Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth Speaks To Troops In Hawaii Amidst Ever-Growing Signal Group Chat Leak Scandal

3 days ago

Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth speaks at Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, Hawaii.

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Transcript

00:00Well, Admiral, thank you so much. It is great to be here in Hawaii. We started the morning

00:13with some Navy SEALs doing PT. You know, we made the decision that we were going to – everywhere

00:18we go, we're going to do PT with the troops, because I remember kind of doing that back

00:22when I was a soldier. It is not – it started as PT with the troops. It has become Smoke

00:28the Sect F. Green Berets did it to me out in Germany, and the SEALs did it to me this

00:35morning. So we got a great start, a beautiful Hawaii morning. I'm glad to be able to speak

00:41with the APCSS alumni network here in Waikiki and across the Indo-Pacific, and as was mentioned

00:49around the world. It was also very intentional that this was our first stop to the region

00:55as part of this very important messaging. But first of all, thank you so much, Suzy,

01:02for your leadership. Thirty years is quite an accomplishment, and for hosting us on this

01:05beautiful morning. And again, thank you to Admiral Paparo for his reputation, his leadership

01:13precedes him. He's well known in Washington for all the right reasons, and we have our

01:19fighting admiral here in the Indo-Pacific. Appreciate your leadership.

01:25I'm honored to speak this morning in the Stackpole Auditorium. It was really neat to

01:29do research on this before coming here. Named after Lieutenant General, as you all know,

01:34Hank Stackpole. He was a remarkable human being. He was a Marine, a Vietnam combat veteran,

01:41the first commander of U.S. Marine Forces Pacific, the first president of APCSS, a fellow

01:48Princeton grad, and an American hero. During one of his several tours in Vietnam, General

01:56Stackpole, then a captain and a company commander, was struck by an enemy .50 caliber bullet.

02:03While being evacuated, his medevac helicopter was shot down. Imagine, I've been wounded,

02:10I'm heading out, everything's going to be okay. Now it's not. He was the only survivor

02:15among nine men on board. He crawled out of the wreckage 70 feet before the helicopter

02:22exploded. A second helicopter took him to a field hospital where the chaplain read him

02:28his last rites. And then he made a miraculous recovery. He earned the Silver Star, fittingly,

02:36for his bravery that day. General Stackpole retired in 1994 after nearly 40 years on active

02:42duty, but then he continued serving his country, as so many do. In 1998, he became the first

02:49president of this organization, and he helped build this institution into the intellectual

02:55powerhouse that it is today. Even just seeing the photos in the hallway on the way in showed

03:01the reach of what this institution does is critically important. So I would like to give

03:06a special thanks to his wife, Mrs. Vivian Stackpole, who is here with us this morning.

03:21Thank you to you and your husband for your decades of serving together, particularly

03:28here in the Indo-Pacific. As every military family knows, no warrior serves alone. There's

03:35always a family alongside, who oftentimes sometimes have an even more difficult job

03:40because you don't really know what your loved one is doing, and yet you support them all

03:45the way, as you did. And thank you to the audience around the world for the opportunity

03:49to speak with you about how the Department of Defense views this region. This is my first

03:56time addressing military and civilian leaders in the Indo-Pacific as the Secretary of Defense.

04:03Many of you graduated from our premier forum for studying the Indo-Pacific and for building

04:07ties among national security leaders who are engaged in this region. Our relationships

04:14and our teamwork form the foundation of achieving peace through strength. President Donald Trump

04:22has made it clear that we will achieve peace through strength through an America first

04:27approach. But America first does not mean America only or America alone, ignoring allies

04:37and partners. It means that our military-to-military relationships must make sense for the United

04:45States and for our friends. Where there are imbalances, we will fix them. We will find

04:51them and we are going to fix those imbalances. We will right-size the obligations and responsibilities

04:58needed for modern deterrence and defense, which is a large part of the conversation

05:04the Admiral and my team had yesterday. In some cases, it will require even greater attention

05:09to the partnerships that matter the most. And our alliances and partnerships in the

05:14Indo-Pacific matter a great deal to the United States. They matter because the Indo-Pacific

05:23is the region of consequence. I've tried to demonstrate that with calls to Australia,

05:31Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, India, Thailand, Singapore, and many others in my

05:35first days as Secretary of Defense. I specifically and our team directed those of the folks we

05:42want to call first to send the signals of where our focus will be to establish peace

05:50through strength. And with this first trip to the Indo-Pacific, and there will be many

05:55more, I'm making stops in the Philippines and Japan after a stopover in Guam as well.

06:02But to reiterate, I'm here today because the President has given me and the American people

06:07gave him the mandate to achieve peace through strength. And we're going to do that in three

06:12ways, as the Admiral mentioned. Restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding our military,

06:18and reestablishing deterrence. By restoring the warrior ethos, U.S. forces assigned to

06:24the Indo-Pacific will be the best trained and best equipped in the world. We've seen

06:30great signals in the Pentagon as well, with recruiting numbers at historic levels across

06:35the forces, as America's young men and women are responding to the leadership of President

06:41Trump and want to serve in record numbers in uniform. And we know our opponents are

06:48taking notice. Number two, we're going to rebuild our military by optimizing the Department

06:53of Defense and the U.S. Defense Industrial Base to rapidly and responsibly deliver the

07:01right tools to our warfighters in real time. And we will also deliver those tools rapidly

07:09and responsibly to our allies and to our partners. There are many opportunities for our defense

07:16industries to collaborate. And I'm going to press hard to expand capacity and accelerate

07:21deliveries. I can tell you every MOD, Minister of Defense, and others that I speak to brings

07:28up foreign military sales and our ability to deliver those capabilities front and center

07:32in those conversations. I was recently with the Commander-in-Chief who reiterated that

07:36as a priority of his from the White House. FMF, FMS, the opportunity to get systems in

07:42the hands of our allies and partners is a priority of this administration that we're

07:47focusing on at this moment. I know this center has also been focused on supply chain security

07:54for our weapons systems. When you look at the charts and you understand where too many

07:59things are sourced from, you understand the complications that come with that reality.

08:06You've also been studying how we can co-produce and co-sustain our platforms and munitions

08:11with partners who choose to work with us. So, Suzy, please keep up the great work. We

08:18need it. It is more important than ever. And finally, as we reestablish deterrence,

08:26our charge is simple. We will work with our allies and our partners to deter the communist

08:34Chinese and their aggression in the Indo-Pacific. Full stop. By standing shoulder to shoulder

08:42with you, our allies and partners, we will put our enemies, our adversaries, those who

08:49stand against us on notice. Each ally, each partner, each friend contributes their own

08:54unique capabilities to regional deterrence. A renewed focus on deterrence creates advantages

09:03for ourselves, our partners, and our allies. And it also does this while creating dilemmas,

09:11which is a lot of what we talk about, dilemmas for our adversaries. Our mission is to deter

09:18war. But if necessary, we will together defeat and destroy our enemies. None of this is new.

09:31This is the business that we are in. President Trump's vision for a free and open

09:37Indo-Pacific is as true today as it was when he first laid it out in Vietnam in 2017. It's

09:43a vision in which all countries prosper side by side as sovereign, independent states.

09:51It's a vision in which the United States remains engaged with and invested in and focused on

09:58truly the Indo-Pacific. It's a vision in which our allies and partners are at the forefront

10:05of deterring aggression.

10:08To paraphrase the President, I say to all of you who are here with me today and listening

10:14from around the region, we have been friends, partners, and allies for a long time. And

10:22we will remain friends, partners, and allies for a long time to come. But I need, we need

10:30each and every one of our friends and partners and our allies to do their part as well, to

10:41be force multipliers alongside the United States of America. That has to be a two-way

10:48street. So let us today, through this institution, through our work at Indo-PACOM, recommit ourselves

10:55to that. Recommit ourselves to reestablishing deterrence in the Indo-Pacific and to achieving

11:01peace through strength by working together, building credible warfighting capabilities,

11:08and by doing our part for the peace that we all long for.

11:15In closing, no one should question the resolve of the United States of America to defend

11:23our interests in the Indo-Pacific and beyond. We will do this through the deterrent power

11:31of the strongest, most effective, most lethal fighting force in the world. And that is something

11:39this administration is committed to in every capacity. Just last week, I was in the Oval

11:45Office standing next to President Trump when he announced the new sixth generation fighter,

11:52the F-47, the most capable, most lethal, longest range, most stealth fighter jet the world

12:03has ever seen. I said to him and I say to you now, I believe my kids and my grandkids

12:08will thank him for having the willingness to make that choice and invest in a platform

12:14of that strategic significance, which is needed specifically in this part of the world to

12:20continue to maintain deterrence, I hope. And I believe that message was sent.

12:29Supported by and in partnership with capable, like-minded allies and partners, I believe

12:35the 21st century, this century we live in right now, can be and should be and will be

12:41an American-led, freedom-loving century. That is truly what is at stake.

12:48So it�s great to meet so many of you here in person and even many more watching virtually

12:54online. I want to thank you for what you do. I want to thank you for your time. And I wish

12:59Godspeed always to our warriors. Thank you very much.

Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth Speaks To Troops In Hawaii Amidst Ever-Growing Signal Group Chat Leak Scandal

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