it just sounds so… junior… so inexperienced.
This is a guy that reads, on paper, like he aspires to mediocrity. He’s the guy that gets 300 on the PT test, does just enough to get out of writing an OPORD, has his subordinates writing their own NCOERs/OERs, manages to always have rumors of him sleeping around but never gets caught. It’s almost like he’s the guy that likes the idea of being in the military without actually being in the military. He’s the guy that volunteers to be rear-D commander, but the decision authority makes him the rear-D XO because he can’t be trusted with responsibility. He's the guy that volunteers to be an infantry officer but doesn't want to do any of the "hard" schools. I feel like I know the personality type, because we’ve all worked with them. I think we all know a Pete Hegseth and none of us would call them "leadership material."
So what’s the deal? Does no one in DoD at the strategy-level see that this guy is… dangerously meh?
Edit 2:
My inbox asked: what would you expect his career to look like?
For a 20-year infantry officer in his generation, at bare minimum, I would expect airborne or air assault, and ranger school partnered with a company command.
To keep him in line with his peers...
I would expect battalion and/or brigade S-3/XO/DCO time, a significant assignment on a G/J/C-staff, and battalion command. I would expect some time spent in Vicenza or Bragg and the Pentagon or a MACOM. I would expect CCC and ILE.
To put him ahead of his peers...
I would expect to see some SOC time, multiple successful deployments in UOA in leadership positions, maybe a nominative assignment, White House/Congressional fellowship, or a very deep resume of regiment time.
= new reply since forum marked as read
