Proud of what had been disparaged by politicians and pundits alike, the new Secretary of Defense spoke about his enlisted military service and took pride in being introduced to an all-hands meeting at the Pentagon by an enlisted service member.
Acknowledging Sergeant First Class Wirth, with a “Thank You” for his introduction, Hagel continued
I am honored to be introduced by anyone today but I’m particularly honored to be introduced by Sergeant First Class Wirth. He’s a typical Nebraskan: good looking, smart, great patriot, many other virtues. My warmest regards to Shannon and your mother in Vermillion, South Dakota. She deserves all of the credit for producing a family like yours: patriots, people who give to their country selflessly. Everyone in this audience and people around the world are doing that, have done that, and will continue to do that.
Hagel went on, indirectly addressing his enlisted, voluntary combat service in Vietnam, where he rose to the rank of Sergeant and where he served as an infantry squad leader alongside his brother, Tom, with the Army’s 9th Infantry Division and where he earned numerous military decorations and honors, including two Purple Hearts:
Gordon, Nebraska, is where Sergeant First Class Wirth is from. It’s a little town up in the northwestern part of the state. My family and I lived in that county, Sheridan County, for five years. My brother, Tom, and I, who were in Vietnam together, served side-by-side; actually, for 10 months of our 12-month tours, we had our tonsils out together back in the ’50s, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. And I don’t know if it was a two-for-one deal, but it was the only hospital in three counties, Gordon, Nebraska. So I wouldn’t say I have fond memories of Gordon, but nonetheless, thank you.
Perhaps jokingly referring to insinuations by his foes that a one-time Sergeant might not be able to stand up to generals, the new Secretary of Defense quipped:
I want to also acknowledge much of our leadership in this institution who are here today. Specifically, we have the Deputy Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, who was here, chairman of the Joint Chiefs. We’ve got the chief of staff of the Army. He makes me shake a little, being an old Army sergeant.
But the sergeant major of the Army scares the hell out of me, but I think he does the general, too, actually. And all of you who are so important to our country, thank you.
In a more serious vein, Hagel remarked how proud he is of the opportunity the president of the United States and Congress have given him and how he will do everything in his power to be the kind of leader that the troops gathered there expect and deserve, and the kind of leader the country expects and deserves.
These are some of his other remarks
If there’s one thing America has stood for more than any one thing, is that we are a force for good. We make mistakes. We’ve made mistakes. We’ll continue to make mistakes. But we are a force for good. And we should never, ever forget that, and we should always keep that out in front as much as any one thing that drives us every day. As difficult as our jobs are with the budget and sequestration — I don’t need to dwell on all the good news there — that’s a reality. We need to figure this out. You are doing that. You have been doing that. We need to deal with this reality.
We’ve got ahead of us a lot of challenges. They are going to define much of who we are, not this institution only, but our country, what kind of a world our children are going to inherit. I mean, that’s the big challenge that we have. That’s the bigger picture of the objective for all of us. Yes, it’s difficult.
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I’ve said to the Congress, the president, as secretary of defense, I will do everything I can to ensure the safety, the well-being, and the future of you and your families.
And I want to mention for a moment families. I think the families are always in a difficult spot, maybe the most difficult spot, because they are left behind. They’re dealing with a lot of uncontrollables. And we are doing our job, and that consumes us, and that’s good. But the families have a tough time.
And it’s also important for you to know that I’m committed to — and I’ve told the president this, the Congress — to assuring that every person in the Department of Defense, associated with the Department of Defense, civilian or military, is absolutely treated fairly, honestly, equal benefits, everything that each of you do should be dealt with on a fair and equal basis, no discrimination anywhere in any way.
Reflecting back on 9/11, Hagel said:
But in Churchill’s words long ago, that was a “jarring gong,” the event, that set in motion dynamics that we are living with today. You go back almost 22 years ago — as Chairman Dempsey noted this morning in a meeting, 22 years ago tomorrow, in 1991, February 28, the end of Desert Storm. If you take those two events and start charting this, not unlike history, you start to see a picture emerge of different kinds of threats, new threats, and there will be more new threats.
And it gives you some dimension when you back up a little bit and understand this, not that any of us, I don’t think, are smart enough to know it all or figure it all out, but it gives us some dimension of what’s going on in the world. The world is at such an uncertain time. Our budget problems here, meaning — if nothing else, what we’re dealing with, what you’re dealing with, what we’re all dealing with is, yes, dollars coming down, but it’s the uncertainty of the planning, it’s the uncertainty of the commitments, the uncertainty of what’s ahead.
On his past, strong support for veterans and on his military background and past association with the military — even as “just a Sergeant”:
One of the proudest times in my 12 years in the United States Senate is when friend, former Vietnam veteran Jim Webb, who’s spent a little time in this building over the years, he and I co-authored the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill. I was very proud of that, having nothing to do with me. I was proud of that because we were able to get two World War II veterans, John Warner and Frank Lautenberg, Democrat, Republican, Jim Webb, Chuck Hagel, two Vietnam veterans, Democrat, Republican, we got together, and we got the votes, and we passed the bill.
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And I say that because much of my life has been about doing everything I could in some way to help veterans and their families, whether it was chairing the Agent Orange payment program, whatever it was, and I’m proud of that. I’m more proud of that than any businesses or anything else I’ve been involved in. And I’m proud of my background. I’m proud of my career, like you all are. But nothing makes me prouder, has ever made me prouder than my association with the military and the veterans.
Finally, and once more referring to Sergeant Wirth and to the troops:
Well, again, to you, each of you in this room, those of you who are watching this around the world, I say to you: Thank you. Again, I say thank you to you for your service, your sacrifices, and I will do everything I can to be worthy of Sergeant First Class Wirth and his family and everybody in this building.
I look forward to working with you. You’ll always know that you have a secretary of defense that will deal straight with you, I’ll be honest, I’ll be direct, I’ll expect the same from you. I’ll never ask anyone to do anything I wouldn’t do. I’ll never ask anybody to do more than I would do. That’s the story of your lives. I wouldn’t be worthy if that was not the case.
Again, thank you for this tremendous opportunity. I am very proud to be on your team.
Now I’ve got to go to work.
Thank you.
I have the feeling that former Sergeant Chuck Hagel will do very well as leader of the greatest Defense Department in the world
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.