Open Letter to SECDEF Pete Hegseth

Copyright by James Carlson

I am mailing the following letter to our new Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) Mr. Pete Hegseth. I encourage you to do the same.

_______

26 January 2025

Secretary of Defense

1000 Defense Pentagon,

Washington, DC 20301-1000

Honorable Mr. Hegseth,

Congratulations on your appointment and confirmation as our new Secretary of Defense. I am certain that our military and civilian institutions for the defense of our nation will grow and improve under your leadership. Please bear with me as I present a few issues.

First, I read the introductory material of your book, the War on Warriors. I take this personally as I too was subjected to the mistreatment of the Stand Down in March 2021. The Biden administration has taken the Culture Wars too far and used the military to push his radical Woke, DEI, and LGBTQ agendas. I will support your efforts to return the military at all levels back to a discipline where fighting real wars are the focus of our attention, not the social re-engineering of our culture by left wing agendas.

You may or may not be aware that prior to the Biden administration, the Obama administration fired 197 Flag Officers for various reasons, which included many who didn’t agree with his social liberal political agenda. New Flag Officers replaced them who were compliant with the Obama agenda. This was hidden from the public and needs to be made public. Moreso, I request the names of those fired and those hired in their place for public scrutiny. At the very least, you may want to review this matter on your own to get a sense of who is in the DOD for the public good and who is in it for the good of liberal politics.

Following the Obama coop came the Stand Down that you have identified in your book as a problem. We were given many training materials at that time that were incorrectly labeled FOUO and CUI. I have attempted to find out where I can submit a FOIA request so I can make public the materials we were given in an attempt to brainwash us with liberal ideology. If possible, can you help by declassifying this material as it is illegal to use classification markings of any kind to prevent its public review. Classification markings are for securing information that can cause harm to our nation, not our political agenda.

You may recall that during the Stand Down of 2021, that we were ordered to retake our Oath of Office. That was an insult but I followed the orders even so. Do you recall as well that we were told to recommit to following the:

·        Constitution

·        Rule of Law

·        _________, and

·        Ethics

Glaringly absent is Morality. The Biden administration in their mind bending effort to fix the military to conform to their skewed worldview, decided that morals are no longer needed. Morals are the organic law that binds us to our conscience for the improved discipline of our personal behavior. Morals also guides us in our discipline for how we interact with other people in our society, our community, and our culture. The rule of law the government is supposed to follow is supposed to be based upon moral principles. Morals provides us with an organic guide to better behavior. Without morals, any society (including the military) will decay from the inside out. I pledge my commitment to following the:

·        Constitution

·        Rule of Law

·        Morals, and

·        Ethics

With respect to morality, you may want to consider the history of the military’s rules on sodomy and homosexuality. Rules going back to the 1930s were codified in 1982 that dismissed people for being homosexual in the military with a general discharge and dismissed people for practicing sodomy (heterosexual or homosexual) with a less than honorable discharge. Moral discipline was required for the service of our warfighters then and should continue today. These rules, however, were replaced by the Clinton administration with Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) in 1993 and later dismissed by the Obama administration in 2011. As such, may we return to the rules provided to us in 1982?

These requests are an attempt to help you return the military to common sense and good moral judgement for the discipline of the warrior. At the very least, I welcome and support your work to return training to the warfighter for what fights wars not the Culture Wars. Having the discipline needed for our warriors will help end the war on warriors.

I am requesting:

·        Names of 197 Flag Officer dismissed in the Obama administration

·        Names of those who replaced them

·        Help with FOIA request to release training material of March 2021

·        DOD policy on LGBTQ be returned to 1982 rules

Thanks,

James Carlson