APRIL 24, 2025 – Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth summarized the Defense Department’s accomplishments over the first 100 days of his tenure this morning as he addressed senior-level military student leaders at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
The students — all senior, field-grade officers and civilian equivalents — are in the final stretch of the college’s 10-month strategic leadership resident program. Upon completion of the course, the graduates will be eligible for major command and civilian equivalent executive leadership positions.
“Fighting for you has been the privilege of a lifetime — a deployment of a lifetime,” Hegseth told the students at the outset of his remarks.
“And from day one — and each 100 of those days — our overriding objectives have been clear: restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding our military and reestablishing deterrence,” he continued.
Stating that “everything starts and ends with warriors in training and on the battlefield,” Hegseth said that the department is working to restore the warrior ethos by refocusing DOD on lethality, meritocracy, accountability, and standards and readiness.
On the latter of those topics, the secretary pointed out that the Pentagon is reviewing how the department has maintained standards over the past four years to see whether they have dropped.
“To be lethal, you have to trust that the warrior alongside you in battle, or the troops fighting in the units that many of you will lead, are capable — truly, physically capable — of doing what is necessary under fire,” Hegseth said, adding that such a standard is especially applicable to leaders.
Some additional warrior ethos restoration topics he hit on included welcoming service members who were involuntarily separated during the COVID-19 pandemic back into uniform, reshaping DOD’s civilian workforce, and a recent uptick in recruiting numbers.
“The enthusiasm of young Americans, in particular, is off the charts,” Hegseth said.
He then addressed DOD’s priority to rebuild the military.
“Our goal is to put the best systems in the hands of our warfighters and ensure that you, as leaders, will have the systems and support you need for maximum lethality,” Hegseth said.
As a pair of examples of such systems, Hegseth pointed to the Golden Dome missile defense system that DOD has been tasked with developing, as well as the Air Force’s F-47 Next Generation Air Dominance fighter jet platform.
“Taken together, these programs mean that we will be able to strike anywhere, anytime, while our citizens at home will be protected from the worst that our enemies can throw at us,” he said.
In addition to developing new weapons systems, Hegseth said DOD is also rebuilding the military through a review of all 72 major defense acquisition programs, working to strengthen the defense industrial base, and rooting out fraud, waste and abuse through a partnership with the Department of Government Efficiency.
“We are prioritizing what works and cutting what doesn’t,” he said.
“When your adversaries know that your military is filled with warriors, that your logistics capabilities are robust [and] that your warfighters have the most advanced weapons systems known to man, they are far less likely to challenge you on the battlefield,” he continued.
Regarding the third objective, reestablishing deterrence, Hegseth said the Defense Department is doing just that, both at home and abroad.
“Working with our partners at [the Department of Homeland Security], we have already seen a 97% decrease in illegal border crossings compared to the same period in 2024,” he said, adding that monthly encounters at the southern border have dropped from 250,000 to 19,000.
Overseas, Hegseth noted that the U.S. has handed leadership of the multinational group that deals with Ukraine’s security needs off to the United Kingdom and Germany and that the U.S. has obtained commitments from multiple European nations to boost their defense spending.
“The time of the United States … being the sole guarantor of European security has passed. It’s long overdue,” Hegseth said.
The secretary also spoke of U.S. deterrence in the Middle East, including support for Israel and the Defense Department’s lethal operations against Houthi terrorists.
Additionally, Hegseth detailed the strong bonds being reaffirmed with numerous allied and partner countries throughout the Indo-Pacific region.
“At every step, we are carrying out our strategy of increasing deterrence against the Communist Chinese,” he said.
“Under the leadership of President [Donald J.] Trump, the message to our adversaries … has been undeniably clear: America is back,” he added.
Hegseth concluded his remarks by stating that America and its national defense have begun a new golden age and that the students about to graduate each represent the future of the military.
“You will set the standard,” he told those in attendance.
“We’re counting on you, and I know that you will deliver at each and every step with distinction.”
By Matthew Olay, DOD News