The Collapse of Command: What Hegseth Just Did to the American Uniform
How a Secretary of Defense turned OPSEC into a joke and put our troops at risk
By Dr. John Petrone
The Moment a Secretary Forgot What the Uniform Stands For
I spent years watching men and women treat classified operations like their lives depended on it, because they did. Every troop I ever served with knew the rules. We knew what OPSEC required. We knew the stakes of even the smallest breach. And we lived with the weight of that responsibility every day.
Which is why reading the inspector general’s findings on Pete Hegseth hits like a gut punch. The nation’s top defense official used a personal device and an unapproved messaging app to share strike times, flight movements, targeting windows, and operational details that never should have left a secure channel. He even managed to include a journalist in the group chat, a stranger inside the most sensitive conversations a military can have.
This wasn’t a misstep. It was a collapse of discipline from the one person who cannot afford to lose it.
What Was Put at Risk
When you transmit the exact minute American aircraft are taking off, you’re not just breaking protocol. You are inviting catastrophe. You are handing adversaries a timeline. You are exposing pilots, ground crews, intelligence teams, and every service member tied to the mission. Troops don’t get to choose whether they follow security protocols. They follow them or they face consequences. Because if they don’t, people die.
The inspector general concluded that Hegseth violated policy, refused to cooperate with investigators, withheld his phone, and failed to preserve records. That alone should disqualify him from holding any position where lives depend on judgment.
Yet somehow, we are now being told this was a “total exoneration.”
Anyone who has worn the uniform knows exactly what that word does not mean.
Why This Matters for Every Service Member
When the highest-ranking civilian in the Department of Defense behaves like the rules don’t apply to him, the entire structure of accountability fractures beneath him. The expectation that junior service members must meet standards their leaders openly ignore is corrosive. It weakens the military from the inside out.
There is no version of military professionalism in which a breach this severe is explained away with a slogan. When you are responsible for American lives, precision is not optional. Integrity is not optional. And responsibility is not optional.
If this behavior is left unchallenged, then the message is unmistakable: the people enforcing the rules are no longer bound by them.
The Pattern: Power Without Accountability
This isn’t a one-off misjudgment. It reflects a deeper pattern in the current administration:
A habit of dismissing expertise.
A willingness to bend rules until they break.
A tendency to declare “exoneration” every time oversight closes in.
A belief that slogans can erase misconduct.
The pattern is simple: lower the standard, deny the consequences, and count on the public to forget. But those of us who served don’t forget. We can’t. We know exactly what happens when arrogance meets operational carelessness. We’ve seen the cost of leaders who believe they are immune to discipline.
And we know who pays the price.
What It Means for the Future of Our Armed Forces
Command is not a trophy. It is a burden. It demands judgment, respect for procedure, reverence for the people you’re charged to lead, and clarity of purpose. When the secretary of defense ignores those values, everything beneath him erodes.
If a junior enlisted airman had done this, their career would be over. If an officer had done this, their clearance would be gone. But when the secretary does it? We’re told to accept it.
This is not acceptance. It is surrender.
How We Fight Back
We cannot restore discipline at the top unless citizens demand it. Here’s what must happen:
Demand full accountability from Congress. Refuse to accept political spin where national security is concerned.
Reassert the non-negotiable nature of OPSEC. The same rules that govern the lowest-ranking troop must govern the secretary who commands them.
Insist that senior leaders face consequences proportionate to the risks they create. No special exemptions. No political shields.
Support the men and women who follow the rules by refusing to tolerate leaders who break them. The uniform deserves better than this.
Speak clearly and without fear: a breach of this magnitude is not excusable, not dismissible, and not forgettable.
Closing Rally
Those of us who served learned one lesson early and never forgot it: the mission only works when every person in the chain can be trusted. When the secretary of defense breaks that trust, the institution itself is in danger.
We either demand accountability now, or we accept a military where discipline is optional at the highest levels.
I heard that Hegseth also decided that his wife and a relative could be trusted so he provided them with classified information about an attack that was occurring.
Well I guess you follow the leadership. As I recall Trump shared information about how close our American submarines could get to a Russian submarine without being detected with an Australian businessman at Mara-Largo using the Classified document taken from the White House in between Presidencies.
When the businessman returned to Australia he shared that information with his company executives not realizing that it was highly classified information.
American submarines can no longer get close to Russian subs without being detected.
Once you realize that you have a weakness, you can take steps to shore up the weakness.
This is when every Admiral and every General should flip their internal mode from being spring-loaded to; “Yes, Sir”, the switch goes to the; “Sir, I strongly suspect that you should reconsider that order, or start looking for my replacement, …sir..” position.