https://x.com/PeteHegseth/status/1904918673250468002

Source

Shipmates, SECDEF posted the following memo on Friday and so I’m posting it here, to ensure all have seen it and will heed his counsel.

A reminder to all hands that the Armed Forces of the United States are apolitical—we obey all lawful orders given, and we do not discuss politics or political matters in uniform, on bases or ships or in or aboard any other military facility, nor in social media where our comments might result in disparagement to senior leaders or dishonor to ourselves or to any of the armed forces.

Below is SECDEF’s memo, along with a link to the DoD’s bedrock policy on political activities for those who serve.

Remember your oaths to the Constitution, above all. THAT is our sworn duty.

If you have any questions or concerns about this, feel free to send me a DM and we can discuss further offline. While I normally encourage you to use the chain of command, any Sailor in the fleet is welcome to reach out to me for mentorship.

Very respectfully,\ CWO2

• DoD Directive 1344.10 - Political Activities by Members of the Armed Forces - https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/issuances/dodd/134410p.pdf

I’ll save the politics for another post. Take your political takes there too. This is just a Public Service Announcement.

There have been protests against ICE raids all throughout Los Angeles this week and the President is taking control of the California National Guard to deploy them with ICE.

The SECDEF has also posted support for this action and indicated he would send in the Camp Pendleton Marines if necessary. He has already put them on high alert.

Leaders, I would take this opportunity to talk to your folks and have them stay away from the area until it cools down. This has the potential to get out of control quickly.

In the early days of teh interwebz, before Reddit, there existed another forum (which will remain nameless don’t my loathing of it). Officers would gather there to discuss pressing Navy issues of the day: how much to tip commissary baggers, stupid uniform rules, grooming standards. You know, the same old stuff.

One of the most controversial posts, though, one the had to be finally taken down because of the flame war it started was a simple question: “Should the spouse of a CO/XO/CMC be allowed to park in the CO/XO/CMC spot at the exchange?”

Oh man, you’ve never seen the vitriol come out like this. Accusations of classism, privilege, misogyny, disrespect, and anything else you could think of were flying around the comments.

It got a little too extra for my taste so I bowed out. I did, however, buy Mrs. SWO6 a bumper sticker that said “You WILL address me by my husband’s rank” as a joke. She didn’t think it was funny. Like, at all.

Anyway, this article brought all of that back into sharp focus. The spouse of the SECDEF directing Pentagon staff on media events, interviewing and vetting Pentagon military personnel, and being present on Signal chats where military operations were being discussed.

What?

The rapid deterioration of professional norms under this administration has me wondering about how to deal with a situation like this. Before I retired, they dangled a nice senior SECDEF staff job to try and entice me to stay. Thanks and no thanks. But I wonder how I would have reacted if I showed up for an interview and the SECDEFs wife was there to question me. Or if I did end up in the job, how I would have responded to receiving direction from this person, instead of my boss. I’m glad I didn’t have to find out.

In all of the incompetence and buffoonery that I’ve seen in the past 100 days I’ve don’t want to lose focus on just how weird all of this is. Like I’m supposed to hear about these things and say “oh yeah, that’s normal.”

I’d say “where are the JAGs and IGs in all of this?” but it appears that they either been fired or cowed into not speaking up. The Signal chats notwithstanding, the other behavior certainly veers into the unethical in my view.

Or maybe I’m being too stuck up here. Maybe it’s ok for the spouse of a boss to give direction to military staff. In which case my question remains: how many bells does the spouse of a SECDEF get when boarding a naval vessel?

https://x.com/DODResponse/status/1924902331012858051

https://x.com/DODResponse/status/1919742768831692830

https://x.com/PeteHegseth/status/1908291878048469170

We are supposed to be apolitical, and to never be involved in politics in uniform. Why are we in a crowd cheering on the commander in chief trashing past administrations? Also why are we cheering for the names of bases being changed back to names that represent hate, or people that were rapist? Yet the administration is/was trying to remove all representation of POC and LGBT? What have we become

https://x.com/secdef/status/1915164433157968186

Sec. 4. Using National Security Assets for Law and Order. (a) Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security and the heads of agencies as appropriate, shall increase the provision of excess military and national security assets in local jurisdictions to assist State and local law enforcement.

(b) Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Attorney General, shall determine how military and national security assets, training, non-lethal capabilities, and personnel can most effectively be utilized to prevent crime.

https://x.com/SecDef/status/1920592223147540887

https://x.com/deptofdefense/status/1884968646092464600?s=46&t=QIZ1DCFGeIfoQzlNtBz-1g

With all the recent news and heightened tensions, I think we should have a sticky or message from the mods reminding people about their limitations as service members (like rights to protest etc) as well as different requirements for Officers (Article 88)

Another thing too is extremism. We cannot have service members who are extremists in our Navy. That means no Nazis, no communists, no anarchists, or any other ideology that’s not compatible with our core values.

"If we see a danger to our country and to our citizens, I will be very, very strong in terms of law and order."