Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth gives a State of the Force address at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026 in Quantico, Va. (Alex Wong/Pool Photo via AP)
On Sept. 30, 2025, Pete Hegseth delivered a reckless address to military generals at Quantico that undermined our nation’s military. Last week on Oct. 1, he delivered another address at Quantico, this time to senior enlisted NCOs and lower-level officers. Again, he brought great shame upon himself and the U.S. military. All elected officials who support his continued tenure deserve condemnation.
His most recent speech decried previous soldiers as “fatties,” “trannies” and “wimps.” He praised current soldiers as “patriotic cowboys” with “testosterone testing on top” (whatever that means). He said that “our so-called press makes Iranian state media look reasonable,” and then accused American reporters of treason — a crime punishable by death — for reporting information that is publicly available. He claimed that “our colleges and universities have become anti-American.” After some Bible quotes, he announced the new Office of Religious Affairs that would answer directly to him (the Army alone has over 3,000 chaplains, and the military has had them for over 250 years). Sprinkled throughout, plenty of praise for dear leader President Trump.
Last year, I wrote not one but two op-eds calling out problems in Pete Hegseth’s military. I then co-chaired two legislative hearings about the Pentagon’s unlawful call for a quick reaction force in Alaska that would use Tasers and pepper spray for crowd control, Hegseth’s plea for soldiers to ignore “stupid” rules of engagement (i.e., commit war crimes), and the extrajudicial murders off the coast of Venezuela. At least 223 people have been killed at the hands of the U.S. military in the last year without being found guilty of any crimes. All in the name of stopping “substantial amounts of narcotics” (narcotics do not come from Venezuela).
In December 2025, I called on our federal delegation to demand Pete Hegseth’s removal. Sadly, he is still our secretary of defense. The question you might ask then: Why write another op-ed? The moment outlandish, detrimental behavior from a leader goes unaddressed, we are lost. We must never accept what he is doing. We must call it out.
If Pete Hegseth travels to Alaska to campaign for his enabler-in-chief in the U.S. Senate, make sure he knows that he is not welcome. His terminations of our military’s most experienced, knowledgeable officers — for disagreeing with him or, worse, for simply being the wrong race or gender — point to his insecurity. He is terrified that others will catch on to his bumbling incompetence and so he fires those around him with the actual expertise to lead. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina agrees: “I have never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country. He is intimidated by competence.”
Hegseth hides like the frightened child he is behind testosterone tests and removing dead soldiers from casualty counts because he had declared on April 8 that the Iran conflict was over (the Iran war is not over).
We can see you, Pete. The whole world can see you.
From his humiliating start sharing top-secret military plans in an unsecured Signal chat to his large-scale destabilization of our entire national defense, Pete Hegseth has earned his place in history as the worst secretary of defense of all time. Our military deserves so much better.
For the love of Alaska, fire Pete Hegseth. Force him to resign. Impeach him. Whatever it takes.
Replace him with his opposite: a wise, brave, strong leader who can speak honestly and who does not cower under an antiquated misogynistic idea of masculinity. Replace him with someone who respects the rule of law and doesn’t encourage his troops to first murder people we are not at war with and ask questions later. We must repair the damage before it’s too late.
Rep. Andrew Gray represents the U-Med District in the Alaska state House, where he serves as the co-chair of the Joint Armed Services Committee (JASC) and the chair of the House Judiciary Committee. He served nine years in the Army National Guard and deployed with Alaska’s 1-297th Infantry Battalion, 2019-2020.
• • •
The Anchorage Daily News welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and commentaries here.
