In deeply moving remarks today at a press briefing, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recounted how families of soldiers fallen in the war against Iran urged him to “finish the job.”
“Yesterday at Dover Air Force Base, President Trump, the chairman [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine] and I stood in solemn silence as heroes came home,” Hegseth began. “Flag-draped caskets. We honored them. We grieved with their families. And we listened.”
“What I heard through tears, through hugs, through strength, and through unbreakable resolve, was the same from family after family,” he continued. “They said, ‘Finish this. Honor their sacrifice. Do not waver. Do not stop. Until the job is done.’”
“My response, along with that of the president, was simple,” he said. “‘Of course, we will finish this. We will honor their sacrifice.’ Their sacrifice only steels our commitment.”
Hegseth then recalled a personal hero to him: “I wear this bracelet: Staff Sergeant Jorge Oliveira. He was one of my specialists in Guantanamo Bay. He deployed later to Afghanistan, where he was killed on 19 October 2011. Killed 10 years after 9-11, 15 years ago. One of the 1%. The best of America, not just a Guardsman, but a law enforcement officer back home and a family man. I remember him every day, just like so many other men and women of our generation and previous generations who wear bracelets like this. Just as we will always remember those lost in this conflict. Their names are now etched into our mission and into the soul of a grateful nation.”
“Yesterday’s ceremony reminded us why we fight,” he declared. “Not for nation building or democracy promotion, but to crush direct threats to America, Americans, and our interests. We fight to win. And we are winning, on our terms, following our objectives.”
He turned even more personal: “My 13-year-old son popped into my office last night while I was editing these remarks. He asked about the war and the families I met at Dover. And I looked at him and I said, ‘They died for you, son. So that your generation doesn’t have to deal with a nuclear Iran.’ It’s the truth. And they did.”
In a stirring peroration, he concluded, “So to the families who said ‘Finish this,’ we will. And I say the same to every American who wants peace through strength. May Almighty God continue to bless our troops in this fight. And again, to the American people, please pray for them, every day on bended knee with your family, in your schools, in your churches, in the name of Jesus Christ. To the troops: Keep going. And Godspeed.”
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