I think it’s sufficient to say that SECDEF nominee Pete Hegseth will be confirmed by the United States Senate as our next Secretary of Defense. Hegseth handled himself quite well during his appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee while undergoing a withering attack from a bunch of screaming banshees masquerading as Democrat Senators.
Pete not only served honorably and with distinction as a warrior on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, but during his confirmation hearing he showed that he can also successfully defeat the enemy on the battlefields of Washington, D.C., where that enemy often wears a smile on their face while they stab you in the back.
Watching the likes of Elizabeth Warren, an individual who has never worn the uniform of our military nor has a clue about what it takes to serve with or for that matter command troops in the field, question Pete Hegseth was to me an insult to the confirmation process. Personally I believe that no one should be on the House or Senate Armed Services Committee who has not served honorably in our military.
Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth who in fact did serve honorably and was seriously wounded in Iraq losing both of her legs certainly meets my criteria for membership on the committee, but from her questioning and attacks against Hegseth it is clearly obvious that she no longer has anything in common with our warrior class. Nowadays she’s just another career Democrat politician, and has lost any connection to our war-fighters.
Under the leadership of General Colin Powel and General Norman Schwarzkopf Jr., for a while it seemed as though our military had learned some lessons from our long involvement in Vietnam, and was promoting genuine leaders from the ranks who our troops respected and needed to command them in these most dangerous times. Instead of just the ‘ticket-punchers’ who were looking to check the boxes necessary for that next promotion.
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But that has changed and our military leadership has reverted back to what a genuine warrior like Colonel David Hackworth wrote about in his book ‘About Face’, which was highly critical of the military leadership during the Vietnam War. He called them the “Perfumed Princes”. More politicians than warriors.
Democrats and our current and most recent crop of military ‘leaders’ certainly will question who am I, and what are my qualifications to opine on this subject since I only served as a junior enlisted man for three years towards the end of the Vietnam War. That’s certainly understandable coming from people who are so far removed from the junior enlisted ranks as to compare it to “Perfumed Princes” looking down upon lowly serfs with disdain. They haven’t a clue how to relate to or understand how the warriors feel who fight and die for this country.
I spent three years as a civilian in Baghdad, attached to a military unit. The nature of my work required me to carry a weapon and wear the same uniform as did the soldiers I was serving with.
I recall clearly one day watching an older and very senior enlisted soldier conducting ‘sock checks’ on junior enlisted soldiers who were walking towards the chow hall to grab a bite to eat. Apparently the sock checks were to make sure the soldiers were wearing the proper socks required by the Army’s uniform regulations, even though the socks were completely covered up by the uniform pants and boots that they were wearing. One of the soldiers apparently wasn’t wearing the proper socks and the senior enlisted soldier berated him about it.
One thing the two junior enlisted soldiers were indeed wearing on the left side of the chest of their uniform though that caught my eye was the Combat Infantry Badge, something that the senior enlisted ‘sock checker’ did not have on his uniform.
Perhaps this senior enlisted soldier was indeed authorized to wear that same device but simply had not sewn it on. But anyone who has served in the Army knows that the Combat Infantry Badge is a highly coveted award. When you wear that on your uniform it stands out. Others recognize that it means that you have been in combat, you’ve engaged with the enemy, and you’ve been shot at.
I couldn’t help but think to myself as I watched this spectacle that those two junior enlisted soldiers had probably seen far more actual combat, had fought and bled, and had watched comrades die, while the senior enlisted ‘sock checker’ spent his time insuring that the regulation footwear was properly worn by soldiers under his command.
That’s what I would compare the Democrats with who attacked SECDEF nominee Pete Hegseth during his confirmation hearing, along with much of the current crop of “leadership” in our Armed Forces. Just a bunch of ‘sock checkers’.
Pete Hegseth was a SOLDIER, a real WAR-FIGHTER. A leader of men and women. He deserves confirmation as this nation’s next Secretary of Defense if for no other reason than he’s been there in the thick of it. He hasn’t forgotten about those who had his back, and those whose back he covered in return.
Polished brass and rows upon rows of ribbons on one’s chest does not make one a leader. Dirty boots and sweat on your brow does.
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