{"id":16295,"date":"2025-10-03T19:22:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T01:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/defense-secretarys-speech-very-useful-in-giving-military-direction-says-retired-four-star-general-in-durango\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:56:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:56:19","slug":"defense-secretarys-speech-very-useful-in-giving-military-direction-says-retired-four-star-general","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/defense-secretarys-speech-very-useful-in-giving-military-direction-says-retired-four-star-general\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense secretary\u2019s speech \u2018very useful\u2019 in giving military direction, says retired four-star general in Durango"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"U.S.
U.S. military senior leadership listen as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025 in Quantico, Va. (Andrew Harnik\/Pool via AP)<\/span>(Andrew Harnik\/Pool via AP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth promised to revive military machismo with a \u201cwarrior ethos\u201d before an audience of hundreds of stone-faced U.S. Armed Forces officers, admirals and generals earlier this week in Quantico, Virginia.<\/p>\n

Ron Fogleman, a retired four-star general and Durango resident, said \u201cit was a very useful session\u201d at a time the military is headed in an uncertain direction.<\/p>\n

The meeting was held after Hegseth summoned top U.S. military officials from around the world to Marine Corps Base Quantico about 30 miles from Washington, D.C., on short notice and without explanation, prompting questions and security concerns about having so many high-ranking military officials in one place at one time.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/em> reported some officials speculated<\/a> the assembly might concern Hegseth\u2019s plans for firings and command consolidations, while others thought the meeting might be about a new national defense strategy or a lecture about military standards.<\/p>\n

What they got was Hegseth\u2019s guarantee to revert the \u201cWoke Department\u201d back into the Department of War of decades\u2019 past.<\/p>\n

Hegseth railed against \u201cbeardos,\u201d \u201cfat\u201d troops and generals, and \u201ctoxic leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Secretary
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said he is reinstating daily physical training requirements, removing exceptions to grooming standards and initiating a full review of \u201ctoxic leadership\u201d to a crowd of stone-faced generals at Marine Corps Base Quantico on Tuesday. (Andrew Harnik\/Pool via AP)<\/span>(Andrew Harnik\/Pool via AP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

He promised the military would have \u201cno more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship. No more division, distraction or gender delusions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are done with that (expletive),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hegseth said he is reinstating daily physical training requirements, rescinding exceptions to grooming standards and initiating a full review of \u201ctoxic leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re undertaking a full review of the department\u2019s definitions of so-called \u2018toxic leadership\u2019: \u2018bullying\u2019 and \u2018hazing,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He immediately walked his statement back about half a step.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, you can\u2019t do, like, nasty bullying and hazing. We\u2019re talking about words like \u2018bullying\u2019 and \u2018hazing\u2019 and \u2018toxic,\u2019 they\u2019ve been weaponized. And if that makes me toxic, then so be it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fox News\u2019 \u201cThe Faulkner Focus\u201d anchor Harris Faulkner described the meeting<\/a> as \u201cenormous, important\u201d and the first of its kind.<\/p>\n

CNN anchor Brianna Keiler scrutinized Hegseth\u2019s comments about women not meeting adequate combat standards<\/a>, saying the military is not \u201crampant\u201d with women in combat roles they aren\u2019t physically qualified for.<\/p>\n

Politico reported one national defense official, speaking under anonymity out of fear of retaliation, said the meeting was \u201cmore like a press conference than briefing the generals\u201d and it \u201ccould have been an email<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fogleman, who served in the U.S. Air Force for 38 years, said his last job before retirement about 30 years ago was U.S. Air Force chief of staff.<\/p>\n

\"Defense
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, center, sits with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, third from right, and U.S. military senior leadership as they listen to President Donald Trump speaks at Marine Corps Base Quantico on Tuesday in Quantico, Va. (Evan Vucci\/Associated Press)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Evan Vucci)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

He said Hegseth\u2019s meeting with generals and other high-ranking military officers was \u201ca very useful session.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of turmoil in the general officer ranks. There was a lot of rumors: \u2018Where are we going? What are we doing?\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

From that perspective, he said, it was useful to lay out before the general officer corps guidance on national military strategy and expectations of performance, conduct and focus on the primary mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe primary mission with Department of Defense is to deter war, and if deterrence fails, to fight and win America\u2019s wars,\u201d Fogleman said.<\/p>\n

He said President Donald Trump\u2019s firing<\/a> of U.S. Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in January is an example of turmoil rocking the military.<\/p>\n

Rumors abound about why some people have been fired and not others, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was an opportunity for the secretary to lay out the policies that he expects to be followed to execute the national security strategies and increase the forward fighting capabilities of the force,\u201d Fogleman said.<\/p>\n

He said the Department of Defense\u2019s rebranding to the Department of War doesn\u2019t seem necessary, but he\u2019s no longer on councils that discuss such matters.<\/p>\n

\u201c(President Harry S.) Truman was the guy who decided after the Second World War that \u2018defense\u2019 was (a) better term to describe the complexity of the department, and he elected to change the name,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 If the department is trying to get people to focus on war \u2013 fighting \u2013 perhaps a name-change is appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

An earlier version of this story erred in saying Ron Fogleman is from Durango<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hegseth promotes \u2018warrior ethos\u2019 at Quantico assembly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1987,896,28,265,184],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-armed-forces","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-politics","tag-veterans-affairs"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16295"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20122,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16295\/revisions\/20122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16295"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}