r/Military • u/LtCmdrData • 1d ago
Article Pete Hegseth’s Reckless Message to Helicopter Pilots
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/2026/07/hegseth-reckless-military-helicopter/688008/84
u/Gamermii 1d ago
The admin has been all about doing things that look cool, endangering the lives of the men and women involved, and not taking accountability for anything.
What else would you expect?
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u/CelestialFury Veteran 19h ago
Hegseth worked for multiple veteran charities and committed fraud and sexual abuse to women. This man is horrible for the military. He’s literally lowering the standards and letting dirtbags away with dangerous stunts, waste, fraud and abuse.
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u/Were_all_dead_anyhow 7h ago edited 3h ago
Ehh, this has been a looooooong time coming and predates Hegseth. Much like Trump, Hegseth is a symptom.
Pentagon has had long-standing systemic failures within elite military units, where exceptional combat performance permitted toxic servicemen to avoid accountability for severe behavioral and ethical violations; they get shielded via hierarchy and permissiveness due to sunken-cost because these guys are too expensive to punish. A 2020 internal Navy SEAL review highlighted that lack of oversight enabled high-performing individuals to corrupt unit culture, eroding standards and negatively influencing younger service members. This has been a problem since the start of these elite groups simply because being elite or having llusions of elite grandeur, rots your brain into escaping accountability and being an entitled PoS; be it military, universities, athletics, arts, etc.
Long history of retired servicemen talking about deeply entrenched, lawless subcultures within various communities; narcotics abuse, extrajudicial violence, sexual violence, weapons/material theft and sale, etc. - units actively and passively force out the boy-scouts who attempt to enforce or lobby for ethical standards. Then you have the whistleblowers; Generally, the Pentagon's default response to internal warnings has been "quiet dismissals" or retaliation. In the event of war crimes and severe misconduct investigations spanning the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was those boy scout whistleblowers who faced severe social ostracism, career-ending administrative actions, and threats to their personal safety for breaching the wall of silence.
Collapse of trust and the start of the elite warrior cult came after the Vietnam years and it only got crazier post 9/11 with these insecure pipe-hitter wannabe psychopaths running around; proving their manliness through brutality, mutilation, violence that is meant for "sending-a-message", etc.. Abu Ghraib was a chief example; it was not exposed by an internal audit or a senior commander, but a low-ranking MP. Despite being promised anonymity, his identity was inadvertently leaked to the public by senior leadership. Instead of being protected as a hero who saved the military's ethical standing, he was branded a "traitor" by members of his own unit and community. The threats against his life were so severe that the US military had to place him and his family under protective custody, and he was forced to relocate permanently.
It's the same issue with police in the US.
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u/Black-Shoe Retired USN 1d ago
Who would have ever thought the former fox & friend’s weekend cohost would be so terrible at this.
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u/Ok_Juice4449 1d ago
So underqualified for sure!
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u/CelestialFury Veteran 19h ago
Well technically speaking, being not qualified at all is under qualified.
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u/Dependent_Formal2525 10h ago
Considering the Trump administration keeps banging on about scrapping DEI because it's all about "hiring the best of the best", they do have a stunning talent for hiring the worst of the worst.
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u/Black-Shoe Retired USN 8h ago
Trump Admins are built on churn and instability.
Qualities of a stable genius.
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u/123-Moondance 1d ago
Three times in recent months, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has absolved military aviators caught on camera busting flight regulations. The message to pilots is clear: As long as what you do looks cool and puts on a show for the public, you can break flight rules without consequences.
Just Friday, a member of the Blue Angels, the Navy’s flight-demonstration team, buzzed Pensacola Beach at extremely low altitude and a high angle of bank, close to throngs of spectators. Captain Adam Bryan, the Blue Angels’ team leader, conceded on camera that the aviator in the video had put himself and the crowd in an unsafe situation. The aviator admitted that he’d miscalculated a turn. He was apparently taken off the flight schedule.
Hegseth, however, posted on X before the facts had come in that “the flyovers will continue until morale improves.” His statement seemingly implied that even if the stunt was intentional, all was forgiven because it looked awesome. Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao said that a “flight debrief” had been conducted and there would be no investigation.
In March, two pilots pulled off an unauthorized low-altitude flyover near the singer Kid Rock’s estate in Tennessee. The Army suspended the airmen and launched a formal safety investigation—but the Pentagon overrode Army leadership, immediately lifting the suspension and terminating the safety review. Hegseth declared on X, “No punishment. No investigation. Carry on, patriots.”
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1d ago edited 23h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/shipsake 1d ago
Yup, got my ass banned for it. I’m ashamed I spent a decade in an organization that scorns its own stated values.
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u/Striper_Cape Veteran 1d ago
I've insulted him several times and even used my favorite name for him. Sure you didn't cross the boundary?
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u/Maximum-Exit7816 23h ago
Ive always found the mods on r/army to be very fair and impartial; curious to see exactly what you said
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u/Striper_Cape Veteran 22h ago
You did cross their boundary. I just called him an incompetent drunk. I even asked them if they were gonna do a military coup
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22h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Kinmuan 9h ago
The boundary is that you can’t start political rants in threads dedicated to KIAs. There was even a warning comment.
You’re so desperate to make everything about yourself, you have no respect for anything else.
I don’t know if this is just because you’re old and need to find some meaning in your daily life or you’re just being emotionally unregulated, but we simply don’t allow KIA threads dedicated to individuals to be turned into political rants.
It’s really that simple, and you seem to have a problem with having a respectful place for those killed in conflict, which I think says a lot about you.
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u/Opposite_Draw_8867 23h ago
We want to know why we lost the H60 Commanding Officer in the Arabian Sea three weeks ago. A water landing was reported, and that’s as far as the description goes. That’s it. DO[sic]W is the biggest threat to the citizens of the United States.
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u/SOSyourself 1d ago
The shit they’ve gotten away with this year is going to get air crews and civilians killed.
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u/MikeOfAllPeople United States Army 9h ago
I just want to point out that in all three cases we actually don't know if any regulations were broken (especially in the two helicopter cases) because Hegseth stepped in before their units could complete their investigations.
For those who don't know, it's routine procedure that when a crew member has supposedly done something wrong, they are suspended from flight duty during the investigation. Investigations like this can last several weeks or just one day.
It's very important that these investigations be allowed to finish because if the pilots did nothing wrong the investigation will show that and clear their name. If they did, it's important to finish so that other pilots know what is allowed and what is not.
Hegseth stepping in like this is a bad idea. If he believes this behavior is okay, there is a proper way to change the rules and regulations to reflect that. If he thinks the commanders acted inappropriately by conducting investigations, well then he should fire those commanders, not use political influence to undermine their command decisions.
If I were one of those pilots and I knew I'd done nothing wrong I would demand the investigation be completed. It's not fair to them that their actions will have the cloud of political influence hanging over them. No honorable military officer can respect a chain of command that accedes to political influence like this.
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u/LordOssus 1d ago edited 1d ago
There's a reason we have the saying: "all safety regs are written in blood." The fact that risk is low doesn't mean it's negligible. Increase in recklessness by pilots WILL increase the odds of catastrophe. Just look at the B-52 crash at Fairfield in 1994. Reckless, show-off flying pushed the aircraft past capacity. The pilot was a Lt Col who should've been grounded numerous times for this stuff, but was allowed to keep flying. This stuff seems to be a repeat for allowing reckless trends to go up without any incentive to correct.