Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon, has faced intense backlash after expressing his belief that women should not serve in combat roles. While the media is largely unanimous against him, combat and military experts are even more divided.
Will Thibault, a former Army Ranger who served in multiple combat deployments, told FOX News Digital that he wholeheartedly agrees with Hegseth.
“Soon-to-be Secretary Hegseth said that 12 years ago, the top leaders of the Pentagon, the rank and file of the military, and the entire culture were created and trained to fight that war, especially that war with no other purpose. “The unit is a unit for men and women only,” he said.
“Biological sex and the relationship between men and women are an inescapable reality,” he added. “And when you induce stress, physical uncertainty, physical proximity, and a unique scenario to that biological reality, it's difficult to imagine a typical military team, a military unit organized for combat. What was supposed to be will be destroyed.”
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FILE – This Sept. 18, 2012 file photo shows a female soldier training on a firing range wearing a new body armor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Only a small percentage of Army women say they want to move into one of the newly recruited combat jobs. But preliminary results from a survey of some 170,000 women who have used the service suggest that the few who do so want a job that will take them into the thick of the fighting. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)
Hegseth, 44, is a former Fox News host and Army infantry officer who served two combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as an additional deployment to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
On November 13, just one week after winning the election, President Trump nominated Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense, one of the most influential positions in the Cabinet. “There is no one better to fight for our troops,” the president-elect said of Hegseth. “With Pete at the helm, America's enemies are on alert.”
But Hegseth has faced significant backlash from Democrats and the media, particularly for his comments on the Nov. 7 episode of the podcast “The Sean Ryan Show,” in which he said, “I candidly say we should do this.” He has faced a huge backlash for his comments. Women should not be sent to combat missions. ”
Hegseth argued that having women in combat roles “doesn't make us more capable or more lethal” and “makes combat more complex.”
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“FOX & Friends” host Pete Hegseth at the Fox News Channel studios on May 27, 2022 in New York City. (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)
He did not oppose women serving in the military or even in non-ground combat roles such as the Air Force. Instead, he said, the U.S. military is lowering physical standards to qualify more women for combat roles, increasing the risk of combat complications and fatalities.
“I love our military women, who make such an incredible contribution,” she said, but added, “Everything about women serving together complicates things, and complicating combat means worsening casualties.” he claimed.
He also criticized senior military leadership for changing standards and prioritizing meeting diversity quotas over combat effectiveness. He pointed to a 2015 study by the Marine Corps that found single-sex units were “significantly less effective” in combat than all-male units.
“Bone density, lung capacity and muscle strength are completely different for men and women,” he says. “So if you guys keep the standards the same for everyone, and if you have some great, cool, hard-charging women who meet those standards joining infantry battalions, I’m fine with that. No.’ What happened was that standards went down. ”
Pete Hegseth and Kayleigh McEnany will be joining Fox News' Fourth of July show. (Fox News)
Hegseth commented that she doesn't necessarily support making changes now, saying, “Imagine an agitation in Washington, D.C., actually saying, 'We should reduce the number of female combatants.' If you are claiming that.”
“As a disclaimer to everyone out there, we have all served with women and they are amazing. We just don't need to encourage it where it's more capable,” he added. ”
Nevertheless, retired Army Col. Ellen Herring told Fox News Digital that many men and women in the military are concerned about Hegseth becoming secretary and implementing these changes.
“The women in these combat jobs, many of whom have been working for six to eight years already, are very energetic and anxious about the idea of losing their jobs,” she said. Ta.
There are currently 2,500 women serving in ground combat roles in the Army's infantry, armor, field artillery and special forces units, Herring said. She also said 152 women have qualified as Army Rangers and there are currently 10 women in the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment.
She said women make up one-third of all lieutenants assigned to armored combat units, even though they make up only a quarter of all West Point Academy graduates.
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us army fort leonard wood (U.S. Army Fort Leonard Wood)
“There is no indication that any of these forces were harmed by their presence,” she said. “So, Hegseth argues that adding women to these units would create some degree of complexity and would put people at risk in some way. No unit we've ever seen would do that.” That didn't happen. So I won't do it.'' I don't know where he got this idea. ”
In addition to keeping troops out of harm's way, Herring continued, women contribute to the professional development of troops, especially infantry units.
“There was a culture in the infantry of taunting each other and kind of abusing each other,” she says. “Their presence brought attention to that kind of behavior and actually eliminated a lot of it across the force. So this kind of brutality that infantry units were doing among their ranks, the presence of women really eliminated a lot of it. It is slowly being eradicated.”
Similarly, Capt. Micah Ables, an Army infantry company commander, told FOX News Digital that the women in his unit have improved the company's attitude as “team players” and expanded its capabilities when deployed. .
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Laura J. Richardson, the first woman to serve as deputy commander of a combat division, stands behind Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, left, during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the conduct of military operations. Sit and listen. On February 2, 2016, the decision to open all ground combat units to women was made at the Capitol in Washington. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
Mr. Ables' first deployment to Afghanistan was with an all-male unit, but he was later deployed to one of the first integrated infantry companies. He said that although there was some initial pushback and tension, the female soldiers in the unit quickly proved themselves capable and the company adapted without too much trouble.
He said many of the women in his unit have proven to be some of the most physically and tactically capable leaders and soldiers under his command.
“After taking over a mixed-gender company, I really didn't know what to expect,” he says. “But they dug in and did what they needed to do to become experts.”
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Meanwhile, former Marine Corps gunnery sergeant Jesse Jane Duff told Fox News Digital that it would be a “fatal mistake” to put women in combat roles.
She also cited a Marine Corps study that found joint forces are only 60 percent more effective than all-male forces, and women are 20 to 30 percent more likely to be injured.
“On a biological level, we are not equal,” she says. “Women have a lack of testosterone, so they take longer to recover and rebuild their muscles, whereas men have a higher rate of ability to return to combat units and perform even if they sustain severe training injuries.” ”. ”
“Why are we making infantry units less effective? We're making them less effective because we're trying to achieve the goal of equality,” she continued. “You have a chance to get in, but you shouldn't be accepted because of your gender when a more qualified man could get that spot.”
U.S. Marine Corps recruits participate in the traditional Eagle, Globe, and Anchor medal ceremony. (Photo by Robert Nickelsburg/Getty Images) (Robert Nickelsburg/Getty Images)
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Finally, Anna Simmons, a former professor of defense analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School, told FOX News Digital that it comes down to diversity versus similarity.
“Women have been involved in combat since time immemorial,” she says. “They have protected their children, they have protected their property, they have protected their husbands, they have fought bravely, and that is absolutely true. But the problem is not women in combat. The problem is women in combat units. Individuals In a group, everyone is essentially interchangeable and must be equally skilled at certain combat skills.
“The whole point of combat is the ability to use violence and absorb violence,” she said. “So there has to be an identity or similarity in people to be able to easily exchange them in terms of basic skills, shooting, movement, communication skills.”
“Everyone needs that baseline, and we want that baseline to be as high as possible,” she concluded. “That means people need to reduce the similarity of their abilities, not increase the diversity of their abilities.”
