Each day’s news brings more reports of changes being made across the military as a result of the new Secretary of Defense. Pete Hegseth has reinforced his history of transphobic comments with orders to end efforts to recruit new trans people and to stop the provision of gender affirming medical care to people already participating in the military. He has doubled down on his misogyny with orders that have led to the removal of web pages and museum exhibits honoring the role of women in the military. Even congressionally mandated programs to address sexual assault prevention have been stopped.
On the 11th of February, Hegseth signed an order seeking to reverse the renaming of the largest army base. He attempted to hide his pandering to the demands of white supremacists that Fort Liberty should return to being named after the enslaver (and notoriously bad general) Braxton Bragg by ordering that the “new” name of the base would be in honor of Silver Star winner Roland L. Bragg. While it is clear that the Maine native acted heroically during the Second World War, Roland Bragg’s life and deeds hadn’t garnered sufficient notice that there was a Wikipedia article about him until the same day that Hegseth signed his order. Hegseth has also made comments seeking to reverse the removal of the names of other traitors from southern military bases. The goal wasn’t to honor a hero of the nation, but to continue to glorify someone who sought to destroy this country.
The effort to replace the visibility of people who aren’t white men like Hegseth doesn’t stop with the past or even the present. Changes have been ordered to what is taught in military schools. Books and lessons about immigration, gender, or sexuality have been removed from the classrooms. (For a longer exploration of the attack on the children of military families, see Chuck Fager’s latest article) One of the books that has been removed from DoD schools is the biography of a woman who served in the Union Army during the Civil War by passing as a man. Albert Cashier’s regiment participated in many battles including the Siege of Vicksburg. Cashier would be a better Civil War veteran to name a base after than Braxton Bragg ever was. In an example of children leading the way, there was a protest to these efforts organized by students in Stuttgart, Germany during Hegseth’s visit to the nation.
The US military has been hailed many times for its history of leading the nation in addressing segregation. Despite decades of opposition to it, by 2023 17.7% of the military was made up of women. After the horrors of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, 6.1% of the military identified as LGBT in 2018. Pete Hegseth’s moves to make the military a place that doesn’t want women or LGBT people would remove nearly a quarter of the soldiers, sailors, and guardians. His hate for anyone that doesn’t look like him is going to make the military weaker.