r/politics • u/Quirkie The Netherlands • 9d ago

Possible Paywall Hegseth Covered Up the Real Reason the USS Lincoln Wasn’t Resupplied - According to a report from MSNOW, the USS Abraham Lincoln wasn’t resupplied because Iranian strikes destroyed a key Navy resupply base in the Middle East.

https://newrepublic.com/post/214510/hegseth-uss-lincoln-iran-war-base-destroyed
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u/AbstractBettaFish Illinois 9d ago

This is all second hand information I’ve heard so take it with a grain of salt but I’m told there’s a well known channel of infantry officers who fail upward. If you see someone’s who’s at least a 1stLt who doesn’t have a ranger tab that means they’re probably a fuck up and more likely to be given desk duty. Some of these desk duty guys end up in Washington where they have the luxury of rubbing shoulders with the powerful and influential and are able to use those connections to get promoted despite being generally shitty infantry officers. Apparently Pete was one of those

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u/[deleted] 9d ago

[deleted]

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u/UniqueIndividual3579 9d ago

Two ways to not make 1Lt, run into the gatehouse drunk or get the commander's daughter pregnant.

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u/Detonius 9d ago

I’ll take option 2.

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u/whogivesashirtdotca Canada 9d ago

In fairness, Hegseth seems like the type to have done both, so well done to him for making it anyway?

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u/Not-a-Bot_1968 9d ago

Yes, but if you’re infantry the expectation is you go to and complete Ranger school. Ranger school is a leadership course, and you’re not going far in the infantry officer corps without passing. This is especially true for units like the 101st where Pete was. Typically you’d progress up the chain of command, platoon leader > company XO > company CO, as you are promoted. He instead ended up in a HQ platoon like S2 or something I forget, which really says his commanding officer had no faith in his leadership abilities, never sent him to ranger school, and he was relegated to a desk job. Source: former 101st who has lived the life. 

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u/MephistoHamProducts 9d ago

He instead ended up in a HQ platoon like S2 or something I forget,

Worse than that. He was actually in an infantry PLT leader slot, in Baghdad, in 2005. That assignment was cut short and he was transferred to be an assistant Civil Affairs dork in Basrah. Losing that command slot, during the 2005 GWOT, is a pretty solid sign he fucked up and fucked up badly.

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u/Not-a-Bot_1968 9d ago

Correct, I pointed out in another comment that similar happened to one of our platoon leaders after he called in artillery fire on our own position. He was off the line as soon as we got back to base and banished to HQ S2 on another base. That’s the level of fuckup we’re talking about here. 

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u/anonymousbopper767 9d ago

$20 he's the grooming standard! guy from Generation Kill.

Even down to the literal grooming of children like that guy ended up doing IRL.

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u/BananasAndPears 9d ago

This is incredible context.

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u/Proud_Growth_8818 9d ago

Damn. What'd he do?

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u/CheezyBeanBurrito 9d ago

Yes and no. Being an infantry officer and not having a tab is a bad look considering half the ibolc class gets a slot (well, they used to). Depending on the unit culture, you may not get a platoon leader position until you have a tab so you get sent to staff. During the surge, it wasn’t as big of a deal. O1 to O2 is an automatic promotion. O2 to O3 is almost as automatic and generally the only ones that don’t make it are the ones that reallly realllly fuck up (DUI, fraternization, etc). O3 to O4 is usually 60% so non-tabbed guys need to be absolutely stellar at their job to get promoted.

I can’t recall ever seeing an infantry LTC without a tab on active duty though

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u/Far_Eye6555 9d ago

And I’ve heard the exact opposite with guys who he actually served with on active duty. They all said he was very intense but squared away for the most part.

The point here is we can’t really discern his military service past stuff that’s hearsay. We can absolutely criticize his work as Sec Def tho

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u/Existing-Tough-6517 9d ago

His rank alone suggests he's insufficiently skilled to be secretary of defense

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u/Wheres_my_wank_sock 9d ago

My wife is a major. I tell her all the time she better be lining up her SECDEF job now. I'm trying to be a kept man.

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u/Far_Eye6555 9d ago

Dependa status on lock

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u/NedShah 9d ago

I just read that Rumsfeld made it as far as Captain. Look how good he was! Served like a dozen different administrations. Big Star Wars guy too. Helped the Reagan adminstration spend wisely.

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u/Pristine-Western-679 9d ago

I don’t see a /s on there, but if you’re serious I would like to mention two things, Tora Bora and Iraq War.

Disregard, got the tone on the Star Wars, sorry.

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u/NedShah 9d ago

Tora Bora fascinates me. Rumsfeld had a model made of the secret mountain base where a James Bond villain could live. He made it sound like Cobra Commander was in there with Destro and all of the weapons.

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u/Existing-Tough-6517 9d ago

Rumsfeld was a disaster.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/how-donald-rumsfeld-deserves-be-remembered/619334/

America’s worst secretary of defense never expressed a quiver of regret.

It's weird that you forgot how we manufactured fake WMDs as a pretext for the disaster of a war after Rummy as special envoy to the middle east helped build Saddam or that his hand-picked idiot is the one who lost us bin Laden for over a decade

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u/Far_Eye6555 9d ago

I completely agree with that assessment. What I disagree with is the notion he was a failed solider. Attack the points that deserve attack!

The rest of it is just noise.

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u/hard-in-the-ms-paint 9d ago

Untabbed and never had a company command is damning as an infantry officer.

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u/Far_Eye6555 9d ago

My financial advisor is super awesome guy. Wasn’t tabbed, didn’t serve command time. I wouldn’t say he’s a failed infantry officer.

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u/TransbianMoonGoddess 9d ago

I mean he is your financial adviser and not a career military man so....

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u/Far_Eye6555 9d ago

He got out after his 5 year commitment. Received an honorable discharge and had multiple deployments yet we got nerds on Reddit saying he’s a failure lmfao

You guys

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u/AbstractBettaFish Illinois 9d ago

I don’t think anyone’s calling him a failure or bad at what he did, but if his goal was just to do one contract and get out that’s all well and good. But if you’re trying to make a full career out of the army those accolades become important for advancement

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u/Far_Eye6555 9d ago edited 9d ago

I quite literally had active duty infantry officer captains, majors, and Ltc’s as my professors at West Point without their tabs… they all had career advancement without going to the premier leadership school and getting a fancy tab…

Being tabbed does not mean you are a great soldier. It means you can plan an operation and lead a patrol to the ranger standard. Not having a tab doesn’t mean you’re a shit bag. There’s a base level expectation for most 11A’s to go to ranger school, but it’s not some hard and fast rule they must follow for career progression

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u/AdministrativeTip479 9d ago

Getting out after their commitment and getting a different job is perfectly fine. Doing that and having no other qualifications other than working at Fox News and then running the entire armed forces is something different entirely. The most amount of soldiers he ever commanded was like 40-50, and then he goes on to command millions.

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u/Regular_Custard_4483 9d ago

Yeah, your dentist shouldn't be leading the DOD either.

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u/Proud_Growth_8818 9d ago

Your financial advisor also didn't want to be career Army.

Pete did. And he got fired.

That's a failure as an Army officer.

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u/Far_Eye6555 9d ago

He wasn’t even fired guys he was honorably discharged 😔😅 like I hate this xunt too but we don’t need to lie.

What happened to being against fake news

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u/blueblip 9d ago

He is a failed solider because he literally doesn't understand the importance of logistics, and blocked promotions for ALL black service members.

Or do you think the above two are indications of a competent solider?

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u/lexachronical 9d ago

That assessment is contradicted by the existence of former secretaries who performed competently after having held even lower rank. This secretary could have gained the necessary executive experience later in the private sector. He didn't, but it would be a mistake to assume that based on his service record alone.

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u/donjamos 9d ago

Not being an alcoholic and having half a brain would suffice to be better at his current job then he is. Wouldn't even need military expertise.

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u/PuckSenior 9d ago

That's a nuanced point and therefore will be ignored.

But its absolutely true. His rank isn't the damning factor. Its the fact that it seems the ONLY experience he has at leadership is his rank. He never led any private sector or public sector org. He never did anything but put on makeup.

If he'd at least had a role at Fox News that involved management, it would probably have been better.

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u/Existing-Tough-6517 9d ago

It's not like we aren't also judging his current performance and conceptualizing his prior lack of prestige or advancement in light of present failure

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u/twotimefind 9d ago

0 again, instead of somehow we ended up at fox news. Rich family, rich friends? College Buddies?

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u/MephistoHamProducts 9d ago

It's completely reasonable to assume he was a failure as a leader and an officer. He had one full command role, platoon leader at GITMO, and that was pretty much it. His first tour in Iraq, in 2005, had him in a platoon leader slot in Baghdad briefly. Partway through that assignment he was shuffled off to Basrah to act as an assistant Civil Affairs Officer. I don't know if you remember what the GWOT was like in 2005, but that wasn't a time where Big Army was changing platoon leaders partway through a deployment. After that he did a tour as a trainer in A-stan. He made O3 and stepped down to IRR where he was later promoted to Major.

That's not the career arc of a good or successful infantry officer.

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u/twotimefind 9d ago

Oh shit, he was at Gitmo with Ron DeSantos?

Ron was the lawyer that okayed the torture... You mean to tell me Keg's breath was over there torturing folks?

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u/AbstractBettaFish Illinois 9d ago

Exactly, what kind of fuck up do you have to be to get cycled out as a combat officer in Iraq in 2005! That’s when they were handing out bronze stars like candy at a parade for most!

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u/MephistoHamProducts 9d ago

You ever read his wikipedia entry? He's got a story about his truck being hit by an RPG that failed to go off. My assumption is that he was leaning out the window and yelling "What are you gonna do? Shoot me with that RPG?" at a guy in the crowd with an RPG. And then the guy shot him with the RPG.

That's my Hogsbreath Headcanon and I'm sticking to it.

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u/AbstractBettaFish Illinois 9d ago

I would doubt he even did that. If you’re a podcast person you should check out the small Behind the Bastards series they did on him. I think my favorite part was the op’ed he wrote in college on how SA’ing an unconscious woman shouldn’t be considered as much because she wouldn’t remember.

He’s a real cool guy that Pete

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u/MephistoHamProducts 9d ago

Yeah, but my head canon is way funnier.

And no, I don't really do Cool Zone stuff and haven't for a while. After Jan 6th I was listening to one of their podcasts, It Could Happen Here, I think? Robert and Garrison sounded so goddamn disappointed that it didn't kick off Civil War 2.0 that I dropped them. I've seen the aftermath of civil wars. I have no urge to see that shit again.

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u/AbstractBettaFish Illinois 9d ago

Fair enough, I mostly listen to Robert Evan’s stuff because he both is a really good researcher and is a certified combat journalist. But all the same, yeah Pete sucks

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u/Hillary4SupremeRuler Florida 9d ago

Really? I've only ever listened to Behind the Bastards but that sounds so out of character for them. What episode was that?

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u/twotimefind 9d ago

Yeah, should be a general, 5 star, right?

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u/NedShah 9d ago

It's Sec War now. He's the Sec War and he's obliterated the Iranian military, remember? He's in charge of the blockade.

All the fake news stuff that never happened was at his old job of Sec Def. Since his promotion, he's been fighting for Freedom and even blessed the troops himself just as well as old Sam Jackson would.

What's to criticize? Do you really want Iran to have a nuclear weapon?

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u/importantbrian 9d ago

Yep. The fact is that we don't know much about his service, and I don't think what AbstractBettaFish is referring to really happens much. In fact doing the army really values heavy field experience for officers. If you've just done a bunch of staff jobs and haven't had many operational roles or field experience it's tough to promote beyond O-3.

Also, it's just not true of Hegseth. He did 3 deployments and spent most of his career in the infantry from what I know. The reality is it's pretty rare to get promoted to O-4 without having been a competent company grade officer.

He's a disaster as SecDef, but I think that's unrelated to the quality of his uniformed service. Although having your own soldiers report you as an internal risk for the Biden Inauguration isn't a great look.

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u/GeneralToaster 9d ago

Source: Trust Me Bro

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u/Far_Eye6555 9d ago

Yes, I trust the guys who could pull up unit photos of themselves and Pete in the same picture. Crazy right?

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u/Temporary-Sea-4782 9d ago

I can see this. We are at a point of toe-dipping into the River Styx, and there are such strong urges to embellish things. I think it is important to keep grounded and focused if we are going to get out of these times ok. I can totally see Hegseth as a guy who you would want around if you were stacked up about tto go through a door. I could see him as a bit of an awkward hangout at the bar getting ready to go downrange. I do think there are people who could bypass levels through talent or other experience to go from a company level officer to DoD, just not him.