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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth Updated Us on Operation Epic Fury. Here's What He Said.

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  March 02, 2026 8:30 AM

The Department of War announced last night that Secretary Hegseth would be holding a press conference this morning to update the nation on Operation Epic Fury, the U.S.-Israel-led joint strikes on the Iranian government.

In the first 12 hours of the strikes, which launched overnight Friday into Saturday, joint forces dropped nearly 1,000 bombs and missiles on specific targets in and around Iran, including military targets and infrastructure.

They also took out 40 members of the Iranian government, including the Ayatollah Khamenei. 

Sadly, three U.S. service members were killed, and five more were seriously wounded yesterday. In Pakistan, ten were killed when pro-Iran protesters tried to overtake the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan, and more than 30 were injured. All the casualties appear to be the pro-Iran protesters and not U.S. troops or Embassy employees.

Prior to the press conference, Fox News also reported that a fourth U.S. service member has died.

During the press conference, Hegseth said our troops are doing a "fantastic job."

"For 47 long years, the expansionist and Islamist regime in Tehran has waged a savage and one-sided war against America. They don't always declare it openly, except for their constant chants of 'Death to America.' They did it through the blood of our people. Car bombs in Beirut, rocket attacks on our ships, murders at our embassies, roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan. Funded and armed by Iranian Quds force and IRGC killers," Hegseth said.

"We didn't start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it," Hegseth continued. "It took the 47th president, a fighter who always puts America first, to finally draw the line after 47 years of Iranian belligerence."

"President Trump has also been very consistent. Crazy regimes like Iran, hellbent on prophetic Islamists' delusions, cannot have nuclear weapons. It's common sense," Hegseth said. "Many have said it, but it takes guts to actually enforce it, and our President has guts."

"Iran was building powerful missiles and drones to create a conventional shield for their nuclear blackmail ambitions," Hegseth added. "Our bases, our people, our allies, all in their crosshairs. Iran had a conventional gun to our head as they tried to lie their way to a nuclear bomb. It almost worked; under Obama and his terrible deal. But not under this President."

"The Iranian leadership has built nothing except proxies and missiles and drones and deeply buried nuclear factories and facilities. Peaceful nuclear ambitions do not need to be buried underneath mountains," Hegseth said. "Last June, Operation Midnight Hammer obliterated their nuclear program to rubble. Afterward, we told them plainly ... make a deal. They arrogantly refused. We said rebuild it, and we'll stop you again, this time far worse."

Hegseth said the U.S. "bent over backward" to offer Iran a pathway to peace. "The former regime had every chance to make a peaceful and sensible deal. But Tehran was not negotiating, they were stalling," Hegseth continued, "buying time to reload their missile stockpiles and restart their nuclear ambitions."

"President Trump doesn't play those games, and as Secretary Rubio said after the Maduro raid, 'If you don't know, now you know.' President Trump puts America and Americans first. He doesn't hesitate, and neither do our troops. The mission of Operation Epic Fury is laser-focused: destroy Iranian offensive missiles, destroy Iranian missile production, destroy their navy and other security infrastructure, and they will never have nuclear weapons. We are hitting them surgically, overwhelmingly, and unapologetically," Hegseth said.

"We set the terms of this war from start to finish," Hegseth said. "Our ambitions are not utopian. They are realistic. Scoped to our interests and to the defense of our people and our allies."

Hegseth also reinforced President Trump's message to the Iranians: "Now is your time."

"This is not Iraq. This is not endless. I was there for both," Hegseth said to the media and the Left. "Our generation knows better and so does this President. HE called the last 20 years of nation-building wars dumb, and he's right. This is the opposite. This operation is a clear, devastating, decisive mission. Destroy the missile threat, destroy the navy, no nukes."

"America, regardless of what so-called international institutions say, is unleashing the most lethal and precise air power campaign in history," Hegseth said. "All on our terms, with maximum authorities. No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy building exercise. No politically correct wars. We fight to win, and we don't waste time or lives," Hegseth said.

"War is hell, and always will be," Hegseth said of casualties. "A grateful nation honors the four we've lost thus far, and those injured. The absolute best of America. May we prosecute the remainder of this operation in a manner that honors them. No apologies, no hesitation, epic fury. For them, and the thousands of Americans before them, taken too soon by Iranian radicals."

Hegesth also addressed the warriors on the frontlines: "This is your moment. This is the generational turning point America has waited for since 1979. And since the rudderless wars of hubris, my generation, our generation, endured, don't listen to the noise. Just stay focused. Our Commander in Chief is steady at the wheel. We face a determined enemy, but you are better. But we must prove it, every single day. History doesn't care if we're tired, if we're scared, or if the fight feels big. It demands warriors who rise anyway. Peace through strength, the warrior ethos, lethality, unity of purpose — those are not slogans. They're the beating heart of what it means to wear the uniform."

"We are not defenders anymore, we are warriors, trained to kill the enemy and break their will. History is watching," Hegseth added. "Be the force you swore an oath to be: focused, disciplined, lethal, and unbreakable. We will finish this on America First conditions, of President Trump's choosing. Nobody else's. As it should be. And know this above all: President Trump and I have your back. Always. Through fire, through criticism, through fake news, through everything."