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Hegseth Orders Review Of Discharge Characterizations For Troops Booted Over Biden’s Covid Shot Mandate

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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth signed a memorandum ordering a reevaluation of discharge characterizations for service members removed from service for foregoing the Biden-era Covid shot mandate, the Pentagon revealed Tuesday.

Signed on Dec. 6, the new directive instructs the War Department to undertake a “proactive review of personnel records, to identify individuals who were involuntarily discharged solely for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine and facilitate appropriate discharge upgrades.” As The Federalist previously reported, more than 8,700 troops were effectively forced out of the military for opting not to get the experimental jab.

In his memo, Hegseth acknowledged the Pentagon’s ongoing efforts to reinstate members “who were involuntarily discharged or voluntarily left Military Service” as to avoid the “unfair, overbroad, and unnecessary” mandate. He further noted that “It is unconscionable that thousands of former Service members who held true to their personal and religious convictions were not just separated, but separated with General (Under Honorable Conditions), rather than Honorable, discharge characterizations.”

“While many have applied for and received relief from our Military Department review boards, I believe the onus is on us to make this right,” Hegseth wrote.

In addition to instructing the Pentagon to conduct the aforementioned review of personnel records, Hegseth has ordered the Under Secretary of War for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata to “provide implementing policy and guidance and direct staffing requirements to the Secretaries of the Military Departments.” Under this edict, Tata “will issue directive guidance in this area, coordinated with the Secretaries of the Military Departments, outside the standard Department process … and with the authority to direct appropriate staffing and to amend this memorandum as required,” according to the memo. (Read more from “Hegseth Orders Review Of Discharge Characterizations For Troops Booted Over Biden’s Covid Shot Mandate” HERE)

U.S. Won’t Release Full, Unedited Boat Strike Video to Public, Hegseth Says

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U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday there are no plans to release the full unedited video of September 2 strikes on a suspected drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean that fueled concerns about the Trump administration’s plans for Venezuela.

Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio conducted briefings on Tuesday for every member of the Senate, responding to lawmakers’ demands for more information about a 3-1/2-month-long campaign of more than 20 strikes against boats in the Caribbean and Pacific that have killed more than 80 people.

On Monday, the U.S. military struck three vessels in the Pacific, killing eight people.

“In keeping with long-standing Department of War policy, Department of Defense policy, of course, we’re not going to release a top-secret full unedited video of that to the general public,” Hegseth told reporters at Capitol Hill.

The two cabinet secretaries held a similar briefing for the full House of Representatives.

Concerns about the strikes increased after it became public that the commander overseeing the operation ordered a second strike that killed two survivors on September 2. (Read more from “U.S. Won’t Release Full, Unedited Boat Strike Video to Public, Hegseth Says” HERE)

US Military Kills 2 Suspected Narco-Terrorists in 16th Military Drone Strike: Hegseth

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Two suspected drug smugglers on a vessel were killed during a U.S. military drone strike, War Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday.

The “lethal kinetic strike” was ordered by President Donald Trump and conducted in international waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO), Hegseth said.

The strike is the 16th since Trump began targeting drug smuggling boats suspected of transporting illegal drugs into the United States.

At least 66 suspected narco-terrorists have been killed in the strikes and three survived.

“Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics,” Hegseth wrote on X.

(Read more from “US Military Kills 2 Suspected Narco-Terrorists in 16th Military Drone Strike: Hegseth” HERE)

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Top Trump Officials Are Moving Onto Military Bases

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Top members of Donald Trump’s White House are reportedly living in homes typically reserved for top military brass in Washington, D.C. as they pull back from neighborhoods where their presences were often targeted for protests by the many Democrats who make the Capital region their homes.

Stephen Miller and Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently joined a growing list of Trump Cabinet secretaries and advisers who’ve chosen to live in reserved military housing, with Rubio moving onto “Generals Row” in Fort McNair and Miller also living in the area after abandoning his digs in Arlington, The Atlantic reported.

They join Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who moved into military housing earlier this year, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is alone among his compatriots in finding some precedent for his decision to move onto Generals Row alongside Rubio.

White House and administration officials gave security concerns as the reasons for the arrangements; one other senior White House official, whose identity was not named by The Atlantic, is also in a similar arrangement due to “security concerns related to a specific foreign threat,” said officials.

While legal, the arrangements put a strain on the short supply of such housing in the District of Columbia and could ruffle some feathers among the nation’s top commanders at a time when relations between political appointees and the brass is already strained. Hegseth is largely to thank for that division after he summoned commanders to Virginia for a speech about “warrior ethos” and aesthetics that was reportedly not well-received. (Read more from “Top Trump Officials Are Moving Onto Military Bases” HERE)

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Pete Hegseth Doesn’t Dispute Plans to Have ‘Crowd Control’ Troops in Every State Ahead of 2026 Midterms

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth didn’t deny reported plans to have National Guard ‘response force’ in every state ahead of the 2026 midterms.

During a conference on Thursday (23 October), a reporter asked Hegseth about  a memo circulating on social media detailing, “the establishment of a National Guard response force that will be trained in crowd control and civil unrest  deployed in all 50 states by April of 2026”.

(Read more from “Pete Hegseth Doesn’t Dispute Plans to Have ‘Crowd Control’ Troops in Every State Ahead of 2026 Midterms” HERE)

Trump’s War Against Suspected Narco-Terrorists at Sea Expands to Pacific Ocean

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In a dramatic escalation of the Trump administration’s maritime war on narco-terrorism, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the first lethal military strike outside the Caribbean Sea — targeting and destroying a drug-smuggling vessel off Colombia’s Pacific coast.

Hegseth announced the eighth military strike against a narco-terrorist drug smuggling vessel on Wednesday. The military strike that destroyed the boat and killed two on board is the first to be conducted outside the Caribbean Sea area of operations.

In a social media post on X, Hegseth indicated the strike occurred on Tuesday in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of Colombia. Hegseth said the strike that marks a broadening of President Donald Trump’s military campaign against narco-terrorist cartels at sea, saying, “Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific.”

According to Hegseth, the eighth kinetic military strike targeted a vessel that was known to military intelligence as being involved in illicit narcotics smuggling and was transiting a known narco-trafficking maritime transit route. Hegseth added, “There were two narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. Both terrorists were killed, and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike.”

Hegseth’s announcement contained an ominous warning to narco-terrorists that the kinetic military strikes will continue. (Read more from “Trump’s War Against Suspected Narco-Terrorists at Sea Expands to Pacific Ocean” HERE)

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Hegseth Fires Navy Chief Of Staff

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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth fired Navy Chief of Staff Jon Harrison on Friday, the Department of War said.

Harrison was appointed in January to lead as the Navy’s chief of staff, working alongside Navy Secretary John Phelan to implement organizational changes under Hegseth’s new leadership. A War Department official confirmed Harrison’s removal to the Daily Caller News Foundation, thanking the former chief of staff for his service.

“He will no longer serve as Chief of Staff to the Secretary of the Navy,” the statement read. “We are grateful for his service to the Department.”

According to two defense officials and a former defense official, sources told Politico that Harrison’s firing was “sudden,” coming after he and Phelan worked to implement sweeping changes in policy and budgeting offices.

The removal comes just days after retired Navy Captain and former Republican Senate candidate in Virginia Hung Cao was confirmed as Undersecretary of the Navy on Wednesday. (Read more from “Hegseth Fires Navy Chief Of Staff” HERE)

Editor’s Note: It appears that Harrison, a Trump appointee with no prior military experience who took the role in January 2025, ran into trouble with Hung Cao, a Navy veteran, who had just been confirmed by the Senate as the new Under Secretary of the Navy earlier last week. An anonymous Pentagon official described the firing as a response to Harrison’s efforts to curb the new undersecretary’s influence.

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Pete Hegseth Rebukes DEI, Fat Troops: ‘We Are Done with That Sh*t’

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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced new standards Tuesday as part of an ongoing cultural shift at the Pentagon ending the “war on warriors” led by woke politicians and Pentagon leaders.

Hegseth, eight months into a historic tenure that has seen the Department of Defense rebranded and reoriented as the Department of War, made his announced Tuesday addressing top military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Quantico, Virginia, ahead of remarks by President Donald Trump.

“From this moment forward, the only mission of the newly restored Department of War is this: warfighting, preparing for war, and preparing to win, unrelenting and uncompromising in that pursuit,” he told the rare assemblage of top military brass.

Hegseth’s speech emphasized many themes pressed throughout his time leading the Pentagon, such as eradicating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) requirements, mandating higher standards, and earning peace by preparing for war.

But his 45-minute remarks in front of top generals and flag officers marked a formal pivot away from many past policies that Trump has argued distract from the military’s core mission. (Read more from “Pete Hegseth Rebukes DEI, Fat Troops: ‘We Are Done with That Sh*t’” HERE)

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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth Orders Nearly All Top US Generals to Attend Mystery Meeting Next Week

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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has summoned nearly all of the US military’s top generals to Marine Corps Base Quantico next week — without telling them why.

The directive was given with short notice to generals stationed across the world, sowing concerns and confusion among the highest ranks, the Washington Post first reported on Thursday.

“The Secretary of War will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week,” Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told The Post in a statement.

Convening so many top military leaders in one location — and without stating a reason — is exceedingly rare, and presents a unique security risk.

“Are we really sure we want all these senior officers in one place?” one military analyst told The Post. “Seems like an ideal situation for the unthinkable.”

With little information, theories abound on what could be behind the call — from major national security issues to cutbacks and policy shifts. (Read more from “Secretary of War Pete Hegseth Orders Nearly All Top US Generals to Attend Mystery Meeting Next Week” HERE)

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Pete Hegseth Fires Director of Defense Intelligence Agency After Iran Strike Report

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has removed the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey A. Kruse, following the release of a preliminary assessment regarding U.S. strikes on Iran in June, according to multiple reports.

The New York Times reported that both a senior defense official and a senator confirmed Kruse’s dismissal, making him the second top military intelligence leader to be ousted since President Donald Trump returned to office in January. Earlier this year, Gen. Timothy D. Haugh, head of the National Security Agency, was forced out after complaints raised by a right-wing commentator.

Kruse, a veteran intelligence officer, had been serving as director of the DIA since 2023. His removal was described by officials as stemming from a “loss of confidence,” though it was not immediately clear whether he would be reassigned within the Air Force. Two congressional officials told the Times that lawmakers were formally notified of the decision.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sharply criticized the move, saying it highlighted what he called the Trump administration’s “dangerous habit of treating intelligence as a loyalty test rather than a safeguard for our country.”

The Washington Post also confirmed Kruse’s firing, citing two people familiar with the matter. They reported that officials did not immediately provide a reason beyond the stated “loss of confidence.”

Kruse’s dismissal came in the wake of a DIA preliminary report assessing the impact of U.S. military strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities in June. The assessment reportedly caused friction within the administration, though the precise contents of the report have not been made public.

The firing underscores growing tension between the Pentagon’s intelligence community and the Trump administration.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr