The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com
Steve Ball, a retired colonel, served 27 years in the U.S. Army. He lives in Windsor.
This week, I watched with disbelief as the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth convened every U.S. general and admiral, along with their senior staffs, at Quantico, Virginia. Having sat through my share of senior leadership briefings during my 27 years of service, I expected something commensurate with the moment, like a sweeping announcement about our national defense strategy, or at least a substantive discussion of the global challenges facing our military. Instead, what we got was a lecture on height and weight standards, grooming, and gender. It was, in a word, embarrassing.
These are matters fit for lower-level commanders, not the most senior officers in the armed forces. To bring together the full complement of our top leadership for a sermon on physical training tests and beards was a misuse of time and authority. More troubling, I could not help but ask: Who was the real audience? Was it the officers in the room, or the partisan outlets hungry for a display of culture-war bravado? The answer, unfortunately, seems obvious and deeply disturbing.
What I saw and heard was a man profoundly unqualified for his position. Hegseth spoke to flag officers as if he were a junior major addressing superiors. His command of the complexities of global defense and modern warfare was nonexistent. Instead, his interest seemed consumed by “PT” and “beardos.” For a secretary of defense to elevate such trivialities in front of the stewards of our nation’s security is an abdication of responsibility.
The whole performance struck me as something darker as well: a loyalty ritual. It carried uncomfortable echoes of the 1930s, when authoritarian leaders demanded public demonstrations of allegiance. I thought back to the oath I first swore in 1978 as a newly minted second lieutenant, and renewed at every promotion: To support and defend the Constitution of the United States, not any one man.
Watching Hegseth and, later, the president, demand fealty from officers with decades more experience than either of them was pathetic and, frankly, frightening. Frightening because I knew our true adversaries abroad were watching and savoring every minute.
Then there is the tired refrain of “woke.” Hegseth leaned on it again, as if it were the central threat to our national defense. In reality, “woke” to me has become a lazy colloquialism; an empty placeholder for “values I do not share.” It is not strategy. It is not security. It is certainly not leadership.
My own sons are both veterans. One of Iraq and one of Afghanistan. For the first time in my life, I wondered whether I would encourage them to consider today’s military as a career, under this civilian leadership. If I am thinking it, others are too. And that is potentially disastrous for our military and our country.
The pattern is clear. The Trump administration has been intent on politicizing the military, as spelled out in Project 2025. We saw it in the staged partisan spectacle at Fort Bragg, where handpicked troops were prompted to boo Democrats. We saw it in the purging of some of our most accomplished senior leaders — women and Black officers fired without cause, including even the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Now we see it in an attempted transformation of our armed forces into little more than a MAGA prop.
Thankfully, the officers at Quantico refused to play along. There were no cheers for Hegseth’s performance. When the president spoke, he appeared disengaged, even sleepwalking. The generals and admirals in that hall held to the tradition of an apolitical military, as their silence attested.
But traditions erode under constant attack. If Hegseth and Trump persist in trying to remake our forces according to the political blueprints of Project 2025, even the strongest institutional guardrails can bend.
That is why this is no longer simply a question for those in uniform. Civilian leaders — especially Republicans — must act. Too many have been silent, content to let the president and his secretary of defense warp the military for their own ends. Our own senator, Susan Collins, who likes to present herself as a principled moderate, has thus far too often chosen fearful cowering over principle. I fear that if she and others in Congress do not step up soon, the damage will be irreversible.
I took an oath to defend the Constitution, not a party, and not a president. Every officer in that room at Quantico took the same oath. The nation, and our leaders who still value having a land of the free and home of the brave need to remember that before it is too late.
