May 30, 2021 • 34 mins
As we honor those men and women who gave their life in service to our country and to protect our freedoms, as part of our Memorial Day episode. Newt’s guest is Pete Hegseth, a true American patriot. He served in the Army National Guard for two decades. He’s a proud son of Minnesota, the author of American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free and Fox and Friends weekend co-host
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
On this episode of Newsworld. The origins of the Memorial
Day date back to eighteen sixty eight. Commander in Chief
John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic
issued General Order Number eleven designating May the thirtieth as
a Memorial Day, quote for the purpose of strewing the
flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died
(00:25):
in defense of their country during the Late Rebellion, and
whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and
hamlet churchyard in the land. In nineteen seventy one, an
Act of Congress changed the observance of the holiday to
the last Monday in May and extended the honor to
all soldiers who died in American wars. Today, national observance
(00:47):
of the holiday still takes place at Arlington National Cemetery,
with the placing of a wreath of the tomb of
the Unknown Soldier and the decoration of each grave with
a small American flag. So while many Americans think of
it as a weekend that marks the start of summer
parades and backyard gatherings with family and friends, please also
remember why Memorial Day was established to honor those men
(01:11):
and women who gave their life and service to our
country and to protect our freedoms. As part of our
Memorial Day episode, I wanted to invite back someone who
is a true American patriot. He served in the Army
National Guard for two decades until last month. He is
a proud son of Minnesota, the author of American Crusade,
Our Fight to Stay Free, and Fox and Friends Weekend
(01:34):
co host. I'm really pleased to welcome back my guest
and good friend, Pete Hexeth. Pete, welcome back, mister speaker.
(01:58):
Thank you for having me, always an honor. I'm curious
because you have so many experiences, and I love watching
when you're off at some breakfast place talking to people
you've probably talked to more everyday Americans and almost anyone
I know in your heart, what does it mean to
you to have Memorial Day? Memorial Day crystallizes it all
(02:19):
for me, And you're right when you're talking to everyday Americans,
it's the type of day that means a great deal
to them because they're still tethered to how precious our
American experiment, this mission of freedom really is. When I
think of Memorial Day these days, and for many years,
I ask myself, and I hope people ask themselves the
same thing. You know, my living worthy of the sacrifice
(02:42):
that previous generations gave at the altar of freedom. It's
a gut check. It's a gut check that day, but
also reminder for the upcoming year that all the things
that we have, all the opportunities we have here. Yes,
we declared our independence with a bold document from brilliant minds.
It was the gritty men and women who are willing
(03:03):
to pick up a musket or a rifle. It was
the men and women who picked up machine guns and
grades and got on ships and deployed around the globe,
knowing that when they left they may not come home,
and many of them have not. Millions of Americans over
the course of time have sacrificed their lives so that
we can live free. And when you realize our republic
(03:24):
is not that old, it's young, two hundred and forty
odd years young. And yet you look at the scope
of the gift that has been given of human being,
human souls, Americans who were willing to die so that
we can be here today. It encapsulates the gravity of
this holiday that we have to work really hard to
make sure our kids and grandkids understand and appreciate fully
(03:47):
that they know that it's more than a backyard barbecue.
And I love the backyard barbecues and all the gatherings
that happen. I think celebration is a part of what
we should do for those of us who have our
lives here in America today is enjoy it. But man,
we better be drilling into the minds. I love the
history that you read up at the beginning news about
where this came from. You know what it was meant
(04:09):
to recognize. And I've had my own special moments of
memorial David, each in our own way pass on to
the next generation so they get the gravity of what
it took to get us to this place. I'm really
curious because I've watched you for years, and you have
a remarkable talent for speaking with people, for getting things
down to a kind of common everyday understanding. This clearly
(04:33):
grew out of your very being. I mean, it seems
to me that somehow, when you were very young, you
understood and you valued patriotism and you valued service. Where
do you think that came from? I got to give
it to my family and to faith and to community.
I mean, my mom and dad are just hard working
(04:55):
every day folks. My dad was a high school gym
teacher and a basketball coach, and my mom stayed home.
And it wasn't an overtly political household, but it was patriotic,
it was hard working, it was truly rooted and invested
in Christian faith and just go out and be good
people according to the Gospel. And I'll tell you there's
a reason I'm a big believer in civic ritual parades fireworks,
(05:17):
because I know that left a big imprint on my heart.
In one particular example is a small town of one
a Mingo, Minnesota. It's nowhere southern Minnesota. It's a small
farming town. It's where both of my parents grew up.
And they would hold parades throughout the year, but the
biggest one in town was the Memorial Day parade. And
again I can't underscore how small a town this is,
(05:37):
but they had a huge, wide main street and they
would have a Memorial Day parade and the whole town
would come out. We didn't live there at the time,
but we'd always go back to our grandparents stand by
the side of the road, and it would be the
line of veterans from that town with the band in front.
And it's one of these blinket you miss it, mister speakers.
It's not long. But what you had was the entire town,
(05:59):
hundreds of people standing as these vets World War two vets,
then Korean War vets, than Vietnam vets, and then you
had Gulf War vets who were young and still fitting
into their uniforms marching down that parade and everyone would
stand and revere them for their service. But of course
that parade ended at Memorial Park, where all those men
(06:20):
and women in uniform would give honor to those who
didn't make it home. And I remember they would read
the names and talk about the lives of the people
that were no longer there. And I don't know if
it hit me then, but it certainly hits me now.
But it left an imprint on me. Holy, this is
tiny one of Mingo, Minnesota, and these are the list
of names of people in this town and in the
county who never came home. Imagine amplifying that across every
(06:43):
small town across America. It started to give me a
sense I, just as a kid watched the way the
town revered those vets and those military members, and I thought, man,
they've done something special, something bigger than this town, bigger
than themselves. That seems really important to me. I didn't
come from a military family at all. I couldn't tell
you the difference between the Army and the Marine Corps
(07:04):
when I graduated high school, had no idea. So when
Donald Trump talked about things like military parades, there's a
reason why I truly believe in those things, and they
need to happen because they're special events that you don't
otherwise get in your life that remind you of the
things that a society is supposed to value, back to
basics of our military, of our flag. So recapturing those
(07:27):
and doing more of that, I think is truly important.
But I've benefited a great deal from serving the military.
It's the best education I've ever received. Is every background,
every socio economic set, to every race who was dedicated
to something bigger than themselves. And you know, the other
thing is I love doing the diners because just relating
to people where they're at and hearing their stories and
(07:49):
talking about the things that really motivate them and animate them.
Part of my enjoyment of doing that is on deployments
being stuck. You're stuck with thirty forty fifty guys who
you would otherwise never hang out with, who you didn't
grow up with, and you are bored out of your
mind half the time, and the only thing you have
to do is to bs, is to chat and tell
(08:11):
stories and to talk and find ways to relate to
people who you otherwise wouldn't hang out with. In many ways,
it was a forged opportunity because you spend so much
time doing it, and then you end up appreciating it
because those are not the type of people you meet
in the IVY League or in the media world or
in politics. But the common sense wisdom that emanates from
that I think has served you well. That's really interesting.
(08:32):
I have this imagery of you walking into a diner
and it's just like revisiting your platoon. And I must say,
you connect. Every time I've seen you, usually at breakfast.
You connect with people as well as anybody I know.
Part of it is that they like Fox, part of
it is that they like you, But part of it
(08:54):
is your style. You can be with almost any group
and you're curious about them and I think they can
sense that no one is genuine and when it isn't
do you know much I've learned new from those assignments.
I truly enjoy it because the camera's on for four
minutes three times over the course of the show. But
they're just spending three and a half four hours with people,
(09:15):
and it's always a different part of the country, a
different kind of crowd, and you just sit down and say,
how's life going, what are you facing. I don't know
if you saw this, but I got mocked. I gave
a seapack speech. You talked about these diners, and I
talked about how people talk about the First Amendment and
the Second Amendment and the Tenth Amendment, And it was
broadcast and a bunch of folks on MSNBC and CNN
went nots and said, oh, Pete Hexef claims he goes
(09:36):
to diners and talks about the tenth Amendment, and what
they don't understand is you know that, of course is
code for They talk about God and free speech and
the Second Amendment and their right to bear arms, and
of course the idea of local control and states rights.
Those are other things they talk about all the time,
and so we actually played a clip of diners talking
about those things over and over and over again as
(09:57):
we smacked back at him. But I do love it.
They always say, hey, we feel like we know you, Pete,
and I turn around and say, hey, I feel like
I know you. Also, because there are a shared set
of values of people who often show up at these things.
We have to remember, though, if you're MSNBC, your idea
of going to breakfast is either the Upper west Side
or Rodeo Drive, And so you're thinking, you know, I
don't know anybody a rodeo drive who even knows what
(10:20):
a constitution is. How can they be talking like this.
I have to go back, because you know, I used
to be a historian in a different life, and so
I try to think about things historically. You leave this
small town, you go to Princeton, which is hardly a
round central for patriotism, and you end up joining the ROTC.
(10:41):
Now that's almost counterculture for Princeton. What got you across
that bridge? So you found yourself in the ROTC. I
almost went to West Point almost, I wasn't ready again,
I didn't know the military well enough, and so I
instead went to Princeton. Knowing they had an ROTC program.
I actually end up in May of two thousand and one,
(11:02):
so four months before nine to eleven I joined our OTC,
and then nine to eleven happened. It was the ultimate validator.
I knew I wanted to serve that much. I knew
for the reason I would have mentioned briefly before. But
then watching the forces on campus, I mean watching the
preemptive peace rallies at Princeton as there was still smoke
smoldering at ground zero. Professors and students were saying, it's
(11:26):
time for peace, and it's time to understand, and these
people who attacked us, there's a rationale for it. We
need to understand. And I remember scratching my head on
this doesn't make sense. Of course, it didn't make sense
when the first Christianity course in the Religion department from
a so called expert on Christianity. The day one, they said, well,
the most likely scenario is that Jesus was buried in
(11:48):
a shallow grave and eaten by dogs, and the rest
of it is just mythology. I had to go into
the Firestone Library to read actual Bible history about apologetics
of the history of it to fight back in class.
I think the grounding everything, and that's why I'm so
focused now on K through twelve and we're doing a
huge documentary and Fox Nation about the Progressive which you're
(12:08):
a part of. Thank you very much, mister speaker for
taking the time to do that again. It's a five
part series. It's coming together fantastic. I've learned an amazing amount.
If you talked to Robbie George at Princeton, for example,
the prominent constitutional professor who is one of my mentors there,
and he'll say, it used to be that the liberals
would lick their chops when the kids would come to
Princeton because they were ready to deconstruct their worldview that
(12:30):
they showed up with. People like me would come in
as these roogue conservatives patriots, and then they would contort them.
And he said, now it's the other way around. Everyone
shows up at Princeton already woke effectively, and it is
Robbie George who licks his chops at the opportunity to
deconstruct the work. Will do they show up with. I've
had my own failings and mistakes and all of that,
(12:50):
but coming back to the foundation of the way I
was raised helped me get through that clear eyed, and
then joining the military. I mean, forget a degree from Princeton.
That university of one hundred first Airborne was way more
educational for getting a sense of human nature, good and evil,
and appreciation for America and vets who get a chance
to travel the world. You see the alternatives and you
(13:13):
realize how special this really is, which makes it easy
to make the case for it. I have to say,
by the way, just Ramona about ROTC. My dad went
into World War two aisen and listened guy in the army,
came out, worked for the Reading Railroad and got a
g I Bill went to Gettysburg College, was pre med,
(13:33):
but also joined ROTC and came out in the middle
of the Korean War, and he found that survey in
the uniform was so rewarding psychologically that he spent twenty
seven years in the infantry. So I grew up in
that world and surrounded by the really deep sense of service,
which I think you get in organizations like the infantry,
(13:56):
where you realize that you're going to be out there
on your own and hopefully it's all going to work.
So when we get to my oil day, one of
the things I always think about is my father's role
and also my mother's because she was an army wife
and she went wherever he went, and times like when
he was in Vietnam and Korea, she stayed home and
took care of the kids and tried to balance the
family checkbook because he was gone, and as you know,
(14:20):
back in those days, gone meant really gone. You didn't
have any of the modern capacity. So I often think
of lessons I learned from my dad and from growing
up inside the US Army. Now, your unit went to
(14:53):
Guantanamo Bay, where you served as an infantry platoon leader.
What was it like to go to Cuba? Man, never
go back. It was the longest year of my life.
But I was also a new second lieutenant, and I
had a platoon out of New Jersey which was largely
(15:13):
Hispanic and Italian, and they were almost all older than me,
had been in the Army much longer than me. And
here we were on a one year deployment ninety miles
from Florida, effectively at a naval station, because it's the
Guantanamo Bay as a naval station, where on the naval
station side it was an accompanied station, so you had
sailors with their families and their kids with schools, in
(15:36):
a grocery store and a PX and all of those things.
And on the other side of the island at the
detention center at Camp x Ray and where we were
as guards, we were living in tin cans, six guys
for a year, lining up to use the aten T
phone to call home if we wanted to. So we
may as well have been thousands of miles away, even
though we were that close to the States. It was
much like a deployment. There were seven hundred detainees there
(15:58):
at that time, so it was still full. There were
the MP guards that were actually in the cells. That
was not us. We were on the towers and the gates, patrolling,
mounted and dismounted. We were a quick reaction force into
the facility. These are nasty, nasty dudes, and the things
they would yell at the towers, the competations that we
would have inside the jail cells because we would they
(16:20):
would have to call in the QRF And I would
often have a had a Muslim member of my platoon
who spoke Arabic, and I would stand in the tower
with him for many hours and he would sort of
translate a lot of what was being yelled or what
was being said, and it was not you know, I misunderstood,
Please let me go. It was threats to if I
find your name, if I find where you live, if
(16:42):
I find your wife. And most of them were hardcore
jihadists who sought our destruction, which is why the way
in which Guantanamo Bay devolved into this sort of holding
cell and releasing center of very little consequence. I think
it was so underutilizing what it could have been. But
it was a leadership year for me, learning how to
lead men through largely the mundane. We had day shifts
(17:03):
and nightshift and all of that, and ultimately, thankfully everybody
made it home just fine. But it was more of
a leadership in a regimented process away from their families.
But I did appreciate it because it was postline eleven.
It was an opportunity to be a part of it.
And yeah, it was a long year. Was the quality
of that year? Did that make it easier to volunteer
(17:25):
to go to bank dead? Yes? Yes, because you normally
think Cuba ireq, Cuba ireq. But Cuba was so miserable
that all of a sudden became well, what do I
got to lose that kind of the case. Well, if
I'm going to do this whole deployment thing, why don't
we go to the main effort was a big part
of the feeling. And I love the guys I sat
(17:46):
up within Guantanamo, but great men. In fact, one of
the guys that I memorialized every year and think about
is Jorge Olivera, who was a specialist in my platoonic
Guantanamo Bay, a National Guardsman who went back and became
a police officer in his community, revered, and then deployed
to Afghanistan, which is the third place I went, and
was killed in Afghanistan on an ambush while I was
(18:06):
not with him in that unit, but I was in
Afghanistan at the same time he was killed, and he
was just beloved by his troops and beloved by his
department and lived a life of service. And he was
one of my platoon members who was amazing at Guantanamo
in what was done there. Yeah, I got home and
I took a while to unwind, and then I was restless.
I'll never forget. I actually worked for bear Stearns in
(18:27):
New York City and was watching the war unfold, having
come back from Guantanamo Bay for a year because I
was a guardsman and I just got this abiding sense.
In fact, it was a Wall Street Journal article that
I read of suicide bombing that killed a bunch of
men and a bunch of children in Iraq, including a soldier.
I remember thinking, I've got to do my part. I'm
(18:47):
out trained infantry officer. I'm going to regret if I'm
not in the middle of it as quickly as I can,
And so I actually emailed the only guy I knew.
He was a company commander in one hundred and first
and he had been my platoon trainer at Fort Benning.
He had trained me as an infantry officer, and he
wrote me back almost immediately. I'll never forget staring at
the screen. It was like fifteen minutes later. He said, actually,
(19:07):
I need a second platoon leader. If you can get here,
I'll take you. And I started the process of working
through the Pentagon behemoth of a machine that doesn't move
quickly ever, but ultimately it came back to Princeton. There
was a major general that had visited Princeton who had
given me his card when I was a senior and
said if you ever need anything, you know, shoot me
an email. Well, it turns out he was now the
(19:28):
commander of all forces in Korea, and I just emailed them,
thinking what do I have to lose? You know, can
he help the National Guard talk to the regular Army
so that I can join the hundred First for their deployment.
And he must have known somebody, because I got a
call one day at my trading desk at bear Stearns
and it said, is this first lieutenant Hegseth And I said, yes,
he goes. I don't know who the bleep you think
(19:49):
you are, but you better not bleep this up because
your orders are going to the hundred first Airborne. So
I got my orders and went down to Fort Campbell
and met my platoon down there just a few weeks
before they mobilized to go to Kuwait. And a few
weeks after that in Kuwait, we were in Baghdad and
I was the National Guard Wall Street Ivy League non ranger,
(20:10):
qualified new platoon leader. I had a lot too credibility
to gain because I didn't come in with many attributes.
A lot of my guys like, so you didn't actually
go airborne? I did not go airborne. Nope, I was
not a airborne qualified. But then you were taking on
a lot. Yes, yeah, I'd imagine that I had not
had an opportunity to go to ranger school or airborn
school because I was in the National Guard and I
(20:31):
had all these other parts in my background. But I
knew that my company commander had trained me and knew
that he would love to have me as a platoon leader,
and so a lot of it was him vouching for
me and my viability. Now we did training and all
of that obviously once I got their high intensity, because
he wanted to make sure I was caught up on
all the TTPs and all the ways the unit operated.
But at that point, one hundred first Airborne is it's
(20:53):
actually not an airborne unit anymore. It's all air assault
on helicopters, so really air assaults getting on and off
and planning missions that way. It wasn't until our first
night air raid against an Alkaida target that went well,
where we nabbed a bunch of them in Baghdad that
a couple of my staff sergeants came to me and
they were like, all right, lts, okay, you know, all right,
you're okay. That's when you know you've got a shot. Well, well,
(21:16):
I was going to ask you A key question I
think to understanding any military is when did you learn
to rely on your sergeants? Oh? Early, heavy, I mean
they drill it into you at your basic course that hey,
it's your patoon sergeant and your squad leaders that you're
going to have to lean on. There's a lot of
young lts can still come in hard charge and thinking
(21:37):
they're the next patent and you know, run into a
brick wall. And I've always taken the opposite approach, like, listen,
you guys have been doing this. Yes, I'll ultimately be
making certain decisions at certain moments, but my job is
to bring different assets to bear to the battlefield. You
guys are the ones closing with and destroying the enemy.
My job is to make sure we've got air support
and make sure we're coordinating with higher and with adjacent
(21:58):
units on the radio directing things, but also close enough
to the front to make sure that I'm making the
decisive choices. So early on I had no choice. You
have no choice. You can't show up at a unit
like that or anywhere and pretend like you run the joint.
You're very reliant. I still remember certain first class Goodoi.
My first between sergeant took me into his wing and said, LT,
(22:19):
here's how we do things around here, and it was
a lot more listening than talking. I think one of
the greatest lessons I had learned was from my father
about relying on the noncoms, And when I got to
be a member of Congress, I very rapidly worked at
figuring out who are the people who really make it work,
you know, And because I would pay attention to them,
(22:41):
they responded wonderfully and I got a lot of stuff
done that you couldn't get done if you relied on yourself.
The other lesson my father kept trying to drill into me,
which I think you'll identify with, is that if the
platoon leaders start shooting, you have added a rifleman and
lost a leader. Yes, yes, you've got to be very
disciplined and only shoot on defense because you want all
(23:05):
of your offensive thinking going on while other people are
doing the shooting. Right Again, it was one of those
things where I didn't learn it quite as well as
I should have, but it does make a huge difference
to not get sucked into a fight that you should
be directing and not participating in, absolutely right. And of
course the first time I was ever shot at, what's
the first thing I did is if it's doing theater,
(23:25):
I started shooting back. And it took a while for
me to realize, no, no no, no, I'm got to drop
down in the church here and start directing things. You'll
enjoy this. Duncan Hunter was a great supporter of mine
in Congress from San Diego. Altimately ended up as chairman
of the Armed Services Committee. Got to Vietnam and big
(23:45):
outdoor guy, you know, bow hunting and all that stuff,
and so he's there as a very young officer. He
gets involved in his very first ambush and they're gathered
around the trail. They're waiting for the I think it
was Vietcong at that point to show up. And when
they show up, he shows leadership by pulling a grenade
office vest and throwing it and nothing happens. So he
(24:10):
pulls a second grenade off, starts to throw it, and
the sergeant leans in and says, if you pull the pin,
they work better. In an a great combat leader, but
he said there were those moments early on when you felt,
you know, like you're an idiot when you look at
the American military and compared to almost any place else
(24:33):
in the world except maybe the Israelis, our ability to
grow our noncoms so that they perform functions that in
the old Soviet Army would have been done by majors
and lieutenant colonels, and it gives us just a combat
capability that I think sometimes a Memorial Day we should
remember all the way down the line, all of these
folks play a real role in our survival, all the
(24:55):
way down to the E five lowest level non commissioned office,
or who's leading a fire team, you know, and he's
maneuvering his three guys himself, that four man team. He
is empowered to make decisions at that level obviously all
embedded that are critical to any outcome. I can't even
conceive of this sort of old autocratic way of organizing
(25:16):
your military, which is like one officer giving a bunch
of polabs in order. It is. The dynamic nature in
which the American military and the Israeli military, if you
talked about, can operate is all credit to a non
commissioned officers of court that polices itself I mean, it's
its own hierarchy as well and complimentary to what officers.
Do you know? I have to ask you. I think
(26:02):
that what Fox Nation is doing offering a free year
to all active United States military members and veterans as
a part of their Grateful Nation initiative, that's a big decision.
They're putting a pretty good bit of money on the
table encouraging current military and veterans to look at Fox
(26:22):
Nation and join it and get a year of free subscription.
I just want to commend you because I know you're
a part of this entire initiative, and I think you're
probably as hard a charge or inside Fox as you
are outside on nice kind of issues. But talk Tess
from here about why you hope retired military and active
(26:44):
duty military we'll see Fox Nation as something that really
fits into their interest in their concerns. I appreciate that.
I'm really proud of Fox Nation for doing this, Fox
News for doing it. It's the right thing to do,
and I know they've seen a huge response so far.
And it is that simple. If you're active military, Guard
reserve veteran, you can go to Foxnation dot com or
(27:07):
Foxnation dot com slash military sign up for a free year,
and I think what they're going to see is a
streaming service that reflects their values. I mean, I've said
it before, but it's worth reiterating. I mean Fox Nation
is the Netflix for conservatives, Christians, patriots, people that are
looking for content oriented toward the family and history, real history,
(27:28):
and so I think once they jump in there, they're
going to find whether it's the Modern Warrior series that
I do, the documentaries in Israel, the stuff that Brian
Kilmey does on Forgotten History, the Unauthorized History of Socialism,
or Unauthorized History of Taxation. I mean, there's so much
great content there that you're never ever going to see
anywhere else, especially on a digital streaming service these days,
(27:49):
and there's new content coming all the time. I mean, obviously,
the hope for Fox Nation is that these patriots who
sign up for free, free year say hey, I don't
want to live without this, and they want to subscribe
going forward. I think that will happen because the more
people are exposed to the content on Fox Nation, the
larger the catalog gets, and the bigger the names and
things are getting bigger every day. I think people will
(28:12):
be drawn to it. We need that kind of alternative.
They are these monster streaming services that just ram the
same Hollywood content into our brains, and we need an alternative,
and Fox is trying to grow that through Fox Nation.
And this is a neat aspect of it. So I
hope that's in military will take advantage of it. So
you have think an upcoming Memorial Day weekend show from
(28:33):
the Modern Warrior series, And as I understand, you have
a couple of guys with you having a really interesting conversation.
Can you talk briefly about how that show has been developed.
The show Modern Warriors was developed out of frustration I
had at Fox and Friends that you talk to these
amazing war vets and you get three and a half minutes,
and you know it's utterly insufficient, and so let's get
(28:55):
them in a bar or round a fire pit and
get a beer in their hand with other vets. And
that's usually where you get the real story, the longer conversation,
the deeper conversation. And so Modern Warriors is an ongoing
series on Fox Nation. And you know, we'll do it
on the fourth of July, we'll do it on Veterans Day,
we'll do it for Memorial Day. We'll do it just
to do it. And we get different collections of vets,
(29:17):
you know. Usually it's rangers and seals and Green berets
and infantrymen and aviators, just different backgrounds, and it's amazing.
Sometimes they know each other, sometimes they don't neot. But
when you get a group of vets like that from
the post nine to eleven generation and you just throw
topics out there like Memorial Day or service, or rules
of engagement or woke military or withdrawal from Afghanistan or
(29:40):
threats from China, you get an amazingly rich conversation. And
this one in particular is called Modern Warriors Reflections, and
it is almost all reflections on the gravity and weight
and the meaning of Memorial Day. And we do it
at the new National Veterans Museum and Memorial in Columbus, Ohio,
which is beautiful, by the way, and it's very well
put together, and you get candid conversation like these guys
(30:03):
get really honest. You can let the conversation breathe go
deeper into the topics. I also conceived this idea. I
was supposed to meet Rob O'Neil, the guy that shopped
Bin Laden for one beer, just a chit chat and
talk to him, because we met at like three o'clock
four hours later, and you know, ten beers later, I
had the whole story of the Big Laden raid and
(30:25):
his entire career. My mind was just swirling because I
couldn't believe what an opportunity had been to hear that
story firsthand, and I wanted to get a little bit
of that into people's lives, you know, sit at the
bar with Rob O'Neil and hear the real story. I
was at the museum in Columbus about three months ago.
I was really impressed with how modern it is, how
(30:47):
well they've done a getting people to tell their stories.
So you're really in direct contact with people who've done
the real thing. And I commend anybody who when you
go to Columbus. That's a great museum and a great
play for you to be doing this. Let me ask
you one last thing, is I really appreciate you spending
this kind of time with us. And I have to say,
(31:08):
by the way, I used to spend time traveling with
Ali North and in terms of your whole point, you know,
Ali been in so many fights in so many different places,
both as a marine and then later as a correspondent
and as such a great storyteller, that you'd be sitting
there with your jaw hanging open, as he said, and
then this happened, And I think what it goes back
to in the Civil War, they had a phrase about
(31:31):
whether or not you had seen the elephant, and what
they meant by that was had you been in combat.
And this was always sort of my father's position was
that you'd seen the elephant, you understood and we didn't
have to talk about it. And if you hadn't seen
the elephant, you aren't going to understand anyway. And I'm
not talking about it. And I think you're what you're
doing is you're getting people together who've seen the elephant,
(31:54):
and they're sharing, i think, with the rest of the
country what it's been like, what it and I think
it's a great service to the long term health and
long term patriotism in the country. So I hope you
have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. I'm really grateful you
take this kind of time. I hope your new series
really works, and I hope that veterans and their friends
(32:16):
and relatives will realize that at Fox nation. They've got
a real opportunity to sign up for a year and
taste it see what we think of it. And it's
a great act of patriotism by Fox to make that
kind of offer to those who serve with us. Pete,
let me just mention one more thing. I understand that
your book American Crusade, Our Fight to Stay Free just
(32:37):
came out in paperback, and we're going to have a
link to it at our show page so people can
get it directly. Once again, you're own remarkably prolific guy.
You work really hard, but you somehow seem really happy
and positive through all of it. So it's great. You
know why, because there was a book that influenced me
a lot, written by Jeffrey Hardy, is a professor at Dartmouth,
(32:58):
and they read it many years ago. It's entitled Smiling
through the Cultural Catastrophe, and I think that's maybe that's
how the spirit I try to have as things swirl
around us. But New you are a leader for all
of us and such a great patriot, such a great fighter,
and I'm always honored to spend any time with you.
Thank you to my guest, Pete Hexeth. You can learn
(33:20):
more about the Fox Nation promotion proactive duty and military
veterans on our show page at newtsworld dot com. Newtsworld
is produced by Gingwich three sixty and iHeartMedia. Our executive
producer is Debbie Myers, our producer is Garnsey Sloan, and
our researcher is Rachel Peterson. The artwork for the show
(33:41):
was created by Steve Penley. Special thanks to the team
at Gingwich three sixty. If you've been enjoying Newtsworld, I
hope you'll go to Apple Podcasts and both rate us
with five stars and give us a review so others
can learn what it's all about. Right now, listeners of
newts World can sign up for my three free weekly
columns at Gingwich three sixty dot com slash newsletter I'm
(34:04):
new Gangwich. This is Newtworld.
On this episode of Newsworld. The origins of the Memorial
Day date back to eighteen sixty eight. Commander in Chief
John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic
issued General Order Number eleven designating May the thirtieth as
a Memorial Day, quote for the purpose of strewing the
flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died
(00:25):
in defense of their country during the Late Rebellion, and
whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and
hamlet churchyard in the land. In nineteen seventy one, an
Act of Congress changed the observance of the holiday to
the last Monday in May and extended the honor to
all soldiers who died in American wars. Today, national observance
(00:47):
of the holiday still takes place at Arlington National Cemetery,
with the placing of a wreath of the tomb of
the Unknown Soldier and the decoration of each grave with
a small American flag. So while many Americans think of
it as a weekend that marks the start of summer
parades and backyard gatherings with family and friends, please also
remember why Memorial Day was established to honor those men
(01:11):
and women who gave their life and service to our
country and to protect our freedoms. As part of our
Memorial Day episode, I wanted to invite back someone who
is a true American patriot. He served in the Army
National Guard for two decades until last month. He is
a proud son of Minnesota, the author of American Crusade,
Our Fight to Stay Free, and Fox and Friends Weekend
(01:34):
co host. I'm really pleased to welcome back my guest
and good friend, Pete Hexeth. Pete, welcome back, mister speaker.
(01:58):
Thank you for having me, always an honor. I'm curious
because you have so many experiences, and I love watching
when you're off at some breakfast place talking to people
you've probably talked to more everyday Americans and almost anyone
I know in your heart, what does it mean to
you to have Memorial Day? Memorial Day crystallizes it all
(02:19):
for me, And you're right when you're talking to everyday Americans,
it's the type of day that means a great deal
to them because they're still tethered to how precious our
American experiment, this mission of freedom really is. When I
think of Memorial Day these days, and for many years,
I ask myself, and I hope people ask themselves the
same thing. You know, my living worthy of the sacrifice
(02:42):
that previous generations gave at the altar of freedom. It's
a gut check. It's a gut check that day, but
also reminder for the upcoming year that all the things
that we have, all the opportunities we have here. Yes,
we declared our independence with a bold document from brilliant minds.
It was the gritty men and women who are willing
(03:03):
to pick up a musket or a rifle. It was
the men and women who picked up machine guns and
grades and got on ships and deployed around the globe,
knowing that when they left they may not come home,
and many of them have not. Millions of Americans over
the course of time have sacrificed their lives so that
we can live free. And when you realize our republic
(03:24):
is not that old, it's young, two hundred and forty
odd years young. And yet you look at the scope
of the gift that has been given of human being,
human souls, Americans who were willing to die so that
we can be here today. It encapsulates the gravity of
this holiday that we have to work really hard to
make sure our kids and grandkids understand and appreciate fully
(03:47):
that they know that it's more than a backyard barbecue.
And I love the backyard barbecues and all the gatherings
that happen. I think celebration is a part of what
we should do for those of us who have our
lives here in America today is enjoy it. But man,
we better be drilling into the minds. I love the
history that you read up at the beginning news about
where this came from. You know what it was meant
(04:09):
to recognize. And I've had my own special moments of
memorial David, each in our own way pass on to
the next generation so they get the gravity of what
it took to get us to this place. I'm really
curious because I've watched you for years, and you have
a remarkable talent for speaking with people, for getting things
down to a kind of common everyday understanding. This clearly
(04:33):
grew out of your very being. I mean, it seems
to me that somehow, when you were very young, you
understood and you valued patriotism and you valued service. Where
do you think that came from? I got to give
it to my family and to faith and to community.
I mean, my mom and dad are just hard working
(04:55):
every day folks. My dad was a high school gym
teacher and a basketball coach, and my mom stayed home.
And it wasn't an overtly political household, but it was patriotic,
it was hard working, it was truly rooted and invested
in Christian faith and just go out and be good
people according to the Gospel. And I'll tell you there's
a reason I'm a big believer in civic ritual parades fireworks,
(05:17):
because I know that left a big imprint on my heart.
In one particular example is a small town of one
a Mingo, Minnesota. It's nowhere southern Minnesota. It's a small
farming town. It's where both of my parents grew up.
And they would hold parades throughout the year, but the
biggest one in town was the Memorial Day parade. And
again I can't underscore how small a town this is,
(05:37):
but they had a huge, wide main street and they
would have a Memorial Day parade and the whole town
would come out. We didn't live there at the time,
but we'd always go back to our grandparents stand by
the side of the road, and it would be the
line of veterans from that town with the band in front.
And it's one of these blinket you miss it, mister speakers.
It's not long. But what you had was the entire town,
(05:59):
hundreds of people standing as these vets World War two vets,
then Korean War vets, than Vietnam vets, and then you
had Gulf War vets who were young and still fitting
into their uniforms marching down that parade and everyone would
stand and revere them for their service. But of course
that parade ended at Memorial Park, where all those men
(06:20):
and women in uniform would give honor to those who
didn't make it home. And I remember they would read
the names and talk about the lives of the people
that were no longer there. And I don't know if
it hit me then, but it certainly hits me now.
But it left an imprint on me. Holy, this is
tiny one of Mingo, Minnesota, and these are the list
of names of people in this town and in the
county who never came home. Imagine amplifying that across every
(06:43):
small town across America. It started to give me a
sense I, just as a kid watched the way the
town revered those vets and those military members, and I thought, man,
they've done something special, something bigger than this town, bigger
than themselves. That seems really important to me. I didn't
come from a military family at all. I couldn't tell
you the difference between the Army and the Marine Corps
(07:04):
when I graduated high school, had no idea. So when
Donald Trump talked about things like military parades, there's a
reason why I truly believe in those things, and they
need to happen because they're special events that you don't
otherwise get in your life that remind you of the
things that a society is supposed to value, back to
basics of our military, of our flag. So recapturing those
(07:27):
and doing more of that, I think is truly important.
But I've benefited a great deal from serving the military.
It's the best education I've ever received. Is every background,
every socio economic set, to every race who was dedicated
to something bigger than themselves. And you know, the other
thing is I love doing the diners because just relating
to people where they're at and hearing their stories and
(07:49):
talking about the things that really motivate them and animate them.
Part of my enjoyment of doing that is on deployments
being stuck. You're stuck with thirty forty fifty guys who
you would otherwise never hang out with, who you didn't
grow up with, and you are bored out of your
mind half the time, and the only thing you have
to do is to bs, is to chat and tell
(08:11):
stories and to talk and find ways to relate to
people who you otherwise wouldn't hang out with. In many ways,
it was a forged opportunity because you spend so much
time doing it, and then you end up appreciating it
because those are not the type of people you meet
in the IVY League or in the media world or
in politics. But the common sense wisdom that emanates from
that I think has served you well. That's really interesting.
(08:32):
I have this imagery of you walking into a diner
and it's just like revisiting your platoon. And I must say,
you connect. Every time I've seen you, usually at breakfast.
You connect with people as well as anybody I know.
Part of it is that they like Fox, part of
it is that they like you, But part of it
(08:54):
is your style. You can be with almost any group
and you're curious about them and I think they can
sense that no one is genuine and when it isn't
do you know much I've learned new from those assignments.
I truly enjoy it because the camera's on for four
minutes three times over the course of the show. But
they're just spending three and a half four hours with people,
(09:15):
and it's always a different part of the country, a
different kind of crowd, and you just sit down and say,
how's life going, what are you facing. I don't know
if you saw this, but I got mocked. I gave
a seapack speech. You talked about these diners, and I
talked about how people talk about the First Amendment and
the Second Amendment and the Tenth Amendment, And it was
broadcast and a bunch of folks on MSNBC and CNN
went nots and said, oh, Pete Hexef claims he goes
(09:36):
to diners and talks about the tenth Amendment, and what
they don't understand is you know that, of course is
code for They talk about God and free speech and
the Second Amendment and their right to bear arms, and
of course the idea of local control and states rights.
Those are other things they talk about all the time,
and so we actually played a clip of diners talking
about those things over and over and over again as
(09:57):
we smacked back at him. But I do love it.
They always say, hey, we feel like we know you, Pete,
and I turn around and say, hey, I feel like
I know you. Also, because there are a shared set
of values of people who often show up at these things.
We have to remember, though, if you're MSNBC, your idea
of going to breakfast is either the Upper west Side
or Rodeo Drive, And so you're thinking, you know, I
don't know anybody a rodeo drive who even knows what
(10:20):
a constitution is. How can they be talking like this.
I have to go back, because you know, I used
to be a historian in a different life, and so
I try to think about things historically. You leave this
small town, you go to Princeton, which is hardly a
round central for patriotism, and you end up joining the ROTC.
(10:41):
Now that's almost counterculture for Princeton. What got you across
that bridge? So you found yourself in the ROTC. I
almost went to West Point almost, I wasn't ready again,
I didn't know the military well enough, and so I
instead went to Princeton. Knowing they had an ROTC program.
I actually end up in May of two thousand and one,
(11:02):
so four months before nine to eleven I joined our OTC,
and then nine to eleven happened. It was the ultimate validator.
I knew I wanted to serve that much. I knew
for the reason I would have mentioned briefly before. But
then watching the forces on campus, I mean watching the
preemptive peace rallies at Princeton as there was still smoke
smoldering at ground zero. Professors and students were saying, it's
(11:26):
time for peace, and it's time to understand, and these
people who attacked us, there's a rationale for it. We
need to understand. And I remember scratching my head on
this doesn't make sense. Of course, it didn't make sense
when the first Christianity course in the Religion department from
a so called expert on Christianity. The day one, they said, well,
the most likely scenario is that Jesus was buried in
(11:48):
a shallow grave and eaten by dogs, and the rest
of it is just mythology. I had to go into
the Firestone Library to read actual Bible history about apologetics
of the history of it to fight back in class.
I think the grounding everything, and that's why I'm so
focused now on K through twelve and we're doing a
huge documentary and Fox Nation about the Progressive which you're
(12:08):
a part of. Thank you very much, mister speaker for
taking the time to do that again. It's a five
part series. It's coming together fantastic. I've learned an amazing amount.
If you talked to Robbie George at Princeton, for example,
the prominent constitutional professor who is one of my mentors there,
and he'll say, it used to be that the liberals
would lick their chops when the kids would come to
Princeton because they were ready to deconstruct their worldview that
(12:30):
they showed up with. People like me would come in
as these roogue conservatives patriots, and then they would contort them.
And he said, now it's the other way around. Everyone
shows up at Princeton already woke effectively, and it is
Robbie George who licks his chops at the opportunity to
deconstruct the work. Will do they show up with. I've
had my own failings and mistakes and all of that,
(12:50):
but coming back to the foundation of the way I
was raised helped me get through that clear eyed, and
then joining the military. I mean, forget a degree from Princeton.
That university of one hundred first Airborne was way more
educational for getting a sense of human nature, good and evil,
and appreciation for America and vets who get a chance
to travel the world. You see the alternatives and you
(13:13):
realize how special this really is, which makes it easy
to make the case for it. I have to say,
by the way, just Ramona about ROTC. My dad went
into World War two aisen and listened guy in the army,
came out, worked for the Reading Railroad and got a
g I Bill went to Gettysburg College, was pre med,
(13:33):
but also joined ROTC and came out in the middle
of the Korean War, and he found that survey in
the uniform was so rewarding psychologically that he spent twenty
seven years in the infantry. So I grew up in
that world and surrounded by the really deep sense of service,
which I think you get in organizations like the infantry,
(13:56):
where you realize that you're going to be out there
on your own and hopefully it's all going to work.
So when we get to my oil day, one of
the things I always think about is my father's role
and also my mother's because she was an army wife
and she went wherever he went, and times like when
he was in Vietnam and Korea, she stayed home and
took care of the kids and tried to balance the
family checkbook because he was gone, and as you know,
(14:20):
back in those days, gone meant really gone. You didn't
have any of the modern capacity. So I often think
of lessons I learned from my dad and from growing
up inside the US Army. Now, your unit went to
(14:53):
Guantanamo Bay, where you served as an infantry platoon leader.
What was it like to go to Cuba? Man, never
go back. It was the longest year of my life.
But I was also a new second lieutenant, and I
had a platoon out of New Jersey which was largely
(15:13):
Hispanic and Italian, and they were almost all older than me,
had been in the Army much longer than me. And
here we were on a one year deployment ninety miles
from Florida, effectively at a naval station, because it's the
Guantanamo Bay as a naval station, where on the naval
station side it was an accompanied station, so you had
sailors with their families and their kids with schools, in
(15:36):
a grocery store and a PX and all of those things.
And on the other side of the island at the
detention center at Camp x Ray and where we were
as guards, we were living in tin cans, six guys
for a year, lining up to use the aten T
phone to call home if we wanted to. So we
may as well have been thousands of miles away, even
though we were that close to the States. It was
much like a deployment. There were seven hundred detainees there
(15:58):
at that time, so it was still full. There were
the MP guards that were actually in the cells. That
was not us. We were on the towers and the gates, patrolling,
mounted and dismounted. We were a quick reaction force into
the facility. These are nasty, nasty dudes, and the things
they would yell at the towers, the competations that we
would have inside the jail cells because we would they
(16:20):
would have to call in the QRF And I would
often have a had a Muslim member of my platoon
who spoke Arabic, and I would stand in the tower
with him for many hours and he would sort of
translate a lot of what was being yelled or what
was being said, and it was not you know, I misunderstood,
Please let me go. It was threats to if I
find your name, if I find where you live, if
(16:42):
I find your wife. And most of them were hardcore
jihadists who sought our destruction, which is why the way
in which Guantanamo Bay devolved into this sort of holding
cell and releasing center of very little consequence. I think
it was so underutilizing what it could have been. But
it was a leadership year for me, learning how to
lead men through largely the mundane. We had day shifts
(17:03):
and nightshift and all of that, and ultimately, thankfully everybody
made it home just fine. But it was more of
a leadership in a regimented process away from their families.
But I did appreciate it because it was postline eleven.
It was an opportunity to be a part of it.
And yeah, it was a long year. Was the quality
of that year? Did that make it easier to volunteer
(17:25):
to go to bank dead? Yes? Yes, because you normally
think Cuba ireq, Cuba ireq. But Cuba was so miserable
that all of a sudden became well, what do I
got to lose that kind of the case. Well, if
I'm going to do this whole deployment thing, why don't
we go to the main effort was a big part
of the feeling. And I love the guys I sat
(17:46):
up within Guantanamo, but great men. In fact, one of
the guys that I memorialized every year and think about
is Jorge Olivera, who was a specialist in my platoonic
Guantanamo Bay, a National Guardsman who went back and became
a police officer in his community, revered, and then deployed
to Afghanistan, which is the third place I went, and
was killed in Afghanistan on an ambush while I was
(18:06):
not with him in that unit, but I was in
Afghanistan at the same time he was killed, and he
was just beloved by his troops and beloved by his
department and lived a life of service. And he was
one of my platoon members who was amazing at Guantanamo
in what was done there. Yeah, I got home and
I took a while to unwind, and then I was restless.
I'll never forget. I actually worked for bear Stearns in
(18:27):
New York City and was watching the war unfold, having
come back from Guantanamo Bay for a year because I
was a guardsman and I just got this abiding sense.
In fact, it was a Wall Street Journal article that
I read of suicide bombing that killed a bunch of
men and a bunch of children in Iraq, including a soldier.
I remember thinking, I've got to do my part. I'm
(18:47):
out trained infantry officer. I'm going to regret if I'm
not in the middle of it as quickly as I can,
And so I actually emailed the only guy I knew.
He was a company commander in one hundred and first
and he had been my platoon trainer at Fort Benning.
He had trained me as an infantry officer, and he
wrote me back almost immediately. I'll never forget staring at
the screen. It was like fifteen minutes later. He said, actually,
(19:07):
I need a second platoon leader. If you can get here,
I'll take you. And I started the process of working
through the Pentagon behemoth of a machine that doesn't move
quickly ever, but ultimately it came back to Princeton. There
was a major general that had visited Princeton who had
given me his card when I was a senior and
said if you ever need anything, you know, shoot me
an email. Well, it turns out he was now the
(19:28):
commander of all forces in Korea, and I just emailed them,
thinking what do I have to lose? You know, can
he help the National Guard talk to the regular Army
so that I can join the hundred First for their deployment.
And he must have known somebody, because I got a
call one day at my trading desk at bear Stearns
and it said, is this first lieutenant Hegseth And I said, yes,
he goes. I don't know who the bleep you think
(19:49):
you are, but you better not bleep this up because
your orders are going to the hundred first Airborne. So
I got my orders and went down to Fort Campbell
and met my platoon down there just a few weeks
before they mobilized to go to Kuwait. And a few
weeks after that in Kuwait, we were in Baghdad and
I was the National Guard Wall Street Ivy League non ranger,
(20:10):
qualified new platoon leader. I had a lot too credibility
to gain because I didn't come in with many attributes.
A lot of my guys like, so you didn't actually
go airborne? I did not go airborne. Nope, I was
not a airborne qualified. But then you were taking on
a lot. Yes, yeah, I'd imagine that I had not
had an opportunity to go to ranger school or airborn
school because I was in the National Guard and I
(20:31):
had all these other parts in my background. But I
knew that my company commander had trained me and knew
that he would love to have me as a platoon leader,
and so a lot of it was him vouching for
me and my viability. Now we did training and all
of that obviously once I got their high intensity, because
he wanted to make sure I was caught up on
all the TTPs and all the ways the unit operated.
But at that point, one hundred first Airborne is it's
(20:53):
actually not an airborne unit anymore. It's all air assault
on helicopters, so really air assaults getting on and off
and planning missions that way. It wasn't until our first
night air raid against an Alkaida target that went well,
where we nabbed a bunch of them in Baghdad that
a couple of my staff sergeants came to me and
they were like, all right, lts, okay, you know, all right,
you're okay. That's when you know you've got a shot. Well, well,
(21:16):
I was going to ask you A key question I
think to understanding any military is when did you learn
to rely on your sergeants? Oh? Early, heavy, I mean
they drill it into you at your basic course that hey,
it's your patoon sergeant and your squad leaders that you're
going to have to lean on. There's a lot of
young lts can still come in hard charge and thinking
(21:37):
they're the next patent and you know, run into a
brick wall. And I've always taken the opposite approach, like, listen,
you guys have been doing this. Yes, I'll ultimately be
making certain decisions at certain moments, but my job is
to bring different assets to bear to the battlefield. You
guys are the ones closing with and destroying the enemy.
My job is to make sure we've got air support
and make sure we're coordinating with higher and with adjacent
(21:58):
units on the radio directing things, but also close enough
to the front to make sure that I'm making the
decisive choices. So early on I had no choice. You
have no choice. You can't show up at a unit
like that or anywhere and pretend like you run the joint.
You're very reliant. I still remember certain first class Goodoi.
My first between sergeant took me into his wing and said, LT,
(22:19):
here's how we do things around here, and it was
a lot more listening than talking. I think one of
the greatest lessons I had learned was from my father
about relying on the noncoms, And when I got to
be a member of Congress, I very rapidly worked at
figuring out who are the people who really make it work,
you know, And because I would pay attention to them,
(22:41):
they responded wonderfully and I got a lot of stuff
done that you couldn't get done if you relied on yourself.
The other lesson my father kept trying to drill into me,
which I think you'll identify with, is that if the
platoon leaders start shooting, you have added a rifleman and
lost a leader. Yes, yes, you've got to be very
disciplined and only shoot on defense because you want all
(23:05):
of your offensive thinking going on while other people are
doing the shooting. Right Again, it was one of those
things where I didn't learn it quite as well as
I should have, but it does make a huge difference
to not get sucked into a fight that you should
be directing and not participating in, absolutely right. And of
course the first time I was ever shot at, what's
the first thing I did is if it's doing theater,
(23:25):
I started shooting back. And it took a while for
me to realize, no, no no, no, I'm got to drop
down in the church here and start directing things. You'll
enjoy this. Duncan Hunter was a great supporter of mine
in Congress from San Diego. Altimately ended up as chairman
of the Armed Services Committee. Got to Vietnam and big
(23:45):
outdoor guy, you know, bow hunting and all that stuff,
and so he's there as a very young officer. He
gets involved in his very first ambush and they're gathered
around the trail. They're waiting for the I think it
was Vietcong at that point to show up. And when
they show up, he shows leadership by pulling a grenade
office vest and throwing it and nothing happens. So he
(24:10):
pulls a second grenade off, starts to throw it, and
the sergeant leans in and says, if you pull the pin,
they work better. In an a great combat leader, but
he said there were those moments early on when you felt,
you know, like you're an idiot when you look at
the American military and compared to almost any place else
(24:33):
in the world except maybe the Israelis, our ability to
grow our noncoms so that they perform functions that in
the old Soviet Army would have been done by majors
and lieutenant colonels, and it gives us just a combat
capability that I think sometimes a Memorial Day we should
remember all the way down the line, all of these
folks play a real role in our survival, all the
(24:55):
way down to the E five lowest level non commissioned office,
or who's leading a fire team, you know, and he's
maneuvering his three guys himself, that four man team. He
is empowered to make decisions at that level obviously all
embedded that are critical to any outcome. I can't even
conceive of this sort of old autocratic way of organizing
(25:16):
your military, which is like one officer giving a bunch
of polabs in order. It is. The dynamic nature in
which the American military and the Israeli military, if you
talked about, can operate is all credit to a non
commissioned officers of court that polices itself I mean, it's
its own hierarchy as well and complimentary to what officers.
Do you know? I have to ask you. I think
(26:02):
that what Fox Nation is doing offering a free year
to all active United States military members and veterans as
a part of their Grateful Nation initiative, that's a big decision.
They're putting a pretty good bit of money on the
table encouraging current military and veterans to look at Fox
(26:22):
Nation and join it and get a year of free subscription.
I just want to commend you because I know you're
a part of this entire initiative, and I think you're
probably as hard a charge or inside Fox as you
are outside on nice kind of issues. But talk Tess
from here about why you hope retired military and active
(26:44):
duty military we'll see Fox Nation as something that really
fits into their interest in their concerns. I appreciate that.
I'm really proud of Fox Nation for doing this, Fox
News for doing it. It's the right thing to do,
and I know they've seen a huge response so far.
And it is that simple. If you're active military, Guard
reserve veteran, you can go to Foxnation dot com or
(27:07):
Foxnation dot com slash military sign up for a free year,
and I think what they're going to see is a
streaming service that reflects their values. I mean, I've said
it before, but it's worth reiterating. I mean Fox Nation
is the Netflix for conservatives, Christians, patriots, people that are
looking for content oriented toward the family and history, real history,
(27:28):
and so I think once they jump in there, they're
going to find whether it's the Modern Warrior series that
I do, the documentaries in Israel, the stuff that Brian
Kilmey does on Forgotten History, the Unauthorized History of Socialism,
or Unauthorized History of Taxation. I mean, there's so much
great content there that you're never ever going to see
anywhere else, especially on a digital streaming service these days,
(27:49):
and there's new content coming all the time. I mean, obviously,
the hope for Fox Nation is that these patriots who
sign up for free, free year say hey, I don't
want to live without this, and they want to subscribe
going forward. I think that will happen because the more
people are exposed to the content on Fox Nation, the
larger the catalog gets, and the bigger the names and
things are getting bigger every day. I think people will
(28:12):
be drawn to it. We need that kind of alternative.
They are these monster streaming services that just ram the
same Hollywood content into our brains, and we need an alternative,
and Fox is trying to grow that through Fox Nation.
And this is a neat aspect of it. So I
hope that's in military will take advantage of it. So
you have think an upcoming Memorial Day weekend show from
(28:33):
the Modern Warrior series, And as I understand, you have
a couple of guys with you having a really interesting conversation.
Can you talk briefly about how that show has been developed.
The show Modern Warriors was developed out of frustration I
had at Fox and Friends that you talk to these
amazing war vets and you get three and a half minutes,
and you know it's utterly insufficient, and so let's get
(28:55):
them in a bar or round a fire pit and
get a beer in their hand with other vets. And
that's usually where you get the real story, the longer conversation,
the deeper conversation. And so Modern Warriors is an ongoing
series on Fox Nation. And you know, we'll do it
on the fourth of July, we'll do it on Veterans Day,
we'll do it for Memorial Day. We'll do it just
to do it. And we get different collections of vets,
(29:17):
you know. Usually it's rangers and seals and Green berets
and infantrymen and aviators, just different backgrounds, and it's amazing.
Sometimes they know each other, sometimes they don't neot. But
when you get a group of vets like that from
the post nine to eleven generation and you just throw
topics out there like Memorial Day or service, or rules
of engagement or woke military or withdrawal from Afghanistan or
(29:40):
threats from China, you get an amazingly rich conversation. And
this one in particular is called Modern Warriors Reflections, and
it is almost all reflections on the gravity and weight
and the meaning of Memorial Day. And we do it
at the new National Veterans Museum and Memorial in Columbus, Ohio,
which is beautiful, by the way, and it's very well
put together, and you get candid conversation like these guys
(30:03):
get really honest. You can let the conversation breathe go
deeper into the topics. I also conceived this idea. I
was supposed to meet Rob O'Neil, the guy that shopped
Bin Laden for one beer, just a chit chat and
talk to him, because we met at like three o'clock
four hours later, and you know, ten beers later, I
had the whole story of the Big Laden raid and
(30:25):
his entire career. My mind was just swirling because I
couldn't believe what an opportunity had been to hear that
story firsthand, and I wanted to get a little bit
of that into people's lives, you know, sit at the
bar with Rob O'Neil and hear the real story. I
was at the museum in Columbus about three months ago.
I was really impressed with how modern it is, how
(30:47):
well they've done a getting people to tell their stories.
So you're really in direct contact with people who've done
the real thing. And I commend anybody who when you
go to Columbus. That's a great museum and a great
play for you to be doing this. Let me ask
you one last thing, is I really appreciate you spending
this kind of time with us. And I have to say,
(31:08):
by the way, I used to spend time traveling with
Ali North and in terms of your whole point, you know,
Ali been in so many fights in so many different places,
both as a marine and then later as a correspondent
and as such a great storyteller, that you'd be sitting
there with your jaw hanging open, as he said, and
then this happened, And I think what it goes back
to in the Civil War, they had a phrase about
(31:31):
whether or not you had seen the elephant, and what
they meant by that was had you been in combat.
And this was always sort of my father's position was
that you'd seen the elephant, you understood and we didn't
have to talk about it. And if you hadn't seen
the elephant, you aren't going to understand anyway. And I'm
not talking about it. And I think you're what you're
doing is you're getting people together who've seen the elephant,
(31:54):
and they're sharing, i think, with the rest of the
country what it's been like, what it and I think
it's a great service to the long term health and
long term patriotism in the country. So I hope you
have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. I'm really grateful you
take this kind of time. I hope your new series
really works, and I hope that veterans and their friends
(32:16):
and relatives will realize that at Fox nation. They've got
a real opportunity to sign up for a year and
taste it see what we think of it. And it's
a great act of patriotism by Fox to make that
kind of offer to those who serve with us. Pete,
let me just mention one more thing. I understand that
your book American Crusade, Our Fight to Stay Free just
(32:37):
came out in paperback, and we're going to have a
link to it at our show page so people can
get it directly. Once again, you're own remarkably prolific guy.
You work really hard, but you somehow seem really happy
and positive through all of it. So it's great. You
know why, because there was a book that influenced me
a lot, written by Jeffrey Hardy, is a professor at Dartmouth,
(32:58):
and they read it many years ago. It's entitled Smiling
through the Cultural Catastrophe, and I think that's maybe that's
how the spirit I try to have as things swirl
around us. But New you are a leader for all
of us and such a great patriot, such a great fighter,
and I'm always honored to spend any time with you.
Thank you to my guest, Pete Hexeth. You can learn
(33:20):
more about the Fox Nation promotion proactive duty and military
veterans on our show page at newtsworld dot com. Newtsworld
is produced by Gingwich three sixty and iHeartMedia. Our executive
producer is Debbie Myers, our producer is Garnsey Sloan, and
our researcher is Rachel Peterson. The artwork for the show
(33:41):
was created by Steve Penley. Special thanks to the team
at Gingwich three sixty. If you've been enjoying Newtsworld, I
hope you'll go to Apple Podcasts and both rate us
with five stars and give us a review so others
can learn what it's all about. Right now, listeners of
newts World can sign up for my three free weekly
columns at Gingwich three sixty dot com slash newsletter I'm
(34:04):
new Gangwich. This is Newtworld.
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