During a visit today with the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, as part of its "Week of the Eagles" celebration, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth administered the oath of enlistment to a handful of screaming eagle soldiers and pinned Purple Heart medals to the chests of nine others.
While addressing the soldiers, the secretary laid out a "back to basics" message, focusing on the priorities he foot-stomped at the start of his term in January 2025 — meritocracy, lethality, accountability, readiness and standards — all things he said he sees within the 101st.
"Being a soldier is a difficult thing; what you sacrifice, what you're willing to do, most Americans can't understand," Hegseth said. "Who you are when every other person on planet Earth would duck and shrink is what sets you apart. ... You're trained to be prepared to fight, and that means from Day 1 at basic training, all the way through right here inside your formations, you're training, you're ready, you're disciplined, you're holding people to clear standards, you're holding people accountable, you're raising in rank based on merit, not other characteristics."
The secretary said the War Department's focus on standards, merit and job performance is meant to crystallize their mission, making it easier to know what right looks like.
"Your job as a soldier is to be in the profession of arms ... as good as humanly possible at your assigned task or leadership position," he said. "The men and women you lead expect that, and that only; and so, we tried to clear away the debris, get back to the basics of what you do, and you do so well."
That focus on standards and performance, he said, is not meant to ensure perfection. It's meant to ensure success, the secretary said.
He cited efforts against the Houthis in Yemen to ensure freedom of navigation, strikes against drug boats in the Caribbean, Operation Midnight Hammer in Iran, Operation Absolute Resolve to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the rescue of two downed pilots in Iran. None, he said, were flawless, but they were all successful due to training and skill.
"What [those missions] had [were] men and women who were prepared to adapt because they were so prepared to do the mission that we asked them to undertake," he said.
While at Fort Campbell, the secretary administered the oath of enlistment to several dozen 101st Airborne soldiers, telling those soldiers that he, the War Department and President Donald J. Trump have their backs.
"We have your back; President Trump has your back," he said. "Do the right things for the right reason, and ultimately ... you're going to come home, and the enemy is not going to," he said. "That's the point: never put you in a fair fight and then give you everything you need to close with and destroy the enemy, accomplish the mission on behalf of the nation and come home."
The secretary also presented Purple Heart medals to nine service members who earned those medals, in some cases, during actions more than two decades ago. He said it's important that those medals be presented to recipients in person, during a ceremony, where there are witnesses — in this case, hundreds of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division.
Hegseth said that for many young people today, American culture celebrates a vapid focus on social media popularity and celebrities. But a ceremony to reenlist soldiers, or honor recipients of a Purple Heart, he said, focuses eyes on the value of public service.
"It's why I'm such a believer in civic ritual," he said, adding that in his youth, tiny Memorial Day, Veterans Day or Independence Day parades in his hometown in Minnesota — events his parents attended regularly — demonstrated what was truly valued by the men and women in his town whom he respected.
When a handful of veterans participated in those parades, he said, everybody paid attention and paid respect.
"The whole town stood up and gave a standing ovation and saluted those men in uniform," he said. "Back then, you had maybe a few World War II vets, Korean [War] vets, Vietnam [War] vets, Cold War vets, Gulf War vets ... but I remember as a kid looking up at them and [thinking] those men did something special."
Purple Hearts, Hegseth said, should be presented to recipients in public. Americans should witness those events, so they understand that the medal is important and that the actions that led up to the awarding of those medals were important.
"We should be holding ceremonies and holding them up and reading citations and talking about the heroism and the service and the sacrifice of those individuals, so that the other troops see how important that is, and so that the nation sees how important it is, and so that my kids ... your kiddos, your grandkids, look up and say, 'Wow, maybe I could be like him. Maybe I could be like her, maybe I can serve my nation someday.'"