Many veterans, service members and officials at the Defense Department worry that decades of progress could be wiped out in a matter of months. pete hegsethnewly elected President Donald Trump Selection for Defense SecretaryHas been confirmed by the Senate.
Army veterans who spoke to CBS News are concerned that Hegseth will seek to reinstate a ban that would bar women from serving in ground-based combat units. Hegseth argues that he wants strict standards that both men and women must achieve and maintain, but he has written and spoken extensively about including women in direct combat roles at the grassroots level.
“I would love for that [Hegseth] To look into the eyes of the loved ones of women killed in action in Afghanistan and Iraq and tell them that they did not belong in war or that their loved ones were not worth putting everything on the line or putting themselves in war. Look forward to serving our country,” said Alison Zaslow, a former Army captain and CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a post-9/11 nonprofit veterans organization.
Following the Gulf War in the early 1990s, Republicans and Democrats in Congress recognized the role of women in the conflict by repealing an exclusionary statute of 1948 that banned women from positions where they could potentially be in conflict. Had to confront, and lawmakers did. objections Most of the senior military leaders and Pentagon officials at that time. The ban, repealed in 1993, opened the door for women to serve in air and naval combat units.
Eleven years ago, the direct combat exclusion rule was lifted and by 2015, women began reporting to ground combat units, including infantry and special operations.
Allowing women into combat roles has been widely adopted in the US voter Both major political parties and independents supported the change and said it would not harm military effectiveness, as the Pew Research Center found in 2013.
Hegseth, an Army veteran turned Fox News host, and his defenders believe the criticism and concerns expressed by Zaslow and others are unfounded. Over the past few weeks, Hegseth and his attorney, Timothy Parlatore, also a Navy veteran, have sought to clarify their position.
“Everyone is taking the initial click-bait headline of 'I'm straight up saying there are no women in fighting,' and they're just stopping there. [They] Don't listen to the rest. What does he mean by that? It doesn't matter, we're hurt by the sweeping blanket statement, and you don't see that there's really much nuance to it,'' Parlatore told CBS News by phone.
Following Trump's announcement that Hegseth was his choice for Secretary of Defense, a video clip On former Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan's podcast, Hegseth took fire from the issue of women serving in combat roles.
“I'm saying straight up that we should not have women in combat roles,” Hegseth said on a podcast in early November. “It hasn't made us more effective, hasn't made us more lethal, has made the fight more complex.”
He said, “I'm not even talking about pilots…I'm talking about physical, labor intensive type of jobs… [Navy] seal, [Army] rangers, [Army] Green Berets, you know, MARSOC [Marine Forces Special Operations Command]Infantry battalions, armour, artillery… I'm talking about something where power is the differentiator.”
In his book, “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” published in June, Hegseth details a myriad of reasons in a chapter titled “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.” Given this, she believes that women should not serve in a grassroots, direct combat role. (Deadly) obsession with female warriors.” Hegseth detailed her views about women in warfare and suggested what her approach would be to the issue if she were confirmed by the Senate.
“Dad inspires us to take risks,” Hegseth wrote. “Moms put training wheels on our bikes. We need moms. But not in the army, especially in combat units.”
Hegseth, who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, argues that the integration of women into ground combat units that have historically been male-dominated, combined with “our loss of the Christian ethos for God's creation” has led to men and women has been reduced incorrectly. In a state of equality, despite differences between the sexes in physical strength. Hegseth believes that this integration is “dangerous” when it comes to direct combat roles.
Furthermore, Hegseth argues that training women to kill in war is contrary to a woman's “basic instinct” of motherhood. Here's what he wrote about this idea:
Women are life-giving, no matter what the abortion industry tells us to think. This role was inherent in humans and was one of the obvious reasons why the only, even mythically expressed, successful women in war stories involve separatist societies of non-childbearing women who separated from men. live apart. To create a society of warrior women you must first separate them from men, and then from the natural motives of their basic instincts.
He says that allowing women to serve in combat roles destroys the norms of a civilized society where men are “trained to treat women differently than men.”
Hegseth said in his book, “Women in war force men to ignore those civilized instincts. If you train a group of men to treat women equally on the battlefield you have to train them to It will be difficult to ask women to be treated differently at home.”
Hegseth has no objection to women serving in the military in general or in supporting combat roles such as the medical or aviation fields. At one point, he celebrated Army soldier Lee Ann Hester, who received the Silver Star for her actions in Iraq, making her the first woman in the Army to receive the third-highest award for combat valor since World War II. Became. However, he also said that another woman was awarded the Silver Star because of “an agenda.” Hegseth emphasized that when it came to ground combat, soldiers like Hester were left behind.
He proposes a single standard for a given job in the military that both men and women must achieve equally, with additional standards to maintain membership in particular roles.
In her book, Hegseth complained that the military had quietly made it easier for women to meet its standards, harming some branches. For example, he mentioned the Army Airborne School's daily five-mile run, which was a major event for its soldiers (although it was not a requirement) and once served to weed out weaker candidates. “There were a lot of women bathing, so running away went away,” he wrote.
According to Task and Purpose, the Army dropped the five-mile run from the Airborne School in 2018. news website Which covers the US military and veteran community. An Army colonel told the news outlet, “The analysis found that physical training requirements had no relationship to meeting any course learning objectives related to static line parachute operations, such as safely wearing a parachute, high performance exiting, controlling descent from, or performing an aircraft.” Parachute landing fall.”
Retired Army Command Sgt. Major Jeffrey Mellinger, who was interviewed for the article, said that some service members believe that making training less difficult is equivalent to lowering standards. He said many soldiers had also protested years ago when the Army allowed soldiers to run wearing boots instead of boots. This change was made to prevent running injuries.
The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment before this report was published, but in a speech at West Point in early December, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin rejected the idea that women should not be in combat roles. .
“So look, if I get a little excited about this, it's just because it's not 1950. It's not 1948. It's 2024,” Austin said. The Associated Press. “And any military that turns away tough, talented patriots — women or men — is making itself weak and small. Enough is enough.”
An Army official who spoke to CBS News said she had no objection to unisex standards, but was concerned that Hegseth would serve to eliminate equality of opportunity for women in the military who serve in ground-based combat units. Want to stay.
The Army officer, an artillery operator, spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly due to Defense Department media rules.
“I've thought about getting out of the Army in the last three months more than I ever have in my life, but honestly, they're going to have to force me,” the officer told CBS News. “I'm a gunner or I wouldn't be in the Army. …I wish we were in the Army and having a good time and doing my job, but I have to defend my existence to people who don't care whether I survive. Live or die…but they have to drag me out of the artillery field.”
Hegseth's attorney says these concerns are unfounded.
Pointing to GOP Sen. Jodi Ernst of Iowa as an example, Parlatore told CBS News, “No amount of Pete Hegseth's policies will prevent Second Lt. Jodi Ernst from becoming a combat veteran.” He added, “It will be a little more difficult for Second Lieutenant Jody Ernst to become a Green Beret because she will have to meet the unisex standard.”
Ernst served in Iraq and Kuwait and retired from the Iowa Army National Guard with the rank of lieutenant colonel after 23 years of service. On Tuesday, Ernst suggested she was more comfortable with Hegseth as a nominee for defense secretary and said she hoped for a fair hearing, and said she would not rely on unnamed sources.
Ernst, who is also the first female combat veteran elected to the Senate Said In a statement: “Pete is committed to completing a full audit of the Pentagon and selecting a senior executive who will uphold the roles and values of our servicemen and women – based on quality and standards, not quotas.”
Army Maj. Gen. Tammy Smith, who retires in 2021, told CBS News that Hegseth is overly concerned with tactical issues rather than a strategic vision for the Defense Department.
“I find that [views on women in combat roles] Having a strategic perspective in a situation that should have the greatest impact on our long-term strategy,” Smith said. “I think his perspective on some of these strategic issues doesn't convey the background of experience that it takes to lead. is the largest organization in our government, and so it is my armchair quarterback assessment that he does not have the background, managerial or character skills to lead the institution he is being nominated to lead. “
He added, “It really disappoints me by the lack of seriousness that the President-elect is expressing by this particular selection as our Secretary of Defense… I know there are people out there who are critical of all those conservative requirements. which an administration gets when it wins the election.”
For now, Hegseth is getting strong support from Trump and others, as he continues to meet with GOP Senate lawmakers on Capitol Hill who will be critical to his confirmation chances. Reports that Trump was considering potential Hegseth has been replaced by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis amid allegations of alcohol abuse, sexual misconduct and financial mismanagement of the two veterans groups.
More than 30 military veterans who are House Republicans Put signature on A letter expressing his “strong support” for Hegseth, Fox News reported Wednesday.
Parlatore told CBS News that Hegseth is focused on telling senators about his defense policy: “He's going to be a great secretary of defense for the common people.”
