Hegseth is potentially a transformational SecDef. Recruiting is on the upswing because the nation can sense the change of purpose in DOD. Pride of the military, not the gay variety, is returning to the Armed Forces. Hegseth is not beholden to any corporate interest and is making changes for the benefit of the nation. That makes him a very dangerous man to the failing status quo.

Last week I gave our loyal readers a heads up that STARRS (STAND TOGETHER Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services) was going to hold a Town Hall concerning service members who think that it is appropriate to denigrate President Trump and Secretary of Defense Hegseth, engage in “malicious compliance,” and downright defiance of lawful orders issued by the Trump Administration, especially as regards the removal of DEI: U.S. Military Opposition to the Trump Administration A Matter of Concern:

There is an enormous problem in our nation’s military, one that I have not seen discussed in depth elsewhere. I have heard from multiple sources that many active duty officers openly and deeply despise the Trump Administration, and they are not at all shy about expressing their opinion both in and out of uniform. One active duty major I know estimates that it’s 1 in 4 who have this problem…

This is an astonishingly bad problem. Putting aside for the moment that this is a clear violation of Article 88 of the UCMJ, this is how military coups take place. I guess I should not be surprised given Mark Milley’s traitorous actions towards his Commander-in-Chief, but the fact that this has permeated to lower levels of the officer corps surprises me and causes me great worry. //

Cynical Publius @CynicalPublius
.
I got out of the Army in 2007.

What I am seeing now with senior officers being publicly insubordinate to the National Command Authority is so far outside of the bounds of decency, professional responsibility and my experience that I have a very difficult time understanding how it is even possible. What has happened in our military that this is even a thing? It is inconceivable that any of this could have happened on such a scale when I was serving on active duty. What went wrong?
9:47 PM · Apr 10, 2025. //

TargaGTS | April 11, 2025 at 11:20 am
Being cashiered cannot be the end of this process for this general and her fellow travelers. Instead, it must only be the beginning. If a non-rate enlisted man made these comments about the base commander, there would be an immediate Article 32 investigation which would produce charges under Articles 88, 92 & 134. They would – properly – throw the proverbial book at him even without those contemptuous comments posing any credible threat to civilian control of the military.

When flag officers make these comments, it is a clear & present danger to a First Principle of our nation, civilian control of the military. There should be courts-martial. There must be courts-martial because if you allow command to utter these kinds of contemptuous comments about POTUS, how do you enforce any kind of discipline throughout the chain of command? //

Alex deWynter in reply to henrybowman. | April 11, 2025 at 2:58 pm
What she can say — PRIVATELY to whomever is directly above her in the chain of command — is “Sir, I believe Vice President Vance’s remarks yesterday will cause everyone’s mission to fall down around their ears. This is what I propose to prevent that happening. Do I have your permission?”

Imagine the scenario. Britain has been wiped out by a surprise nuclear attack.

The prime minister has been killed. Should Britain's nuclear submarine fleet launch its own missiles in retaliation?

It's a decision that will hopefully never have to be made. //

The UK has four submarines capable of carrying Trident nuclear missiles.

Since 1969, one of those subs has always been on patrol, gliding silently through the world's oceans. //

Every prime minister has to write four letters - one for each submarine. They are addressed to the Royal Navy commander on board. They are usually handwritten.

The letters are locked in a safe aboard the submarine and destroyed, unopened, every time a new prime minister comes into office.

It's not known exactly what they say.

"There are only so many options available," says Prof Seligmann

"Do nothing, launch a retaliatory strike, offer yourself to an ally like the USA or use your own judgement.

"Essentially, are you going to use the missiles or not?" //

"The submarine has to make a judgement that the UK has been hit by a nuclear strike," according to Prof Seligman.

"The commander does that by trying to make contact with the UK via Naval Command or listening out for radio signals."

It's thought one of the key tests is whether the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 is still broadcasting.

If all the checks fail, the commander will go to the safe, remove the letter and find out what the orders are.

Defense was neglected.

After the October 7 attack on Israel, defensive equipment was rushed to US installations in Iraq and Jordan. Tower 22 was "assumed" to be at a lower risk than other bases and got nothing.

No drone defenses available.

CENTCOM had requested anti-drone defense systems based on its risk analysis, but the entire US Army only had one, count them, one, system available, and it was reserved for redeployment training. Why you'd bother to use training time to gain familiarity with a system you will never see again is an unanswered question. Needless to say, nothing is too good for the troops, and that is exactly what they get. The base had one electronic warfare system designed to counter drones, but it was not used. //

Tower 22's radar was not optimized for the most likely threat. Frequently, operators could not distinguish birds from drones. A better radar system had been requested and denied. //

A fish rots from the head down. From what we know of the report, everyone seemed to think that the danger facing the troops at Tower 22 was manageable. Tower 22 did not have defensive anti-aircraft systems, though a suitable anti-aircraft system was available. The laissez-faire attitude toward security obviously perked down to the command and operations staff at Tower 22. They seem to have assumed away the possibility of an attack because none had taken place previously.

Given the leadership in the White House and the Pentagon, none of this should be a shock. It was virtually preordained that the same brainiacs who gave us Abbey Gate would go for an encore.

The MCM states any service member may be prosecuted under Article 88 (Contempt Toward Officials) if they use “contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Security, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present.”. //

Service members convicted of an Article 88 violation face a maximum punishment of dismissal, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and one year of forced confinement.

From inauguration day onward, the military services have engaged in a campaign of "malicious compliance," that is, aggressively applying administration directives in a way that makes the directives and the people issuing them look ridiculous. I've listed a few of those instances below: //

I can't imagine Colonel Meyers being in command much longer. She was under no moral, legal, or ethical obligation to defend Vance's remarks, but she was under an obligation not to comment negatively on them. Not only did she do so to all base personnel, an action that more likely than not violated Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. When he included Danish military personnel on the email distribution list, she definitely crossed a line that should cost her her commission.

Sean Parnell @SeanParnellATSD
·
Secretary Hegseth has removed U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield from her position as U.S. representative to NATO’s military committee due to a loss of confidence in her ability to lead. The Defense Department is grateful for her many years of military service.
10:24 AM · Apr 8, 2025

Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett @RepJasmine
·
They fired Navy Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield—not because she couldn’t do the job, but because she wouldn’t hang up pictures of Trump and Hegseth. This ain’t about merit—it’s about ego.

Sean Parnell @SeanParnellUSA
·
Congresswoman, I realize this may be a foreign concept to you but here at the DoD if you disrespect the chain of command & don’t do your job, you will be replaced.

Period.

Well, here's a notion:

That, in case anyone isn't familiar with these wonderful machines, is the Iowa-class battleship USS New Jersey, firing a broadside of nine 16-inch guns. These babies are the Mark 7 16-inch, 50-calibers (calibers in naval guns mean the length of the barrel in multiples of bore diameter, meaning the Mark 7 guns have barrels that are 800 inches, or 66 feet 8 inches long) in three turrets of three guns each. These guns can fire a 2,700-pound projectile for 20 miles - farther for lighter subcaliber rounds. Each gun has a rate of fire of two rounds per minute.

Now, think about that for a moment. Nine 2,700-pound projectiles, twice a minute - that's 48,600 pounds, or 24.3 tons - American tons, not commie metric tons - of Attitude Adjustment per minute. That's like getting hit with the entire contents of a used car dealership, every minute, if every car was filled with high explosives.

Missiles are expensive, but shells are cheap, and they fulfill the military maxim that "there is no problem that cannot be solved with a suitable application of high explosives."

Here's the catch: These ships are all museums now. The Iowa-class ships all saw service in World War 2, and it's significant to note that the Iowa-class ships all survived the war unscathed, whereas the enemy battlewagons (Bismarck, Yamato, and so on) are all rusting on the bottom of the ocean.

So, the question is this: How much would it cost, and how much work would it be to bring these monsters back online? How hard would it be to start making that 16-inch ammo again? How many missiles could we buy for that price?

I don't have answers for that. But I know that the USS Missouri, the last of the Iowa class to be in service, provided fire support in Operation Desert Storm in 1991. I've called in 155mm and 8-inch ground artillery fire (only in exercises) and can only imagine how interesting it would be to walk 16-inch naval gunfire in on a target. But it's an interesting notion, and maybe something to consider: A 16-inch gun tossing the equivalent of a mid-size sedan full of HE at the enemy could be a great persuader - especially when that monster can sit off shore and send tons of bad day downrange all day, and the Houthis couldn't do much more in reply than scratch the paint on that ship's nearly 18-inch armor belt.

Some argue that drones reduce costs by the very virtue of being “unmanned.” But the pilot isn’t the main reason an F-35 is expensive.

Manned fifth-generation fighter jets are expensive because they need powerful engines to travel long distances, complicated electronics systems for detection and targeting, state-of-the-art composite materials and design to ensure stealth, and large frames to carry sufficient ordnance to complete the mission. A drone capable of doing what an F-35 can do would cost just as much, as it would have to do all the same things—and it would still need to be operated or commanded remotely by a human pilot.

Nor do drone swarms—in which large numbers of small disposable drones with single, relatively small payloads attack a base or a ship—clearly eliminate the need for warships or jets. These swarms are both a cause for concern and an offensive capability to be studied. However, it’s far from clear that they would be more effective than precision-guided munitions in, say, sinking ships during an attempted amphibious invasion, especially given limited payload and range.

Moreover, every major military is working to develop countermeasures against individual drones and swarms. These militaries are observing drones in action in Ukraine and using those observations to develop systems to defend ships and bases.

Drones cannot yet automate the many functions performed by manned warships—from frigates to destroyers to aircraft carriers—which play a vital role by conducting strikes with large numbers of missiles or aircraft, projecting concentrated firepower, and displaying the flag in foreign ports (which reassures partners and allies).

The Chinese certainly believe such vessels are still needed. Indeed, they’re currently engaged in a massive military buildup of aircraft carriers and fifth-generation fighter aircraft. //

While drones and autonomous systems have shown that they have an important and (almost certainly) increasing role to play in modern warfare, that role remains one of complementing existing systems, rather than replacing them.

The Boeing E-4B, known as the “Doomsday Plane,” is the airborne command center for the United States government during national emergencies meant to ensure continuity of government command after nuclear attack, major natural disasters, or terrorism. And it’s a fleet of old Boeing 747-200s that’s difficult to find parts for. //

The E-4 was developed in the early 1970s as the National Emergency Airborne Command Post. The first was delivered in 1973 (“E-4A”) and three of the planes were upgraded to higher specs (“E-4B”) in 1985. Four E-4Bs are currently in operation, maintained by the 1st Airborne Command out of Offutt Air Force Base outside of Omaha. //

Since the planes are now 50 years old, they’ve become incredibly costly to maintain. The Government Accountability Office estimates a cost of $372,496 per flight hour, and spare parts procurement is difficult as there’s no longer an active world fleet of similar aircraft.

Last April, the Air Force awarded a $13 billion contract to Sierra Nevada Corporation for developing the next-gen Doomsday Plane” called the Survivable Airborne Operations Center. These will be ex-Korean Air Boeing 747-8s. The first of these aircraft arrived at Sierra Nevada facilities late last year to start conversion. The fleet will grow to 10 “E-4C” aircraft by 2036. //

David says:
March 30, 2025 at 2:49 pm
The little-known HBO’s “By dawn’s early lights”, with Powers Boothe and James Earl Jones, almost takes place entirely in a Doomsday plane during WW3. Highly recommended.

Pete Hegseth @PeteHegseth
·
Since “Judge” Reyes is now a top military planner, she/they can report to Fort Benning at 0600 to instruct our Army Rangers on how to execute High Value Target Raids…after that, Commander Reyes can dispatch to Fort Bragg to train our Green Berets on counterinsurgency warfare.

The Washington Times @WashTimes
U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes orders Pentagon to allow transgender troops, calls Trump ban ‘unabashedly demeaning’

https://trib.al/FxJRjiz
Image
3:29 PM · Mar 22, 2025 //

In my view, the bottom line is that no one has an inherent right to serve in the Armed Forces. When the person suffers from a diagnosable mental illness and requires daily infusions of hormones and other drugs as well as surgery at government expense to live their best fantasy life, they shouldn't be allowed near weapons, ammunition, or explosives. From what we've seen of the impact of transgender "women" on women's athletic teams, you'd have to be a moron not to think they would have a much more deleterious effect while living in close quarters in barracks or deployed.

It is easy for Reyes to make the decisions she's made so far because she has never served in the military and will never have to live with the consequences of her actions.

When I wore Uncle Sam's colors back in the closing years of the Cold War, we took a lot of pride in being STRAC - "Strategic, Tough, Ready Around the Clock." Not only physical fitness but appearance factored into that; we took pride in looking sharp, in looking soldierly. We eschewed standard-issue boots for Corcoran jump boots that took a better shine. We pressed our uniforms, we blocked our caps, and we shined our brass; we were honed like razors, and we took great pride in it.

In recent years, some of the military people we've seen in airports and so on have not only looked non-STRAC, but some of them looked a little saggy around the midsection. But there's a new boss at the Pentagon, and he looks to be bringing STRAC back.

In 1935, General Billy Mitchell, testifying before the House of Representatives, said:

I believe that in the future, whoever holds Alaska will hold the world… I think it is the most important strategic place in the world.

This may be one of the most prescient geopolitical observations of the early 20th century. Alaska is, as I write regularly, the crown of the Pacific, and the Aleutians control the gateway to the Arctic. We ignore that at our peril. //

anon-x8p1
an hour ago edited
Excellent history of the forgotten WWII front in the Aleutians: The 1000 Mile War.

Highly readable. Japanese were relentless and dug in up and down these remote islands, where the weather itself caused the death of more US soldiers than active warfare.

Their story is as compelling as the War in the Pacific and the European theater - just buried and forgotten as the site of a few military missteps when the weather itself forced errors.

Interforce rivalry and personalities played roles too: was this going to be an Army/Airforce War or a Navy War? But it did leave us with the AlCan Highway and now annual arrival of the millions of Alaska visitors every summer who typically know very little about why this highway was even built in the first place - just one of many challenge fighting in the American Ice Box.

Pete Hegseth @PeteHegseth
·
John is, of course, correct.

The @DeptofDefense does not do climate change crap.

We do training and warfighting.

Haley Britzky @halbritz
In response to a list of questions from CNN about military readiness as it relates to climate programs, Pentagon Spox John Ullyot said “Climate zealotry and other woke chimeras of the Left are not part” of DOD’s mission.
8:09 PM · Mar 9, 2025 //

The Army set a deadline of 2035 for all of its administrative vehicles to be electric and 2050 for tactical vehicles. //

If climate change is real, it will be addressed at home and abroad by agencies not called the Department of Defense. When the Defense encounters it, it will come in the form of weather and terrain; how we got there will be an academic exercise. Secretary Hegseth is right; his focus has to be on training troops, structuring forces, modernizing equipment, and building warrior spirit to win wars, something Defense has gotten out of the habit of doing over the last 41 years. //

anon-ymous99
9 hours ago
Y’know what’s bad for the environment? Destructive wars, that wouldn’t have started if a strong President and militarily focused US Armed Forces were in place.
Prevent those and the environment will benefit.

I think there is a common thread running through these selections. They are not creatures of the system, but they are familiar with it and how it is broken. Their loyalty is to Trump and Hegseth, not to defense contractors or congressional powerbrokers. They have a genuine desire to rebuild the military.

Putting Parlatore in the Navy JAG slot will give Phelan and Cao a strong partner in cleaning up the cultural morass that has created a Navy that appears to be absolutely broken to the outside observer.

The point is not about Donald Trump, and the meaning of the moment is much larger than most of the reporting suggests. The claim that it’s outrageous, unprecedented, and a crisis to fire flag officers is laughable. It’s also dangerous and threatens to reduce civilian control of the military if the premise is accepted at all. If it’s an illegitimate act for President Donald Trump to fire senior military officers, then it’s illegitimate for presidents to fire senior military officers — all presidents. It means that anyone who wears stars on his or her collar is somehow untouchable, a member of a protected guild that stands above political control. “You can’t fire me — I’m a general.” Good luck with that. //

The current president’s decision to fire flag officers isn’t a break with American law and tradition. The “Appeal to Congress” from former secretaries of defense certainly is. The warning about a crisis is the crisis. This dangerous argument needs to be hammered into its grave, quickly and forcefully.

Stoutcat
7 hours ago
”…the irony of it all is that Donald Trump never served a day the freaking coward…”

Did Biden? Did Obama? Did Clinton?

NavyVet Stoutcat
6 hours ago
President Trump was shot by a democrat, in the democrat war on America.
That makes President Trump a combat veteran in my book.

Fight! Fight! Fight!

TexasVeteran Stoutcat
7 hours ago
At least he attended a the New York Military Academy and learned to salute properly! That puts him well ahead of the three presidents mentioned above!😁

He has never served on the Air Staff in the Pentagon. He has never served with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He has never worked in the procurement community or for a Defense contractor. In short, there is nothing about him that would make him stand out as a choice other than he is untainted by the uncontrolled coercive medical experimentation that masqueraded as the COVID-19 vaccination program and also by any contact with the Air Force's DEI program. You can read his full bio at JOHN D. CAINE > Air Force > Biography Display.

Another plus for him is that retired Lieutenant Colonel Alexander "Krispy Kreme" Vindman disapproves.

There is a lot in Caine's selection that recalls General George C. Marshall's decimation of pre-World War Il Army leadership and dipping deep to find lieutenant colonels, like George S. Patton, Jr., to catapult into the general officer corps. It is hard to believe he will not be the only top military leader with a non-traditional background.

US government-owned "moored passive acoustic recorder" was able to hear and record the 2023 implosion of the doomed Titan submersible—even though the recorder was 900 miles away from the dive site.

That implosion, during an attempted dive to the wreckage of the Titanic, killed five people, including Stockton Rush, the CEO of the company that built and operated the Titan.

The implosion audio was just released publicly by the US Coast Guard's Titan Marine Board of Investigation, which has been investigating the disaster in enormous detail. As part of that investigation, the Coast Guard obtained the audio from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), part of the US Department of Commerce.

The audio isn't much to listen to—just some static followed by a staticky explosive noise that decays in swirling fashion for multiple seconds. The implosion itself, given the pressure the vehicle was under at the time, probably occurred in milliseconds, as you can learn from simulations of the event. //

Back in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, this kind of sonic technology was deeply important to the military, which used the Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) to track things like Soviet submarine movements. (Think of Hunt for Red October spy games here.) Using underwater beamforming and triangulation, the system could identify submarines many hundreds or even thousands of miles away. The SOSUS mission was declassified in 1991. //

"At some point, safety just is pure waste," Rush once told a journalist. Unfortunately, it can be hard to know exactly where that point is. But it is now possible to hear what it sounds like when you're on the wrong side of it—and far below the surface of the ocean.

He traveled to Europe by way of a C-17 cargo plane with a command pod rather than in a Gulfstream executive jet. //

He traveled with his wife and child. This has become something of a standard image of all Trump Cabinet secretaries. Trump has had his grandchild at his desk. Sean Duffy's family is prominent in events. JD Vance's wife and kids travel with him. Musk's kid was at the press conference he held yesterday. The image of family as a central point in life rather than an adjunct to your job is striking when compared to previous administrations, including Trump 1.0. See my colleague Brandon Morse's post on the subject: Elon Musk Is Demonstrating the Best Pro-Life Strategy Right Now and It's Heartwarming to See – RedState. //

I'm old school on uniforms. I think the custom of wearing BDUs (utilities, fatigues, whatever you want to call the field uniform) all the time is horrendous. When I was a young officer, you weren't allowed to wear BDUs off-post. Period. You couldn't go to a fast food place or run an errand on the way home or at lunch wearing BDUs. In my view, if you can't break out the Class A uniform to welcome the SecDef and note the color guard is in dress uniform, then there is no possible occasion that calls for them. But, if you do wear BDUs to greet the SecDef, show him the respect of wearing a fresh set. Meeting the head of the Department of Defense in wrinkled BDUs is a calculated insult because I really don't believe this three-star or his aide are that stupid. //

This is just the tip of the iceberg. If you're willing to greet your boss in wrinkled clothes and allow him to be heckled by dependent wives, you can imagine what else is going on out of sight.