Can History Still Teach Us Some Lessons?
Admittedly, it was an odd way to wrap up Black History Month, even though firing the nation’s highest-ranking general isn’t something that happens every day.
Photo credit: Win Mcnamee/Getty Images
By Kenneth Allard
Admittedly, it was an odd way to wrap up Black History Month, even though firing the nation’s highest-ranking general isn’t something that happens every day. But that is especially true when he was only the second Black man to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Quick! Can you name the other?) as well as the first to head one of our armed forces. While there is no official manual for such things, when a general gets fired, his or her dismissal is often accompanied by the delicious whiff of scandal, malfeasance or (best of all) even some grotesque swindle of public funds.
But there was none of that here. Even in the act of firing him, newly installed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth noted that Brown “has served with distinction in a career spanning four decades of honorable service. I have come to know him as a thoughtful adviser and salute him for his distinguished service to our country.” So what was the problem? As defense insiders swiftly noted, there was considerable distance between the fulsome praise of these parting shots and the opinions expressed by Mr. Hegseth in his book, The War on Warriors published just last year. Specifically, “You think CQ Brown will think intuitively about external threats and internal readiness?” Hegseth wrote. “No chance. He built his generalship dutifully pursuing the radical positions of left-wing politicians, who in turn rewarded him with promotions.”
Because Mr. Hegseth’s barrage also included: Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the Chief of Naval Operations, Lieutenant General Jennifer Short, his senior military assistant and for good measure the senior judge advocates general of the Army, Navy and Air Force, some observers quickly drew more ominous conclusions. Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee harrumphed, that he was “troubled by the nature of these dismissals…This appears to be part of a broader, premeditated campaign by President Trump and Secretary Hegseth to purge talented officers for politically charged reasons,” Reed said, “which would undermine the professionalism of our military and send a chilling message through the ranks.” Another prominent Democrat, Rudy DeLeon of the Center for American Progress, said, “Few public servants have more honor, integrity and courage than the military officials that Trump fired today…This action disrupts the chain of command, erodes military readiness, and damages morale throughout the ranks…” https://www.militarytimes.com/pentagon/2025/02/22/trump-fires-joint-chiefs-chairman-navy-head-in-dod-leadership-purge/
As he often does, Greg Jaffee of the New York Times looked for deeper meanings underlying the actions of the new SECDEF. “Mr. Hegseth, in the Pentagon and during his meetings with troops last week in Europe, has spoken repeatedly about the need to restore a “warrior ethos” to a military that he insists has become soft, social-justice obsessed and more bureaucratic over the past two decades. His decision to replace the military’s judge advocates general — typically three-star military officers — offers a sense of how he defines the ethos that he has vowed to instill.” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/us/politics/hegseth-firings-military-lawyers-jag.html
Yup, first thing we do, let’s fire the lawyers! As soon as I read Jaffee’s article, I was instantly transported back to Basic Training at Fort Dix New Jersey, where a room full of scared, sweaty and thoroughly miserable draftees were introduced to the complexities of land warfare by drill sergeants who had already survived two tours of duty in Vietnam – the same fate awaiting us. Our instructor was a young JAG captain wearing no military decorations but whose mission was to tell us what had gone wrong in the recent My Lai Massacre. However inexperienced, the captain’s photographs of the massacre were graphic and his message deadly simple. “If you gentlemen fire your weapon at any unarmed civilian (especially women and children) or any unauthorized target, you are likely to wind up in the long course at Fort Leavenworth.”
Fifty years later, I can still recall the outraged debates as the troops realized that they could perform their duty in Vietnam and still face federal prison. As always, our most persuasive instructors were our drill sergeants, who had learned the hard lessons of war and the even harder requirements of honor. Since those days, America has largely forgotten that difficult heritage, since less than half of one percent of our people ever serve in uniform. While Pete Hegseth deserves our thanks for seeking to re-discover that hard-won warrior ethos, he should always remember that we are soldiers rather than savages.
Colonel (Ret.) Ken Allard is a former draftee who was a West Point professor, Dean of the National War College and NBC News military analyst.