"What's the deal with Pete Hegseth? Am I the only veteran that recognizes this guy's personality?"

[KPN]

Found this thread title/by chance at Reddit this morning ... seemed deserving of sharing here at DU, especially in light of it being posted in "Military - The largest military subreddit on reddit".
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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?

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It's an 8 month old thread, but I found the thread reassuring re: how the Napolean wannabe is perceived among many in the military ranks. Truth be known, he's comparable only to the satirically defined Napolean, not the man Napolean Bonaparte actually was.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Military/comments/1jljfk2/whats_the_deal_with_pete_hegseth_am_i_the_only/

[surfered]

1. He struck me as the type of leader more concerned with himself and he's a fast talker.

[BonnieJW]

13. Like Harold Hill in The Music Man

Talks fast while being a con artist.

[Gore1FL]

31. Harold Hill made it work in the end, though. nt

[enigmania]

2. I think he's a bully.

[Initech]

30. He's a total fucking poser.

And he's a poser because it looks good for the Fox News cameras. That's all this is. It's all to get ratings for that pathetic shit heap of a propaganda channel.

[hlthe2b]

3. I don't doubt that military recognize a certain (disreputable) persona in Hegseth..

So, too would most of the civilian (large institution side). And yes, the suggestion that his incompetence was being rewarded because of the military's version of "the Peter Principle*" does not surprise most.

*Peter principle
Book by Laurence J. Peter
The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong is a 1969 book by Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull that introduces the concept that people in a hierarchy are promoted to their level of incompetence. The book humorously explains how this phenomenon leads to widespread incompetence in organizations and society, as employees are promoted based on their success in previous roles until they reach a position they cannot perform well.

[Ping Tung]

4. A martinet. The kind of brass we all hated.

I was in the air wing. All of our officers were pilots and all pilots had to fly a certain amount of hours to get their flight pay.

Most were acceptable but a couple of them didn't have the sense not to piss off the peasants who worked on your assigned plane. Sometimes, the the asshole plaples started to get grounded just before they took off. It was whits now called FAFO.

[Aviation Pro]

5. This is why I refer to this shitbag

As a tabless beyotch and failed infantry officer. The fucking drunk has delusions of grandeur of leading Tier level elements that he glazes hard over without going through the sacrifices these soldiers, sailors, airman and Marines went through.

He is the ultimate fucking poser, cloaked in a coat of lethality while being nothing more than a festering, pus-filled sore.

Fuck him and his pedophile boss.

[KS Toronado]

6. Informative article, thanks

[ChicagoTeamster]

7. He probably had political connections. Do we know if he even attended Ranger school or applied? Did he get peered out?

[haele]

17. Well. He does have a degree in "Politics" from Princeton in the late 90's.

According to his Wiki, he ran a Conservative news group while there. Joined the Guard in 2003
No mention of ROTC.
So, guess is, he was a smarmy HS "jock adjacent" slacker looking for something to give him some appearance of "grown up authority" and ego-boo.
(Added the edit because I thought of a better way of explaining my impression of him...)

[ChicagoTeamster]

29. I saw on Wickipedia that he was commissioned from Princeton's ROTC program. He played basketball there.

He probably didn't do any additional training other than the FTX's and two mandatory summer camps so as to not sustain an injury that would have affected his basketball status. Also, he would have had to miss team training to go to any additional military training He probably wasn't selected for Active component or didn't apply prior to graduation Instead he was commissioned into the MN Natl Guard which he would have had to apply for and be accepted. MN was his home state.

[haele]

34. Thanks for catching the ROTC cite,

Must have read too fast. But as you said, if he was on an athletic scholarship (a BA degree in Politics is rather like a BA degree in Communications - it is only as in depth as you need it to be), he probably got athletic waivers for a lot of his drills.

[calimary]

8. What does "COIN" stand for?

[lonely bird]

10. No military but my guess is

Counterintelligence or counterinsurgence.

[COL Mustard]

20. Counterinsurgency

nt

[calimary]

39. Aha!

Thanks, COL Mustard and lonely bird!

[Wounded Bear]

9. You can say what you like about service members, but most have good bullshit detectors...nt

[chowder66]

11. "dangerously meh". Well put!

[pansypoo53219]

18. teehee. see his ax throw.

[Hey Joe]

12. Hagsbreath is just another barstool soldier

who’s egomania and malevolence totally eclipses any ability or qualifications he pretends to possess.
So far out of his league he has become a running joke in and out of the military.
Go have another drink Petey 🍸🍹🧉

[KPN]

37. That's certainly the message I took from this reddit thread.

He’s a clown masquerading as a deservedly important person. Any normal person would behave humbly, and feel at least humble if not humiliated by their own of lack of experience and ability in his shoes.

[Bo Zarts]

14. He reminds me of an XO we had in Vietnam .. a major.

Major D____ had a fifth-a-night Scotch whiskey habit. His days were spent in a daze. He was horrible, and he expected the junior officers (like me) to use their PX ration cards to buy him Scotch. Well, he paid for it, but we used our allotments to keep him in his habit. We were glad to oblige because we drank beer only, for the most part.

It was a top-secret, crypto, special intelligence aviation unit, and Major D____ was afraid to fly. He had to fly once every 90 days to qualify for flight pay, so the poor training officer got to ride around the field a few times with the major, letting him attempt to land the aircraft.

The good news: As long as Major D____ was supplied with whiskey, he seldom bothered us. And I never saw him fly a combat mission.

[COL Mustard]

21. Damn. That's a LOT of whiskey.

I presume he moderated after he came back...otherwise that's going for liver failure.

[The Wizard]

22. We had a Lieutenant XO in Vietnam

who was a first class shit bag. One day he abused the wrong guy and shortly after he was handed a radio, a compass, a map and binoculars with these instructions: Adjust fire. We never saw him again.

[LearnedHand]

25. What does "adjust fire" mean?

And do you mean he disappeared completely or just didn’t abuse your group anymore?

[The Wizard]

35. He was assigned to be a forward observer

People who got reassigned were usually not seen again by the people they were with before reassignment. Forward observer was a very dangerous job. The enemy would look for the radio antenna as the forward observer was the one calling in artillery support.

[LearnedHand]

36. Thank you

[GP6971]

33. We had an 04 like that. A real PITA...he was always demanding we cover for him.

Ended up that one day he was there and then he wasn't. I later heard he was forced out and joined a reserve unit. Good Riddance!

[Joinfortmill]

40. Scary, though. Thank you for your service.

Ex was in 'Nam. He was a closed book. But always ,'ran toward the fire', if you know what I mean. A hero to his core.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

15. He's a product of the Fox News machine

The audience is made ignorant and subservient to a cabal of cons. He's their first military manifestation of a phoney crusade to rid the world of "others". They're vile. And their followers/viewers servile.

[ashredux]

16. So, he was with 101st I never got out of jump school?

Hell, I was only 5/10 and weighed 150 pounds and I made it through jump school with 101st. What a pussy.

[eppur_se_muova]

19. Currently reading a biography of Napoleon -- author calls him a pychopath, he was obviously a megalomaniac as well.

Some of the parallels with Trmp are eye-opening, as is the contrast. NB was better educated, much more competent, and actually reformed the wreck that was the French government (not entirely for the better, to be certain). And he was more at war with his own family (mostly over Josephine) than Trmp has ever appeared to be. Of course, he won some campaigns through exceedingly hands-on tactics and some truly astonishing luck, but lost two entire armies (so far -- we haven't even gotten to Moscow yet) through appallingly bad planning, where he engaged in planning beyond the fantasy stage at all. And he looted not just France, but its recent conquests, to accomplish those disasters.

The comparison with Kegsbreath seems almost laughable. The only power Kegsbreath has is what was handed to him on a gold-plated platter. Napoleon seized power through audacity and cruelty and, admittedly, tactical competence (strategy was another thing). Kegsbreath looks like a Mean Girl who found a powerful sugar daddy in contrast. If Trmp stops supporting him, he's not just done, he's incinerated.

(I'm no military expert, and would welcome hearing from real military thinkers/planners where they can speak out re Kegsbreath. I know he has some accomplices, but can't believe they're all that many (could the Universe really be that cruel ?) or sufficiently well-placed to survive the next ketchup-flinging outburst.)

[JCMach1]

23. Not SECDEF. He is SOW

[alterfurz]

41. aka/dba TripleSECDEF

[struggle4progress]

24. Hobbit Drinking

[spanone]

26. He's psychotic

[KPN]

38. Yup.

[underpants]

27. South Park "Pete Hegseth is a ****ing douche"

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220837136

[Blue Owl]

28. Kegsbreath should be required to blow into a breathalyzer every 4 hours

[GP6971]

32. It doesn't appear he attended, let alone completed, the Army Command & General Staff College.

So he had no aspirations of making LTC. Never wanted to do the hard work.