41 thoughts on “Secretary Hegseth”

  1. Bravo Secretary Hegseth! I watched a video of his speech on YouTube. The first 100 or so comments I read were about 90% positive, and the majority were from veterans. They said things like:
    “Fantastic speech!”
    “It’s about time!”
    “I’d reenlist right now if I weren’t too old.”

  3. Let the harrowing of the REMFs commence!

    Amid all of the welcome toughness and lethality talk I was pleased that Sec’y. Hegseth saw fit to mention reform of acquisition processes with an emphasis on speed. The DoW needs to dump FAR entirely and create something analogous to NASA Space Act Agreements to get new weapons and other necessary kit developed and fielded ASAP.

    1. I have been suggesting this on x for a while but when it come to ships, a big issue is ship yards.

      Where would you put new ship yards or what would you do to work around that problem?

      1. I think the USN should transition, ASAP, to an all-nuclear-powered fleet of SWATH vessels of various sizes. This would allow all ships in a battlegroup to move at greater speed for open-ended ranges and operate with far fewer logistics restrictions than today’s mostly fossil-powered auxiliaries. Underway replenishment would be reduced to aircraft fuel, munitions and food. No more “fleet oilers.”

        Each ship class should be built around one or more standard interchangeable nuclear power units that would resemble gigantic torpedoes and provide roughly 50% propulsive power and 50% electric power. Propulsion would be via a submarine-style propulsor or supercavitating screw. Large side thrusters front and rear could eliminate the need for rudders.

        These power units should probably come in two standard sizes. Multiples of the largest size would power aircraft carriers and amphibious assault vessels. Two to four of them would power cruisers/arsenal ships/anti-aircraft/anti-missile ships. Four to six of the smaller size would power destroyers, two or three would power frigates. A single one, with outboard unpowered outrigger hulls, would power LCS-class vessels.

        Upperworks of all vessel classes would be basically featureless steel boxes with slanted sides for stealth and some streamlining at the nose plus whatever superstructure is required to support a ship type’s intended mission.

        Aircraft carriers – equipped exclusively with unmanned combat aircraft and auxiliaries of various kinds, would launch fixed-wing aircraft from an interior launch deck and recover them on the exposed upper flight deck. Elevators would all be lateral and do double duty as retrieval mechanisms for fixed-wing aircraft and both launch and retrieval mechanisms for rotorcraft. All flight deck ops would be automated using both specialized equipment such as tractors and Optimus-type humanoid robots. Carrier flight decks are no places for human beings, especially during combat. There would be no “island” on such carriers.

        A modest expansion of the yards now building nuclear submarines should allow mass production of the nuclear power units. Even the larger size of these would be much smaller than a Virginia-class boat.

        The upperworks for other major ship classes could be built in existing yards plus many new yards that could be established to churn out the upperworks of smaller classes. The Great Lakes would be good places to establish these. There are already shipyards on the Great Lakes and there is plenty of available shoreline where more could be scratch-built. My own childhood stomping grounds in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula could support many new shipyards of this type but that is also true of other places with Great Lakes shorelines. The locals in all such places would be appreciative of the work too.

        Establishing such shipyards would be fairly easy. No huge drydocks would be needed, for example. Power units could be delivered via the St. Lawrence Seaway to Great Lakes shipyards and maneuvered into concrete-lined “ditches” of lakewater and the upperworks built there could be rolled out over them on parallel sets of rail tracks and lowered for attachment by specialized railcars with hydraulic jacks.

        Spare sets of upper works could be built and stockpiled enabling very quick refits and overhauls. A ship with service-weary, battle-damaged or obsolete fitments could slide into a suitably-sized “comb” of water-filled ditches, have its extant upperworks removed, then quickly replaced by a new set and allowed to get back to sea. Power units needing refueling could, likewise, be detached and replaced with fresh ones allowing the refueling to proceed independent in time and space from their former ships.

        A transition of this sort would take decades to run to completion, of course, given the lengths of service to be expected from the ships on the USN’s extant in-commission list. But a start could be made quite soon, especially for the smaller classes of combatants.

        1. Interesting. I hadn’t considered making the fleet nuclear, other than ships like destroyers, but it makes sense.

          Shortish term, there are a lot of low end ships that need replaced, like tenders, mobile drydocks, and pre placement ships that they could use as a way to get new entrants into ship building.

          Was going to drop some money into bwxt when it was at $119 but drug my feet on it and well, that was a mistake lol.

      2. That is a big problem. All that waterfront space seems to be repurposed. Even at what used to be dedicated US Navy Shipyards: The Philadelphia Shipyard has a couple of drydocks left, but not much room on land; The Long Beach Naval Shipyard is literally gone – turned into a China Ocean Shipping Co container yard.

  4. If we look at the physiques of some of our WWII leaders, they were not in great physical condition. They got the job done.

    But the rules exist…and nothing is as corroding to morale and good order and discipline as hypocrisy. Yet these fat FOGOs are signing punitive discharges for junior enlisted that don’t meet the physical requirements.

    The rules are the rules.

    1. I have seen a lot of comments about how they aren’t hired for their bodies but their brains. But if someone wants their brain operating at its peak performance, their body also has to be reasonably fit.

      Most of the generals and admirals didn’t look that bad, which was surprising. They could get fit in about a year with some small lifestyle changes. The bad ones maybe two years.

    2. “If we look at the physiques of some of our WWII leaders, they were not in great physical condition. They got the job done.”

      Yes. I doubt if “”Stormin’ Norman” Schwarzkopf (Rip) could have passed that test… would think he would qualify as one of our best post WWII Generals.

      1. Pretty sure that the very best will be recognized as irreplaceable in the moment of crisis, as ever when the time comes to sort the men from the boys. In the meantime, holding all to the same standard is the right thing to do.

        I’d bet a lot of the WW2 generals were physically burned out, exhausted, barely hanging on & died at what we would consider an early age.

        1. It varied but absent accident they tended to die with the normal spread one would expect of American Males born in the late 1800s.

          Patton of course died of a traffic accident
          Bradly lived to be 80-something
          Eisenhower died at 78
          Chesty Puller died at 73, while he wasn’t a general during WWII he certainly endured a lot of combat stress
          Etc.

        2. Admirals “Ching” Lee and “Slew” McCain come to mind. Both younger than my now 63 years, both looked 10-15 years older than that when they passed. Even Nimitz, somewhat a health buff, who was 60 at wars end looked older than his chronological years.

          1. Good examples. “Ching” Lee lived to see VJ day but died before he could be present on the deck of the Missouri for the formal surrender. McCain lasted barely longer. And Mark Mitscher died in 1947. Mitscher, in particular, might not have met today’s physical guidelines for being too scrawny, not too fat. Different times.

          3. “Even Nimitz, somewhat a health buff, who was 60 at wars end looked older than his chronological years.”

            Look it up; although he was athletic especially in his youth and he kept it up he apparently was a smoker. Smoking ages you don’t know if he was a drinker or not. Lots of soldiers back then smoked a lot.

          4. “Admirals “Ching” Lee and “Slew” McCain come to mind. Both younger than my now 63 years, both looked 10-15 years older than that when they passed. Even Nimitz, somewhat a health buff, who was 60 at wars end looked older than his chronological years.”

            I remember being how surprised I was when I finally realized how old McCain and Halsey were during the war, because looking at their photos, I assumed they were pushing 70. Booze, tobacco, diet and Navy life really aged them.

      2. Most of the WWII combat commanders (Patton (not George C. Scott, the actual Patton), Mark Clark, most of the rest) were in pretty good shape for the era. Same with the Navy and USMC Commanders in the Pacific. Groves, and many of the support/training command commanders were not, but they didn’t really need to be except as an exemplar.

        As I pointed out though, it doesn’t matter – because the rules are the rules.

        There are very good, valid reasons for our warfighters to be in the very best possible physical shape: It literally saves lives by preventing injuries in the first place, and making recovery from injury much quicker.

        And if everyone is expected to maintain those standards, then EVERYONE is expected to maintain those standards. Hypocrisy is an army-killer.

      3. Schwarzkopf wrote in his memoir about his difficulties with the Army’s height to weight ratio rules. He had pointed out that the rules would have excluded NFL players. During the First Iraq War he was living in his headquarters, eating junk food and not sleeping enough. He lived to be 78.

        1. In the ’80s, the height weight standards were new. I had a scout section sergeant who was solid as a rock and maxed the APFT. His neck ratio constantly failed him. Later on we brought online the buoyancy test to better measure fat percentage in an individual.

      4. There’s actually an amusing moment in Schwarzkopf’s autobiography where after reaching flag rank he runs afoul of the Army physical standards as they existed at the time (early 80’s, I believe). He rants that the standard was more of a beauty standard than actualy physical fitness, and he (being a naturally rather burly guy) managed to obtain a modification of it.

        1. He did appear to be very vigorous. I wouldnt be surprised if he could pass all the fitness tests except the scale.

          Gen Milley though…

  5. I wonder if any of these desk jockeys took the opportunity to meet privately and descretely and off the record and discuss a little Seven Days In May type action.

        1. MUCH harder nowadays to be discrete and off the record, especially if you are being surveilled so that any treasonous tendencies can be discovered and the miscreants arrested, charged, tried, found guilty and shot.

    2. Seems unlikely. The Revolt of the Blimps? Who would follow such creatures? The Bonapartist in Seven Days in May was an actual war-fighter type with at least a modest following, not a swivel-chair hussar scheming in an air-conditioned office.

      And, being played in the movie by Burt Lancaster, he was certainly no blimp. In the late 70s I knew a guy who had been a behind-the-scenes type in classic-era Hollywood who said he had once seen Lancaster walk two blocks along Hollywood boulevard on his hands to win a small bet. This was in the post-WW2 1940s.

      1. Who would follow (say) Idi Amin Dada? Gamal Nasser? Mohamar Quaddafi? The Vindman boys?

        Well, not the Vindman boys probably.

  6. I’ve always been in relatively good shape, though I tend to put on weight when I’m deskbound too much or stuck eating institutional food. I’m 6ft and consider my ideal weight 180. I’m 75 and weighed 185 this morning. I’m too arthritic to run at all or walk too far due to osteoarthritis and gout, but when I was 50, I went on a 20 mile “walk” every weekend. Sometimes carrying a 40lb dog part of the way (her spirit was indomitable, but she wasn’t up to walking that far). The thing is that visual inspection doesn’t tell the story. I’ve always had a gut and do even now. It’s just how I’m built. When I was young, I weighed 165 and still had a round stomach. I’m also more muscular than I look. Back in the day of balance beam scales, the nurses always guessed my weight 20lb too low when doing the initial setting.

    1. Thats true.

      Also, irrelevant. The regulations specify the standards. Change one or the the other, but leaders must set the tone

      1. Well, if the standards include BMI the standards need to change. Or any other such piece of hokum. Mike Tyson at the peak of his career would fail such a standard.

        1. So would Arnold Schwarzenegger during his Mr. Olympia days. The BMI, besides treating the human body as two-dimensional, also assumes any mass beyond the nominal to be fat. Idiotic.

          1. When I was about 48 and weighed maybe 205 (too much desk time) I showed a yoga class I could do a couple of pushups with both hundred-pound instructresses standing on my back. Muscle is a valuable asset. I never had any muscle-discipline training, though.

  7. At one point in my life when my first wife was dying my weight increased considerably – 50 lbs or so.

    At that point, Shaquille O’Neil, Tom Cruise and I had the same BMI.

    It’s totally useless for individuals. It might have some application to large populations, for limited analytic purposes.

    1. After my wife got out of the hospital, I gradually lost the 30lb I’d gained while she was sick.

      I think height/weight standards should be dropped (especially the ridiculous BMI). Just keep the PT tests. If some fat guy can do the pushups and pullups, climb a hundred-foot ladder, run five miles, hike 20 with a 150lb combat load, etc., what does it matter if he looks like Fatty Arbuckle?

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