You have endured, and when you endure, character is developed, which leads to hope, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the graduating class of Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia, today.
Your character will continue to be forged. May you lead with endurance, may you build character, and in the end, may there be hope, because today, on behalf of a nation, you bring me hope that we still produce young men and women willing to do hard things for not enough pay and no glory, no spotlight, he said.
"You are America's elite. You are the 1% — those willing to raise their right hand and do what others will not in order to keep people you don't know safe and free," he said.
Hegseth said war requires risks and tough decisions, and he reminded the young leaders that both he and President Donald J. Trump have their backs.
"We're going to make sure that your hands aren't tied behind your back as you bring violence on the enemy. We're going to make sure that decisions are pushed down to the lowest possible level where they should be made," he said.
Other people have the convenience of getting things wrong or making mistakes. And we all make mistakes because we're human. But the reason why standards matter so much is because we are in the business of kill or be killed, live or die, he said.
He told the new Army leaders that they would encounter setbacks in the next part of their journey — whether it was active duty, National Guard, Army Reserve, or a foreign country — and that they would face "impossible moments" and "insurmountable challenges" that they would have to overcome.
Following his remarks, the secretary instructed the graduates to raise their right hands and promise to defend the Constitution and the nation, telling them, "We don't exist unless we have people like you. You give me hope."