Hegseth Prioritizes Form Over Substance - Appearance Over Competence as the New Standard for Successful in His "Woke Military.”

Here, the Old Colonel has cherry picked some passages from the following length WaPo article to illustrate why I believe our “War Secretary” Hegseth has prioritized form over substance and appearance over competence as the new standard for being “successful” in his “woke Military.”  This only reinforces my opinion of him as expressed in my previous June 2026 Blog article: “Pete Hegseth, Arguably the Worst Secretary of Defense in the past 76 Years, Is Busy Replacing Our Military’s Most Competent Leaders with Clearly Inferior Replacements” at: https://old-soldier-colonel.blogspot.com/2026/06/pete-hegseth-arguably-worst-secretary.html

 

Opinion by Theodore R. Johnson

‘No more beardos’: Appearance trumps performance at Pentagon

Hegseth’s meeting with generals and admirals missed the real opportunity in gathering leaders. 2 October 2025“… Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth convened hundreds of admirals and generals this week for a mandatory address.… ‘It’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon,’ he admonished the room. He warned that there was no place for ‘superficial individual expression’ and grooming would be closely scrutinized: ‘We’re going to cut our hair, shave our beards and adhere to standards. … No more beardos’….The day’s call to action was fitness for duty, in appearance more than in performance. …. for this administration, looking the part is a job prerequisite and a preoccupation. President Donald Trump has a long record of prioritizing appearance and eager complicity over experience and competence. For his second term, he tapped telegenic politicians, conservative media stars and uncritical loyalists for vital appointments. Hegseth is cast in this mold …. Hegseth said the military should be apolitical but laced his speech with partisan barbs. …. He justified firing several commanders and members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, not for poor performance, but by charging that their success was due to a flawed culture “created by a previous president and previous secretary.’ …. The preferred physical attributes and politics of this Pentagon’s model soldier were much clearer after a speech that was sold as not caring about either. …. the decision to convene hundreds of military leaders for a lecture on appearances was a missed opportunity. It had the look of something more impressive, something more consequential. Instead, it was mostly superficial individual expression and an attempt to leverage the military’s war-fighting culture for a political and partisan culture war.”

Like I warned at the beginning, I would cherry pick some passages that supported my argument from this very long WaPo article but I have included the link to the complete article here for those interested in reading it:

Opinions | ‘No more beardos’: Appearance trumps performance at Pentagon

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/10/02/hegseth-military-generals-meeting-haircuts/

The Old Colonel’s closing observations:

It's a good thing Secretary of Defense Hegseth wasn't the Secretary of War during World War II or the Pacific War would have gone on for at least another two years and required a US invasion of the Japanese home islands with a tremendous loss of life on both sides. Lieutenant General Leslie Groves was the indispensable man developing the Atomic bomb that shortened the War and saved lives but he was also at least 100 pounds overweight so Hegseth would have cashiered him out of the Army before the Manhattan Project ever got started.  While brilliant scientists designed the physics, Groves provided the massive industrial scale, security, land acquisition, and relentless management required to turn a theoretical concept into a working weapon in just two years. The Secretary of the War’s (now Secretary of the Army’s) estimate of allied causalities of a “home island” invasion was up to 4 million casualties including as many as 800,000 killed. On 18 July 1945 President Truman had met with his Joint Chiefs and decided to order 766,000 troops to prepare to invade Kyūshū beginning 1 November of that year. This prompted the War Department to order 500,000 Purple Heart medals, a stock pile still being used today. General Groves truly was the Indispensable Genius that resulted in success. He was the exceptionally brilliant logistical and engineering mastermind that before taking over the Manhattan Project, successfully managed the construction of The Pentagon in record time and oversaw hundreds of concurrent military building projects involving a million personnel. His management capabilities far outweighed any concerns about his physical fitness or weight but a Secretary of War Hegseth would prefer 4 Million US casualties over allowing an overweight General to remain in uniform. For an in-depth discussion about the moral issues associated with using the Bomb, see my May 2016 Blog article: “PRESIDENT OBAMA, NO APOLOGY FOR USING THE ATOMIC BOMB ON JAPAN!” at https://old-soldier-colonel.blogspot.com/2016/05/president-obama-no-apology-for-using.html?m=1