Pete Hegseth

And that's basically what I wrote the most in the letter is, hey...

Besides my faith, nothing has shaped me more, nothing I'm more proud of, nothing that taught me more about myself.

It's where I got the real education in my life, not college, grad school, anything.

It was the University of Baghdad and Samarra and Kabul and all these, Gitmo.

They're the best of the best.

But I'm also honest with them.

For the most part, if you don't serve, you will probably regret it.

Now, a lot of this is in a static context where things are normal the way we looked at it 20, 30 years ago.

I recognize that.

But the human ethos is the same for the most part.

But then I turn pretty quickly to, hey, but this isn't the military that I joined.

It's not the military that other guys joined.

And I have huge skepticism about the leadership inside this military.

And right in there, I reserve the right

four years from now, 10 years from now, to give you a different recommendation because of how quickly things are changing.

But ultimately, my result here at this moment is I would still want my boys

and girls if they wanted to, be willing to serve their country and raise their right hand and defend the Constitution.

Because I don't think yet the institution can be completely abandoned by patriots.

And filling the ranks with patriots in those bunks at the beginning, whether it's enlisted or officer, is critically important.

And it would be, you know, it would be hypocritical of me to say, we need to revive our military, but my boys are above the ability to contribute to that.