Hegseth was in the Minnesota Guard. So was I. As a Guardsman you bring a totally different mindset to active duty. The four stars have grown up in a bubble and most don't understand their experiences. For one thing the younger soldiers are smarter and more capable than your average active duty soldier because of the Montgomery GI bill. I looked around one day in the 3 shop and realized that the majority of my junior enlisted were engineers, scientists and smart as hell. Hegseth knows this and I believe you're going to see greater use of our part time soldiers when and where appropriate under Hegseth.
The expectations of the enlisted at all ranks is very high - higher than civilians imagine. The equipment is complex and the standards for responsibility are very high - much higher than most veterans remember. Not easier, but a lot more complex. There are grunt jobs, but fewer and fewer.
That’s an excellent example. A non-tech example is the responsibility for mission that enlisted operators in the special forces have for successful accomplishment of a defined mission. That includes budget, hard resources, logistics, personnel, actions and adaptations to the field. There are very few officers and mostly they don’t do the mission. They don’t have super duper secret clearance for nothing.
The fat electrician makes the point that killing the officers in most militaries leaves the troops leaderless and confused. With American troops it's removing the leash that holds back hell on earth.
"We didn't violate the Geneva Conventions in retaliation for killing the lieutenant, we did it because he wasn't there to stop us."
In my little town of Plymouth Indiana I have already met four nuclear submarine men. They're easy to spot because they're about the height of a hobbit. Somehow I always end up digging up their past which involves the service and when I look at them skeptically they announce they were nuclear submariners. Three are retired, and the fourth one was one of the mechanics, excuse me maintenance man at the high end apartments where I lived with Mary after we moved to Plymouth. The other two high-end maintenance men were Navy Seabees and had done maintenance work around the president's second residence at Martha's Vineyard. One had married a hot Latina chick he met in California probably San Diego? And fell in love or lust that night and decided that's the woman he was going to marry. I'll have to copy this and put it in my humor and insanity blog because love is a form of insanity.
When and where appropriate is correct. I saw the Army Guard become so worn out due to constant rotations of call-ups to places like Iraq, Afghan, and elsewhere for too long. The “Big Army” pulled all the well maintained equipment the Army Guard had and gave them back worn out junk to repair when finished with it. Over zealous state AG’s looked for more places to send their troops and encouraged the big Army to request multiple deployments of some Guard units. They burned the Guard out and destroyed recruiting. The reserve components were abused in many cases due to this unrelenting demand to fight wars with no US national purpose. That is not the purpose of a reserve force. Im retired now but never want to see the Guard abused like that ever again. Hegseth gets it. Get the fat overweight flag officers out of offices and out where their troops are. Better yet, first get rid of about half of them.
All true. I was a FO at JFCOM when we had to tell a Bde from Minnesota's 34th division that they had to unpack all of their gear for their redeployment and stay in combat for another four months for the surge. That was a hard message to send but orders were orders back then. It was a requirement to have an FO present the American flag at all funerals of casualties. I did too many.
The guard also contains a LOT of old formerly active duty men and women who serve because they truly love their country. I had the honor to serve with a number of WW2 and Korea veterans as well as a bunch of Vietnam vets. My unit was B(-)2/135th Infantry in Pipestone. Shortly after I went active they transitioned to field artillery. Imagine doing that with an active duty unit and the chaos that would follow.
For those who don't know, when a unit has a (-) or (P) it means the unit is split between two locations. I've seen this listing for units in combat during various conflicts as well. Strangely many people who are in don't know what it means.
Jake, thanks for your service and continued support of our citizen soldiers.
Edit, one other thing the guard brings to a fight is a desire to get the mission completed so they can return to regular life.
Same experience I had In my Ohio Air National Guard career. My monthly drill Airmen mostly were receiving tuition assistance from State of Ohio and were great to train.
We once ran a Drill weekend with no full-timers present to gauge our training. They flew missions and performed well. There were about 230 full time employees and 800 weekenders.
Yes, but two hours here, seven minutes there and by the time you get to 2025 you're only at 43 days five hours and six minutes that he was close to coherent.
More and more I realize how the Dems have become the party of crazy pink haired women. Did they neuter all the men to get there or did the men self-neuter?
“Trump hired Hegseth to change the military back into a lean, mean, fighting machine. That is what true warriors want.”
Don, you left out the major reason for Hegseth’s hiring, TOXIC MASCULINITY! We are in dire need of it in the war being waged against us by the feminists and girly men in the Marxist/Democrat/Hate America Party’s war on America.
You lost me at leftist ladies. Come to my neighborhood. Im surrounded. Thankfully my bluntness has caused most of them to speed up and roll up the windows when driving past our house. Small success I guess.
Good for you, though. Stick to your guns. Passive men, agreeing to be weak, is an unhealthy situation for both men AND women. There's alot of dysfunction in many relationships.
Years ago, the situation was that men had the upper hand, and the women had to play subservient, with the consequent disturbance to their souls. There's some famous comedian, I can't remember who (Eddie Murphy?) who joked about the men who complain that their wives are dead--but, says the comedian--"They're the ones who killed her."
Well, in the modern day, the power balance flipped, and the women have had the upper hand, with the (liberal) men having to play subservient, with the consequent disturbance to THEIR souls. And all those depressed and angry liberal women in their hearts (even if they won't admit it) are upset because "their husbands are dead", but don't realize that they (the liberal women) are the ones who killed them.
Kudos to all who have found a sane way through all this, and built a framework of mutual respect and teamwork. It helps if you start as two somewhat mature and grounded people, but our society has not done well recently at developing these.
The military has not addressed the Affirmative Action hiring that led to so many incompetent general officers during the ramp up to Viet Nam. They are still doing it. Not all of such were minorities either. Many of us could give you a list of them.
The “foundational part of the press pool” was cracked beyond repair. This sense of self-entitlement in newsrooms is exactly why so many media outlets are dying. They think they could try to cancel and “unperson” Trump in 2021 and think they get thier front row seat in the press pool? November was a referendum on the AP, CNN, and the rest of old media. It was soundly rejected. Long overdue.
Major Pete has started well, but the swamp he’s tasked to drain is, I think, more challenging than the others, requiring less heads being chopped off, and more chances given to ‘come to Jesus’.
He walked into an institutionalized meat grinder that eats anyone who causes a ripple in the “system” as defined by Ike’s well named military industrial complex. And don’t kid yourself, that club includes far more than its name, including the FBI, CIA, a major portion of the Intel community, and much of the financial industry. For his sake, Pete better carry a gun.
I want a full reckoning for COVID and the insanity of vax mandates, masks, social distancing, the lies about the natural origin, the lies about its morbidity, the resulting stolen election, everything. We can’t have a country until that is sorted out and the perpetrators pay.
Hope you are young enough to live to see it. We all know what happened. There will likely never be a official report. But it will never happen again in my house.
But the problem is that half of the country still has no clue what happened. That's why it does have to be publicly sorted out and perpetrators face consequences.
Since the diminutive Castro wannabe refuses to allow elections, has declared martial law and feigns ignorance on where half of the tens of billions has gone how -- when and if -- this war is ever reconciled how will the Ukraine look any different than its adversary? Just another totalitarian corrupt state controlled by Oligarchs.
I'm up early. Cat on my lap. Fox and friends on the TV and when I'm ready I will dive into Don's delightful blog. Just want to say good morning to everybody and I appreciate you being here. MAD DOG
I woke up and Donald J. Trump was President of the United States of America! I log onto the news just to see what Donald Trump has done today! Yestrday, I learned DOGE found 2.7 trillion in improper Medicare and Medicade payments. If he keeps up this pace inflation is going to be zero or negative, there will be no Income tax, peace in America and around the world, a lean mean military AND government, plus we may just have a colony on Mars!
Almost forgot, democrats exploding heads! Chuck U Schumer is going to have and aneurism.
Watched a bit of Vance on stage at Stuttgart this morning taking NATO and the EU to task in a major clusterfuck call out on overturning the Romania election and European censorship of free speech. Lots of blank stares in the audience. Holy shit, there is a new Sheriff in DC! Take care of your own business, Europe.
As an old Army Sgt it absolutely pisses me off that the 3-star that received SecDef was dressed in mussed fatigues rather than Class A's and he then allowed spouses to rant at SecDef about DEI transtesticle stuff. The 3-star should have been Patton-slapped and relieved.
'Hegseth is the key to success in Trump’s second term as commander-in-chief because someone has to quell the riots'. Truer words were never spoken. Walk loudly and carry a big stick. 🎵 From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli. We will. fight our country's battles on land and air and sea. The Few, The Proud"
If, as I have read, PDJT uses the " Insurrection Act" to address the treason/sedition/rebellion that has ( and is ) occurring, then full Military support is numero uno ( troops already on border duty ). Interesting read at "1776" substack on it.
Oh please, enough with the Marine propaganda. Those of us that were Army did so for a reason. Not trying to denigrate the Corp but good grief, Ive had it with everything being about the Corp today. Maybe they should stop spending 75% of their budgets on pr and spend it on jr enlisted instead.
I can’t get enough of the optics. Who needs Hollywood when you have Trump. As seismic as things have been here stateside (gawd I loved Trump’s takedown of McConnell), I couldn’t help but think that between Vance & Hegseth the real earthquake took place over in Europe. It had to be the equivalent of watching the onslaught of the Visigoths. I have a front row seat in the remaking of history. Last point, I clicked on that link about PFC Bragg & his daughter said the exact same thing I said about my dad- the exact same thing that so many of us daughters have said about their Dads who served- ‘he was a good man’; not brave or heroic or great or whatever, just a good man.
Hegseth was in the Minnesota Guard. So was I. As a Guardsman you bring a totally different mindset to active duty. The four stars have grown up in a bubble and most don't understand their experiences. For one thing the younger soldiers are smarter and more capable than your average active duty soldier because of the Montgomery GI bill. I looked around one day in the 3 shop and realized that the majority of my junior enlisted were engineers, scientists and smart as hell. Hegseth knows this and I believe you're going to see greater use of our part time soldiers when and where appropriate under Hegseth.
The expectations of the enlisted at all ranks is very high - higher than civilians imagine. The equipment is complex and the standards for responsibility are very high - much higher than most veterans remember. Not easier, but a lot more complex. There are grunt jobs, but fewer and fewer.
I am reminded of the fact that the US Navy has enlisted personnel operate nuclear reactors. In the Soviet navy it was officers only.
That’s an excellent example. A non-tech example is the responsibility for mission that enlisted operators in the special forces have for successful accomplishment of a defined mission. That includes budget, hard resources, logistics, personnel, actions and adaptations to the field. There are very few officers and mostly they don’t do the mission. They don’t have super duper secret clearance for nothing.
The fat electrician makes the point that killing the officers in most militaries leaves the troops leaderless and confused. With American troops it's removing the leash that holds back hell on earth.
"We didn't violate the Geneva Conventions in retaliation for killing the lieutenant, we did it because he wasn't there to stop us."
In my little town of Plymouth Indiana I have already met four nuclear submarine men. They're easy to spot because they're about the height of a hobbit. Somehow I always end up digging up their past which involves the service and when I look at them skeptically they announce they were nuclear submariners. Three are retired, and the fourth one was one of the mechanics, excuse me maintenance man at the high end apartments where I lived with Mary after we moved to Plymouth. The other two high-end maintenance men were Navy Seabees and had done maintenance work around the president's second residence at Martha's Vineyard. One had married a hot Latina chick he met in California probably San Diego? And fell in love or lust that night and decided that's the woman he was going to marry. I'll have to copy this and put it in my humor and insanity blog because love is a form of insanity.
When and where appropriate is correct. I saw the Army Guard become so worn out due to constant rotations of call-ups to places like Iraq, Afghan, and elsewhere for too long. The “Big Army” pulled all the well maintained equipment the Army Guard had and gave them back worn out junk to repair when finished with it. Over zealous state AG’s looked for more places to send their troops and encouraged the big Army to request multiple deployments of some Guard units. They burned the Guard out and destroyed recruiting. The reserve components were abused in many cases due to this unrelenting demand to fight wars with no US national purpose. That is not the purpose of a reserve force. Im retired now but never want to see the Guard abused like that ever again. Hegseth gets it. Get the fat overweight flag officers out of offices and out where their troops are. Better yet, first get rid of about half of them.
All true. I was a FO at JFCOM when we had to tell a Bde from Minnesota's 34th division that they had to unpack all of their gear for their redeployment and stay in combat for another four months for the surge. That was a hard message to send but orders were orders back then. It was a requirement to have an FO present the American flag at all funerals of casualties. I did too many.
Very good perspective; thank you.
The guard also contains a LOT of old formerly active duty men and women who serve because they truly love their country. I had the honor to serve with a number of WW2 and Korea veterans as well as a bunch of Vietnam vets. My unit was B(-)2/135th Infantry in Pipestone. Shortly after I went active they transitioned to field artillery. Imagine doing that with an active duty unit and the chaos that would follow.
For those who don't know, when a unit has a (-) or (P) it means the unit is split between two locations. I've seen this listing for units in combat during various conflicts as well. Strangely many people who are in don't know what it means.
Jake, thanks for your service and continued support of our citizen soldiers.
Edit, one other thing the guard brings to a fight is a desire to get the mission completed so they can return to regular life.
Same experience I had In my Ohio Air National Guard career. My monthly drill Airmen mostly were receiving tuition assistance from State of Ohio and were great to train.
We once ran a Drill weekend with no full-timers present to gauge our training. They flew missions and performed well. There were about 230 full time employees and 800 weekenders.
I forgot to mention that Hegseth is America's first Secretary of Defense who was a Guardsman.
Speaking about renaming things, history should change the name of the Biden Administration to the Biden Abortion.
I think we should just stick with Barry's turd term. Err third squirm.
that's icky.
Your right. Just erase his whole four years or at the very least the two months he was coherent.
Yes, but two hours here, seven minutes there and by the time you get to 2025 you're only at 43 days five hours and six minutes that he was close to coherent.
I call it the Biden Simulation since none of it was real, starting with the presidential selection in 2020.
Weak, and psychotic men were the staple of the Democrat Party/Communists. Hegseth doesn’t fit that mold. Go Pete!
Use Jamie Raskin for bait…now that man is a disgusting piece of 💩
In a dire situation who would you rather be stranded with, Jamie Raskin or Pete Hegseth?
Ten minutes with Raskin to beat the shit out of him would be the best choice.
If it takes you ten minutes to do do Id say the last eight minutes would be for pure entertainment.
What’s wrong with a little fun at their expense???
That seems to be a "no brainer", as for me, I choose Hegseth!
LOL
someone yesterday stated that democrat men, on aggregate, are ridiculously weak-minded.
And we know who we blame for this. K through grad school feminine influence.
As shown by the demonstration at Patch Middle School. Use to hate bomb threats there, funny they always seem to happen during finals.
They are men that seeing a fine looking woman and Pete Buttigieg are confused. 🤔 I have NEVER been confused…
I don’t see anything ridiculous about it. 😎 If anything that is understated.
More and more I realize how the Dems have become the party of crazy pink haired women. Did they neuter all the men to get there or did the men self-neuter?
They are just freaks
But weak-kneed freaks.
“Trump hired Hegseth to change the military back into a lean, mean, fighting machine. That is what true warriors want.”
Don, you left out the major reason for Hegseth’s hiring, TOXIC MASCULINITY! We are in dire need of it in the war being waged against us by the feminists and girly men in the Marxist/Democrat/Hate America Party’s war on America.
And let’s be honest, Austin was an incompetent AA/DEI hire. If memory serves he also came out of the Rand Corporation, I.e. another lobbyist.
Careful now, the leftist "ladies" tell us that saying DEI hire is the same as the n-word. Isn't that cute?
You lost me at leftist ladies. Come to my neighborhood. Im surrounded. Thankfully my bluntness has caused most of them to speed up and roll up the windows when driving past our house. Small success I guess.
Good for you, though. Stick to your guns. Passive men, agreeing to be weak, is an unhealthy situation for both men AND women. There's alot of dysfunction in many relationships.
Years ago, the situation was that men had the upper hand, and the women had to play subservient, with the consequent disturbance to their souls. There's some famous comedian, I can't remember who (Eddie Murphy?) who joked about the men who complain that their wives are dead--but, says the comedian--"They're the ones who killed her."
Well, in the modern day, the power balance flipped, and the women have had the upper hand, with the (liberal) men having to play subservient, with the consequent disturbance to THEIR souls. And all those depressed and angry liberal women in their hearts (even if they won't admit it) are upset because "their husbands are dead", but don't realize that they (the liberal women) are the ones who killed them.
Kudos to all who have found a sane way through all this, and built a framework of mutual respect and teamwork. It helps if you start as two somewhat mature and grounded people, but our society has not done well recently at developing these.
The military has not addressed the Affirmative Action hiring that led to so many incompetent general officers during the ramp up to Viet Nam. They are still doing it. Not all of such were minorities either. Many of us could give you a list of them.
To quote Clay Travis: "Young Men Are Voting Right because 'Democrats for Men Are Pussies'
Remember the White Dudes for Kamala bunch? Very low T weenies, IMO
White Duds for Harris actually, the e is for estrogen.
Oh but wait - what about that idiot old woman who thought that women avoided being in MANufacturing because of the MAN in the word?
To a Leftist that is reason enough.
Do her nails look like shit because she refuses to get a MANicure?
I think you're on to something, they can't MANage their anger either.
Democrat mind ala AOC Cookie.thats all.
Just a high ranking member of the Illinois Combine, whose hubby was picked for solicitation of a prostitute or was it her old age affects the memory.
The “foundational part of the press pool” was cracked beyond repair. This sense of self-entitlement in newsrooms is exactly why so many media outlets are dying. They think they could try to cancel and “unperson” Trump in 2021 and think they get thier front row seat in the press pool? November was a referendum on the AP, CNN, and the rest of old media. It was soundly rejected. Long overdue.
I would not wipe my Marine arse with an AP article.
After their covering for Hamas ( which I thank Don for enlightening me about ) , I will second that .
CNN had “little Maxwell” Frost on and he explained why his Democrat buddies were so upset.”It’s not normal” he said.
Well, look what “normal” got us.
Hegseth is not “normal”. “Normal” got us into never ending wars and trillions in debt.
Thank goodness “normal” is going by the way side and a more traditional “normal” is taking its place.
For the first time, I think I understand the meaning of 'New Normal'.
I like it.
The old "normal" was abnormal.
Major Pete has started well, but the swamp he’s tasked to drain is, I think, more challenging than the others, requiring less heads being chopped off, and more chances given to ‘come to Jesus’.
But, I think he’ll make Trump proud.
When DOGE gets into the 'books' at the Pentagon, the Pentagon may have other things to worry about than Pete Hegseth.
He walked into an institutionalized meat grinder that eats anyone who causes a ripple in the “system” as defined by Ike’s well named military industrial complex. And don’t kid yourself, that club includes far more than its name, including the FBI, CIA, a major portion of the Intel community, and much of the financial industry. For his sake, Pete better carry a gun.
A gun against everything you just named isn’t going to do anything to protect him. He needs massive prayer coverage. Big time!!
Amen. And the $$$ that flows thru that department will make USAID look like a kids piggy bank!
his adversaries come equipped with many lethal toys. pete had best beware and be aware at all times.
I want a full reckoning for COVID and the insanity of vax mandates, masks, social distancing, the lies about the natural origin, the lies about its morbidity, the resulting stolen election, everything. We can’t have a country until that is sorted out and the perpetrators pay.
Hope you are young enough to live to see it. We all know what happened. There will likely never be a official report. But it will never happen again in my house.
But the problem is that half of the country still has no clue what happened. That's why it does have to be publicly sorted out and perpetrators face consequences.
Well in that case I'll see it after I die.
Since the diminutive Castro wannabe refuses to allow elections, has declared martial law and feigns ignorance on where half of the tens of billions has gone how -- when and if -- this war is ever reconciled how will the Ukraine look any different than its adversary? Just another totalitarian corrupt state controlled by Oligarchs.
And we have Obama to thank for that. More evidence of how evil he really is.
He never had any intention to help Americans live better. He just wanted to use us to change the country to one of controlled and selective socialism.
Yup, a "man?" who set race relations back 100 years and our standing with the rest of the world he set back 200 years.
Obama and his Color Revolution chicks--Samantha Power and Victoria Nuland (with a vast supporting cast in USAID and CIA, among others)
Just smaller but no different.
I'm up early. Cat on my lap. Fox and friends on the TV and when I'm ready I will dive into Don's delightful blog. Just want to say good morning to everybody and I appreciate you being here. MAD DOG
I woke up and Donald J. Trump was President of the United States of America! I log onto the news just to see what Donald Trump has done today! Yestrday, I learned DOGE found 2.7 trillion in improper Medicare and Medicade payments. If he keeps up this pace inflation is going to be zero or negative, there will be no Income tax, peace in America and around the world, a lean mean military AND government, plus we may just have a colony on Mars!
Almost forgot, democrats exploding heads! Chuck U Schumer is going to have and aneurism.
Bom Dia from Brasil, Don .
Copy all you note on Major Pete.
Watched a bit of Vance on stage at Stuttgart this morning taking NATO and the EU to task in a major clusterfuck call out on overturning the Romania election and European censorship of free speech. Lots of blank stares in the audience. Holy shit, there is a new Sheriff in DC! Take care of your own business, Europe.
PRIDE is for the self-centered LGBTQ flamers.
Trump brought SELF RESPECT back to America.
Every cabinet leader so far exudes self respect for America.
As an old Army Sgt it absolutely pisses me off that the 3-star that received SecDef was dressed in mussed fatigues rather than Class A's and he then allowed spouses to rant at SecDef about DEI transtesticle stuff. The 3-star should have been Patton-slapped and relieved.
Hear hear!!
'Hegseth is the key to success in Trump’s second term as commander-in-chief because someone has to quell the riots'. Truer words were never spoken. Walk loudly and carry a big stick. 🎵 From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli. We will. fight our country's battles on land and air and sea. The Few, The Proud"
If, as I have read, PDJT uses the " Insurrection Act" to address the treason/sedition/rebellion that has ( and is ) occurring, then full Military support is numero uno ( troops already on border duty ). Interesting read at "1776" substack on it.
Oh please, enough with the Marine propaganda. Those of us that were Army did so for a reason. Not trying to denigrate the Corp but good grief, Ive had it with everything being about the Corp today. Maybe they should stop spending 75% of their budgets on pr and spend it on jr enlisted instead.
Sorry, Dog, shoulda been 🎵The caissons go rolling along. But those in Rio Linda wouldn't understand
I can’t get enough of the optics. Who needs Hollywood when you have Trump. As seismic as things have been here stateside (gawd I loved Trump’s takedown of McConnell), I couldn’t help but think that between Vance & Hegseth the real earthquake took place over in Europe. It had to be the equivalent of watching the onslaught of the Visigoths. I have a front row seat in the remaking of history. Last point, I clicked on that link about PFC Bragg & his daughter said the exact same thing I said about my dad- the exact same thing that so many of us daughters have said about their Dads who served- ‘he was a good man’; not brave or heroic or great or whatever, just a good man.