Is Pete Hegseth’s macho culture fit for the military?
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What is the opening premise about Pete Hegseth’s “warrior ethos” and the controversial flyovers?
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Donald Trump's second administration is doing its level best to put a MAGA face on the US military.
They hit we hit ten times harder. You know, we hit much harder than they do. We have a lot better equipment than they do.
Harsher, tougher, brasher, less constrained, and less inclusive than its predecessors. And in Pete Heggseth, he appears to have found a Pentacan chief who understands the assignment.
At the Department of War, we have the most elite warriors on the face of the earth. Every single day, you are pushed to your absolute physical and mental limits to master the profession of arms. We demand your all, and you give it.
The man Trump now calls his Secretary of War has promised a return to a so-called warrior ethos, but one that places a premium less on values and more on machismo. And in the most recent actor Bravado, he intervened to lend his support to the pilots who carried out two spectacularly low level flybys that some veterans described as very dangerous.
So how important are muscles and machismo for today's militaries? And does Pete Hegsaf's approach really help war fighting?
I'm Tom. And I'm Patrick. Welcome to The General and the Journalist.
So to dig into all that, we're joined today by a friend of both of us, as it happens, Air Vice Marshal Sean Bell, who's a former REF Harrier jump jet pilot, who went on to serve in various senior positions of command in the MOD and overseas. Sean is now retired and a well known military commentator in his own right. So today you could say it's the general, the air marshal, and the journalist. Sean, welcome. It's wonderful to have you here. It's great to be here. Thanks, Tom, for the invite.
Tom, how do you know that Sean is an REF Harrier pilot?
Because Sean very kindly invited me out to something called red flag about twenty years ago, was it Sean, possibly even longer, in the Nevada Desert. It was basically the REF's equivalent of Top Gun or or the real life top gun for the US Air Force and they invite other squadrons all over the world. And so there was Sean's Harrier Boys competing with the you know the best of the best on these incredible aerial exercises over the Nevada desert, with me writing it all up dutifully for for a newspaper.
You missed an open goal, Tom. The correct answer to that question is because he told me so.
We're getting into the bants already, are we? I was gonna say I was told
we're gonna keep the band until a bit later, but we can s go ugly early if you like.
Sean, let's first of all though, let's talk about these controversial flybys, because it it it is this, isn't it, that really does seem to have opened up this new chapter in the US military's ongoing culture wars, and they've been going on for a while now. We'd love to get your professional take on on each of them as a former fast jet pilot. I suspect who's done a couple of cheeky flybys yourself, both authorized and unauthorized, but If you want to admit to anything then you know, now's the time or I would understand if you don't.
Yeah, I mean I think um as for the previous offenses, I think we have to remember you live in different worlds. When Patrick and I joined the military, it was a very different world. The Air Force I joined was littered with veterans of sort of the Second World War, a lot of people who had um survived the Second World War and therefore flew under bridges, did all sorts of slightly wacky things, had a very different approach to risk.
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Chapters
3 chapters
1
What is the opening premise about Pete Hegseth’s “warrior ethos” and the controversial flyovers?
0:00–12:47
2
How do the low‑level Apache and Blue Angels flybys illustrate the new Pentagon culture?
12:47–20:44
3
What is Pete Hegseth’s personal and professional background before becoming Secretary of War?
20:44–37:19