The new book by bestselling author and co-host Pete Hegseth of "Fox & Friends Weekend" — "The War on Warriors," out on June 4 from Fox News Books — minces no words about the state of today's military as he sees it.
The personal memoir is his fifth book and was a passion project for him, he said.
"I love the military and I love my country," he told Fox News Digital in a phone interview a few days ago. "And I wanted that to come through. But things aren't right today. And we've got to right the ship. That's the overall ethos."
I HOPE MY SONS SERVE IN THE MILITARY AND I PRAY THAT SERVICE IS STILL WORTHY OF THEIR SACRIFICE
The first lines of the introduction in the book clearly lay out his story and his perspective: "I joined the Army in 2001 because I wanted to serve my country. Extremists attacked us on 9/11, and we went to war. I became an infantry officer in 2003. I guarded terrorists at Guantánamo Bay in 2004. I led men in combat in Iraq in 2005. I pulled bodies out of burning vehicles in Afghanistan in 2012. I held a riot shield outside the White House in 2020."
Then he writes: "And in 2021, I was deemed an ‘extremist’ by that very same Army."
Hegseth goes on, "Yes, you read that right. Twenty years … and the military I loved, I fought for, I revered … spit me out. While writing this book, I separated from an Army that didn't want me anymore. The feeling was mutual — I didn't want this Army anymore either."
He told Fox News Digital, emphasizing that this was his personal experience, "One of the key things is that no one would tell me why at the time. And once I couldn't get an answer, I said, ‘I’m out.' And I signed my resignation letter and got out, and went into the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR)."
He was officially separated from the Army in Jan. 2024, he notes in chapter 6 of his book, which is entitled, "The Army thinks the enemy … is Pete."
It reveals the entire compelling story of what happened from his vantage point.
"It's this sort of quiet purging that happens," he said. "No one in the military, for example, would tell these guys who wanted an exemption from the [COVID] vaccine why they were denied it. It was just denied. So they expect you to comply silently, with whatever they want, and they never explain."
And in his case, he said he felt it all happened for "the worst of all reasons. It was a political reason, a partisan reason."
He added, "I could put the pieces together" about what happened.
"But it wasn't until I was writing this book and went back to someone in the unit and got confirmation," he said, "that I finally learned it was because of a tattoo on my chest. That's the rationale they used. It's a Jerusalem cross, and it felt like someone was looking for something to find on me. They searched my Instagram page, and they identified my cross tattoo as an extremist tattoo. Which it's definitely not," he added. "It's a Christian tattoo."
But at the time, he said, "I didn't know" why things were happening to him as they were.
He added, "I've served under Obama, I've served under Bush, I served under Trump … None of that is an issue for me. But I could tell [this all happened] because of who I was."
And "I didn't want any part of the organization any longer if that was the direction it was going."
He went on, "That just shouldn't be. Our military has to be an apolitical entity focused on allegiance to the Constitution and merit. And once it stops being that, it can be leveraged one way or the other in the wrong direction."
At the same time, Hegseth is equally adamant that America needs a great military — and that he hopes his own kids choose one day to serve the country in uniform.
As he writes in the epilogue, entitled, "A letter to my sons," "We have one Pentagon. One military. One Army. If we lose those, we have truly lost America."
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He goes on, "It is up to my generation — in government, media and culture — to fight for a change in leadership inside our military. It is an uphill battle to right that ship. But it is up to your generation, even in the face of serious headwinds, to fill the ranks from the inside and impact it from within. It's up to you to decide if service to country is still worth it."
He also says, "Is America still worth fighting for? Is America still worth dying for?"
And then he says to his sons, "Even with those questions — and even with all the uncertainty — I hope you join the ranks of American fighting men … Just because our military is far from perfect, can we afford to lose her? My answer is no."
He adds, "If my boys are going to raise their right hand, and put the American flag on their shoulders, I want them where it matters."
Hegseth also dedicates his book this way: "For the American fighting man — past, present, and future."
"The War on Warriors," already a bestseller, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
Hegseth is the author of four previous New York Times bestsellers as well: "In the Arena," "American Crusade," "Modern Warriors," and "Battle for the American Mind."
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