*Not you, Mr. Hegseth.
According to eleven officers who spoke with The Times, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is blocking the promotions of four exemplary Army officers — two of whom are Black, and two of whom are female — to Brigadier General in a move some believe has overtly White Nationalist undertones. 1
Mr. Hegseth has apparently squabbled with Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll about these four officers in particular, and others, for months. Driscoll has repeatedly refused to strike them from the promotion list, citing their service records.
In one specific, separate instance, Ricky Buria — Mr. Hegseth’s Chief of Staff — argued with Mr. Driscoll over the promotion of Black, female officer to the position of Commander, Military District of Washington. Buria objected to the decision, saying the president would not want to stand beside a Black, female officer at ceremonial events. Buria refutes the account.
This tells me that career military are still pointed in the right direction despite sea-changes in politicians’ passions.
Slightly off-topic, if you’re interested in deeper reading along the lines of how politicians’ decisions have collided with the best intentions of military personnel, I strongly recommend The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb by Gar Alperovitz. The notion of dropping the bombs on Japan was fought tooth and nail up and down the military chain of command. The officers understood the targets had no military value. It turned out that Japan was not the object of the exercise at all — U.S. politicians directed our bombers to kill over 200,000 Japanese to send a message to the Soviet Union.
- Jaffe, G., Schmitt, E., Cooper, H., & Entous, A. (2026, March 27). Hegseth Strikes Two Black and Two Female Officers From Promotion List. The New York Times. Retrieved March 27, 2026, from https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/27/us/hegseth-promotion-list.html ↩︎
Leave a Reply