Democrats thought they were going to be able to get Pete Hegseth in the crosshairs and then do serious damage to him and to Republicans for having nominated him.
Boy, were they wrong.
Hegseth was great. Not just good — but great. Iconically great.
Yesterday, in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Democrat after Democrat lined up to attack him, particularly on his personal life. And Hegseth weathered it like a champ. He came back at them when they made particularly stupid statements, and he said some things that needed to be said.
This is a very different Secretary of Defense nominee. Not only did Hegseth actually serve in the infantry, not only is he a graduate of Harvard and Princeton who is quite bright, but Hegseth also has the perspective of the guy on the ground doing the fighting. He is not a political general who&#8217;s elevated through the ranks for being able to get along with his superiors.
That&#8217;s not who Hegseth is. He&#8217;s an outsider who&#8217;s being brought in to shake things up, because guess what? The Department of Defense needs a good shaking-up. 
He said a lot of things yesterday. Many of them were quite wonderful.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2117-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
He was questioned about his adherence, for example, to the Geneva Conventions and questioned about his comments that American war fighters have to be given the ability to actually win. He <a href="https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1879215208306266206" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>, “We are a country that fights by the rule of law and our men and women always do,” he said. “And yet we have too many people here in air-conditioned offices that like to point fingers at the guys in dark and dangerous places, the gals in helicopters in enemy territory who are doing things that people in Washington, D.C. would never dare to do.”
That is exactly right. The Department of Defense should be about destroying the enemy. The attempt of so many on the Left to hamstring our ability to win wars — using every tool at their disposal, including warfare — is awful, and Hegseth is going to put an end to it.
Hegseth talked about diversity, equity, and inclusion, about the lowering of standards in order to “diversify” the American military.
He said that being good at your job should matter. These are basic notions. The fact the Democratic Party abandoned all this is why they just got shellacked in the elections.
He <a href="https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1879204541423329345" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>, “In those ground combat roles, what is true is that the weight of the ruck on your back doesn&#8217;t change; the weight of the 155 round that you have to carry doesn&#8217;t change; the weight of the 240 Bravo machine gun you might have to carry doesn&#8217;t change.
And so whether it&#8217;s a man or a woman, they have to meet the same high standards. And senator, in any place where those things have been eroded or in courses [where] criteria have been changed in order to meet quotas, racial quotas or gender quotas, that is putting a focus on something other than readiness, standards, meritocracy, and lethality.”
This is such common sense. That is why he&#8217;s going to make an excellent Secretary of Defense. We are no longer going to have General Mark Milley talking about the problems of white rage and how diversity is our greatest strength. It turns out the greatest strength of the military is effectiveness and lethality, its ability to kill the bad guys and pursue American interests.
That also means thinning out the ranks of the political generals. Asked about the staff numbers exploding, Hegseth <a href="https://x.com/charliekirk11/status/1879220429472292905">responded</a>:
<blockquote>We&#8217;re going to address that. We won World War II with seven four-star generals. Today we have 44 four-star generals. There&#8217;s an inverse relationship between the size of staffs and victory on the battlefield. We don&#8217;t need more bureaucracy at the top. We need more warfighters empowered at the bottom. So it&#8217;s going to be my job working with those that we hire and those inside the administration to identify those places where fat can be cut so it can go toward lethality. </blockquote>
Of course he’s right. He also said that you don&#8217;t get to lose wars and keep your job. “Everybody in this room knows if you&#8217;re a rifleman and you lose your rifle, they&#8217;re throwing the book at you,” he <a href="https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1879214299501220221" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>. “But if you&#8217;re a general who loses a war, you get a promotion. That&#8217;s not going to happen in Donald Trump&#8217;s Pentagon. There will be real standards for success. Everyone from the top, from the most senior general to the most lowly private — we’ll ensure that they&#8217;re treated fairly.”
Totally correct.
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One of the things Hegseth has going for him is not only his military background and the fact he&#8217;s very bright, but he also happens to be incredibly telegenic. He was a TV star, which means he is great on TV and knows how to speak in front of a crowd.
“Unlike the current administration, politics should play no part in military matters,” he <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/news/live-blog/pete-hegseth-senate-confirmation-hearing-live-updates-rcna187033" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declared</a>. “We are not Republicans. We are not Democrats. We are American warriors. Our standards will be high and they will be equal, not equitable. That&#8217;s a very different word.”
This is all great. He was asked about foreign policy and <a href="https://x.com/EYakoby/status/1879199280927498752" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>, “I support Israel destroying and killing every last member of Hamas.”
Right again.
This is the right man for the job.
You couldn’t find anyone who understands what is needed better than Pete Hegseth.

Senate Armed Services Committee Holds Confirmation Hearing For Pete Hegseth

War Fighter: Hegseth Stuns Democrats At Confirmation Hearing

Cabinet

Democrats

Department of Defense

Donald Trump

Opinion

Pete Hegseth

U.S. Army

U.S. Military

U.S. Navy

U.S. Senate

It now appears to be all but certain that Pete Hegseth will be confirmed as the next Secretary of Defense. Republican leaders in the Senate have said as much. And it&#8217;s not hard to see why that&#8217;s the case. After weeks of telling us that Hegseth is unqualified for the job, Democrats spent several hours trying — and utterly failing —  to land a single meaningful blow against his nomination.
Instead, Hegseth came across as a Christian who&#8217;s very aware of his own past personal failings, but he was also able to put those failings in context. Under the leadership of former Raytheon board member Lloyd Austin, the Pentagon carried out political purges in the military. It oversaw a catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan. It terminated thousands of soldiers who didn&#8217;t want to take the experimental COVID shot. Those are colossal failings that no one in the Pentagon has ever atoned for. Pete Hegseth is not a perfect man. Who is? But he is a saint compared to the people who ran the old regime. And after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hegseth-kicks-ass-confirm-him-now" target="_blank" rel="noopener">yesterday&#8217;s hearing</a>, no reasonable person can deny that.
Throughout the hearing, Democrats discredited themselves, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/talking-points-assemble-democrat-women-launch-dishonest-but-coordinated-attack-in-hegseth-hearing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one after another</a>, with botched gotcha-moments and non-sequiturs. And the optics could not have been worse, as women kept screaming at Hegseth, all while trying to make the argument that women are just as capable of serving in combat roles as men. If there was a way to weaponize nagging so that you could literally nag your enemies to death, they may have a point. These women could create a weapon of mass nagging destruction and kill thousands of enemy combatants at once, if that was possible.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mws-ep-1515-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
Before we get into that particular part of the hearing, it&#8217;s important to set the stage with some of the many blunders I&#8217;m referring to.
Here for example is Senator Gary Peters of Michigan, attempting to make the point that Hegseth has no business running the Defense Department, because he has never, &#8220;driven innovation&#8221; in any organization in his life. Here&#8217;s how that went:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="001 Peters gotcha" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wD_wP3ynsTM?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
Obviously, he asked a question he didn&#8217;t know the answer to. That&#8217;s the first mistake. He then made it clear that didn&#8217;t really care about the answer to his question, either. And total humiliation was the result.
Even aside from that, what&#8217;s extraordinary about his question is that Lloyd Austin had exactly the kind of experience that Gary Peters is talking about. Austin was in charge of the war effort in both Iraq and Afghanistan for many years. According to Democrats in Congress, that made Austin qualified to be Secretary of Defense — even though both of those wars ended in complete disaster. This is what &#8220;box-checking&#8221; looks like. These people cannot comprehend the idea of hiring someone who hasn&#8217;t made money in the defense industry, and who hasn&#8217;t overseen two failed wars. They see that as a mark against Hegseth, instead of the primary reason to confirm him.
Not to be outdone, there was Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, coming in hot with his own takedown. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="003 jagoff" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PrVVZnySgUg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The implication is that Pete Hegseth is a terrible guy because he&#8217;s used the word &#8220;jagoff&#8221; in the past. I think that Hegseth throwing around insults like that does open him up to the charge of being a Boomer. I’m not sure it says anything more than that, however. Then, when Hegseth answers the question, Jack Reed looks stunned. One might even say he looked like a jagoff.
I do want to highlight one moment of substantive discussion, however, to the extent anything in this hearing could be described as &#8220;substantive.&#8221; Several senators took turns berating Hegseth over his stance on women in the military. In particular, Hegseth says he’s generally fine with women in combat roles, but at a minimum, he wants the fitness standards to be equal across genders. Effectively, as I&#8217;ll explain in a moment, that actually means he doesn&#8217;t want women to serve in combat roles. You aren’t going to say it as directly as that in a hearing like this, because the whole point is that you need to be confirmed. If Hegseth had just come out and said plainly that he doesn’t want any women in combat, that would have given squishy Republicans all the excuse they need to not confirm him. So instead he focused on the fitness requirements, which was strategically smart.
In response to his position on fitness requirements, various senators adopted the bizarre (and clearly false) position that the standards between men and women in the military are already the same. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="008 Pete Hegseth Response" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VzQnY2jdJqM?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Before we look at Hegseth&#8217;s response to this line of question, it&#8217;s important to point out that nothing Kirsten Gillibrand just said is true. The standards of physical fitness, across every branch of the armed forces, are much lower for women than they are for men. 
Let&#8217;s start with the fitness requirements at the Navy.
<div id="attachment_859191" style="width: 798px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-859191" class="wp-image-859191 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/xLUFoxE-Imgur-788x576.png" alt="Navy Physical Readiness Program. Guide 5. Physical Readiness Test (PRT). January 2023." width="788" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/xLUFoxE-Imgur-788x576.png 788w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/xLUFoxE-Imgur-300x219.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/xLUFoxE-Imgur-768x562.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/xLUFoxE-Imgur.png 971w" sizes="(max-width: 788px) 100vw, 788px" />Navy Physical Readiness Program. Guide 5. Physical Readiness Test (PRT). January 2023.</div>
As you can see, their physical readiness test <a href="https://www.mynavyhr.navy.mil/Portals/55/Support/Culture%20Resilience/Physical/Guide_5-Physical_Readiness_Test_PRT_JAN_2023.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">consists</a> of some variation of push-ups, forearm planks, a 1.5 mile run and a 500-yard swim. So let&#8217;s take the run as an example — which by the way, the Navy refers to as a &#8220;Run/walk&#8221; section, because they expect applicants won&#8217;t be able to run the full distance.
For men aged 17 to 19, a &#8220;satisfactory&#8221; time on the 1.5 mile run is 12 minutes and 15 seconds. For women in the same age group, a &#8220;satisfactory time&#8221; is 14 minutes and 45 seconds. So they get a full 2 minutes and 30 second extra to complete this run. And by the way, you can technically get even worse times than this, and still pass — because there&#8217;s a whole &#8220;probationary&#8221; level below &#8220;satisfactory.&#8221;
For push-ups, the difference is even more stark. Men aged 17 to 19 have to hit 46 pushups for a &#8220;satisfactory&#8221; rank. Women only need to hit 20. Meanwhile, the minimum &#8220;outstanding&#8221; score for men is 86 pushups, while it&#8217;s only 47 pushups for women.
If you go to the Army&#8217;s website, you&#8217;ll find similar numbers across their <a href="https://www.army.mil/acft/">physical fitness test</a>.
<div id="attachment_859193" style="width: 650px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-859193" class="wp-image-859193 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/tpgAQ93-Imgur-640x576.png" alt="Courtesy U.S. Army. https://www.army.mil/acft/" width="640" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/tpgAQ93-Imgur-640x576.png 640w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/tpgAQ93-Imgur-300x270.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/tpgAQ93-Imgur-768x691.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/tpgAQ93-Imgur.png 1016w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" />Courtesy U.S. Army. https://www.army.mil/acft/</div>
This is the &#8220;Sprint, drag, carry&#8221; test, for example. It&#8217;s a test that obviously has a lot of relevance to people who want to serve in the Army, in case they need to carry a wounded soldier — and not blame them for being wounded, as they do in the Los Angeles Fire Department. As you can see, men get max points if they finish the test in one minute, 29 seconds. Women get max points if they finish it in one minute, 55 seconds. So they get an additional 26 seconds to &#8220;sprint, drag and carry&#8221; someone.
Just to underscore the real-world consequences of this kind of gender-based testing, <a href="https://x.com/thespearing/status/1879301761082782078" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here&#8217;s a post</a> from someone named Nathan Spearing:
<blockquote>In 2005, I was 22 and had one of the top PT scores in my platoon in Ranger Battalion. One night, one of my mates was shot and completely immobilized. I worked with a small group of men to get him to the casualty evacuation point, while our platoon continued the raid. Dragging him through the streets of Iraq that night I felt like I&#8217;d never worked out in my life. I was one of the most physically fit men in an elite light infantry unit and this combat related task took me well beyond my physical capacities. Women shouldn&#8217;t do these jobs ever. They can&#8217;t without endangering the mission and the men around them.</blockquote>
The military appears to be fine with that. The Air Force, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard and even the Space Force have similar arrangements. Here for example is the Coast Guard&#8217;s breakdown of <a href="https://www.dcms.uscg.mil/Portals/10/CG-1/cg133/pdf/Boat_Crew_Fitness_Test.pdf?ver=2019-08-01-083908-503">fitness standards</a>, explicitly aligned with men on top, and women on the bottom:
<div id="attachment_859195" style="width: 767px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-859195" class="wp-image-859195 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/wFKTyXd-Imgur-757x576.png" alt="Courtesy: U.S. Coast Guard physical fitness standards. https://www.dcms.uscg.mil/Portals/10/CG-1/cg133/pdf/Boat_Crew_Fitness_Test.pdf?ver=2019-08-01-083908-503 " width="757" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/wFKTyXd-Imgur-757x576.png 757w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/wFKTyXd-Imgur-300x228.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/wFKTyXd-Imgur-768x585.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/wFKTyXd-Imgur.png 846w" sizes="(max-width: 757px) 100vw, 757px" />Courtesy: U.S. Coast Guard physical fitness standards.</div>
As you can see, men need to do 29 push-ups if they&#8217;re under 30 years old. Women only need to do 15. Meanwhile, over in the <a href="https://www.marines.com/become-a-marine/requirements/physical-fitness.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Marines</a>, men need to do three pull-ups or 34 push-ups in 2 minutes, while women only have to do 1 pull-up or 15 push-ups in the same time period.
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I could go on, but you get the point. There is nothing &#8220;gender-neutral&#8221; about the fitness standards for any branch of the armed services. This is not up for debate. It can&#8217;t be disputed. It is simply a fact that standards are lowered for women, and that’s been the case for decades now. It’s also a fact that the standards for men have also been lowered. There has been an effort to get more women into the military, and also less fit men. These two goals are obviously related to each other. In truth, 46 pushups is not satisfactory for a grown man who wants to join the military. For the Coast Guard the number is 29, which is downright pathetic. We should expect a lot more of the people who are tasked with defending this country from its enemies.
But what Gillibrand was saying is that, at the urging of Congress, certain specialties — like the infantry — have adopted their own, independent &#8220;gender-neutral standards&#8221; on top of the basic requirements. But that hasn&#8217;t been going well, either.
As the Army Times <a href="https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2022/03/23/army-combat-fitness-test-debuts-with-major-changes-to-scoring-april-1/">reported</a> in 2022: 
<blockquote>The Army is moving forward with its long-awaited Army Combat Fitness Test this year, but the service has officially dropped the test’s attempt to set a gender- and age-neutral physical fitness standard &#8230; The leg tuck is no longer an event. &#8230; A 2.5-mile walk has been added as an alternate aerobic event for troops whose medical profiles prevent them from running. &#8230; A total of 48% of active duty enlisted women and 28% of active duty female officers could not pass the test.</blockquote>
In other words, they tried to make the test &#8220;gender-neutral,&#8221; and women kept failing it. So they responded by gutting the test, and making it a lot easier. And after all that, it&#8217;s still not &#8220;gender-neutral.&#8221;
In his answer to Kirsten Gillibrand, Pete Hegseth attempted to make these points. He also outlined his own first-hand observation of lowered standards in the military. And Kirsten Gillibrand responded by shrieking at him:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="004 Gillibrand" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KqsT2jlCVj0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
This was the theme of the hearing: Democrats demand an answer, they get one they don&#8217;t like, so they start screaming.
The truth, obviously, is that if men and women were held to the same standard in the military, there wouldn&#8217;t be any women in the military. Pete Hegseth may not want to say that out loud at a confirmation hearing — which makes sense — but it&#8217;s the truth. Including women in the military necessitates, by definition, lowering the standard. That&#8217;s why I say we should raise the standard for everyone, make it the same for everyone, and then let the chips fall where they may. The inevitable result is that they&#8217;ll fall on an all-male fighting force, which is how it should be.
Of course, even aside from the fact that women can&#8217;t do the job as well, they shouldn&#8217;t be serving in combat regardless. A functional society does not send women out to die on the battlefield. They are not equipped for it, physically or psychologically. But our government has been denying this basic fact for years. 
A decade ago, when the defense secretary at the time opened up all combat roles to women, he said, &#8220;They’ll be allowed to drive tanks, fire mortars and lead infantry soldiers into combat.&#8221; He made that seem like it was a sign of great progress. But it’s a sign of decay, not progress. It’s also a sign that we’re going to lose the next major war we’re a part of, unless we turn back from this madness. And after yesterday&#8217;s confirmation hearing, finally, it seems like we&#8217;ll have a defense secretary who understands that.

Confirmation Hearing Held For Secretary Of Defense Nominee Pete Hegseth

Nagging Democrats Shriek At Pete Hegseth During Confirmation Hearing

Gary Peters

Kirsten Gillibrand

My Old Home

The Battle Of Luzon, Part 4: Victory And Aftermath

American General

Douglas MacArthur

History

Japan

Pacific Ocean

Philippines

World War II

To truly appreciate the tragedy that unfolded in Manila in 1945, one must consider that up until then the city had been nicknamed “The Pearl of the Orient.” Historian James Scott offers: “In the four decades leading up to World War II, Manila developed into a small slice of America in Asia, home not only to thousands of U.S. service members, but employees of companies like General Electric, Del Monte, and B.F. Goodrich. The city boasted a great quality of life, with department stores and social clubs, golf courses and swimming pools, all in a tropical setting, and at a fraction of the cost of living in the United States.”
Then in December 1941, the Japanese came.
Filthy, ragged, half-starved U.S. prisoners were paraded through the streets of Manila after their 1942 surrender. The sight of their more physically imposing former protectors being ignominiously herded along by diminutive Japanese soldiers was disillusioning. “Filipinos stood and watched in an agony of embarrassment,” recalled Manila journalist Nick Joaquin. “These were the God blessed Americans, supposedly invincible. Now here they were: mighty giants being herded rudely by little Jap soldiers. We would never recover from that loss of innocence.”
For the unlucky POWs, however, their three-year nightmare of criminally sadistic captivity was just beginning. 3,700 U.S. civilians were also caught up in the invasion; they would languish in the Santo Tomas Internment Camp, where they desperately ate dogs, cats, pigeons, rats, insects, anything to survive. On the eve of their liberation, the civilian prisoners starved to death at a rate of three to four per day. (MacArthur’s Philippine guerilla network informed him of this, hence his relentless drive to keep moving).
Believing their new Filipino subjects to be an inferior race, the Emperor’s troops had no qualms about looting food supplies and stores, while stealing vital farm equipment which left fields to rot. By the third year of Japanese occupation — with the exception of Japan’s puppet Filipino government officials and collaborators — starvation was rampant, killing some 500 civilians per day. Hordes of beggars roamed the streets; some went so far as to dig up graves to rob jewelry, watches, anything that could be bartered for a fistful of rice. Parents unable to feed their children might abandon or even sell them. (U.S. intelligence reported that by 1944, it cost less to buy a Filipino child than a hog).
<div id="attachment_856933" style="width: 719px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856933" class="wp-image-856933 " src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/SC-202168-710x576.jpeg" alt="General MacArthur visits the ruins of the Manila hotel that was his pre-war home on Luzon, 23 February 1945. He is accompanied by Colonel James Corbett and two infantrymen, one armed with an M1 rifle. Photograph from the Army Signal Corps Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Naval History and Heritage Command." width="709" height="575" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/SC-202168-710x576.jpeg 710w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/SC-202168-300x243.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/SC-202168.jpeg 740w" sizes="(max-width: 709px) 100vw, 709px" />General MacArthur visits the ruins of the Manila hotel that was his pre-war home on Luzon, 23 February 1945. National Archives. Naval History and Heritage Command.</div>
On February 3, 1945, U.S. troops entered the capital. But they did not find an open city. Instead they faced a fortified urban center they would have to take block-by-block, street-by-street, even house-by-house. This came as a rude shock to their five-star commander. Having thoroughly outmaneuvered his enemy, MacArthur expected there to be few if any Japanese left in the area. Other than its sprawling port facilities, which could be demolished before evacuation to deny them to the Americans, the city held no strategic value, as MacArthur himself concluded in 1941 when he abandoned Manila for the more defensible jungle terrain of Bataan, declaring it an open city. Therefore, the notion that Yamashita, a first-rate commander, would choose to defend Manila perplexed him — and then, as the destruction and carnage mounted, infuriate him. But MacArthur’s assumptions had been correct; the Tiger of Malaya had no intention of fighting for the Philippine capital. 
Yamashita, however, was dealing with a problem that plagued the Japanese High Command throughout the war. That was the intense rivalry, even downright disdain, between the Imperial Army and Navy top brass. In the case of Manila, while Yamashita pulled most of his army troops out of the city before it was surrounded, some 20,000 Japanese sailors under the command of Rear Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi remained behind to destroy Manila’s harbor.
Although still technically under Yamashita’s command, Iwabuchi and his men didn’t see it that way. They vowed to make a stand, spending the weeks prior to the enemy’s arrival throwing up hasty fortifications, sowing landmines, constructing pillboxes and tank traps. When the Americans approached, the Japanese in the besieged capital opted to get drunk and fight to the death. 
And the atrocities began.
<div id="attachment_856963" style="width: 717px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856963" class="wp-image-856963 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-273406-707x576.jpeg" alt="Liberation of Manila, 1945. Stretcher party brings out a wounded U.S. soldier, following an attack by U.S. troops to liberate Filipino prisoners in the walled city, 23 February 1945. Note wrecked buildings. Catalog #: 80-G-273406. National Archives. Naval History and Heritage Command." width="707" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-273406-707x576.jpeg 707w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-273406-300x244.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-273406-768x626.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-273406.jpeg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 707px) 100vw, 707px" />Stretcher party brings out a wounded U.S. soldier, following an attack by U.S. troops to liberate Filipino prisoners in the walled city, 23 February 1945. National Archives. Naval History and Heritage Command.</div>
In a mid-February letter to his wife, Gen. Eichelberger wrote with grim understatement, “I hear the big parade has been called off.” In fact, it would have been impossible to march down any Manila street as no thoroughfare would be free of debris and corpses, mostly civilians. By the time the last shot was fired, the Pearl of the Orient would be reduced to a smoldering heap of rubble, whose gutters ran red with the blood of innocents.
It is impossible to adequately describe the horrors the Filipinos endured. Men were bound and shot, bayoneted or mutilated en masse, while patients were strapped to hospital beds before the buildings were set ablaze. Females of every age were brutally gang-raped before being systematically murdered. Babies were tossed in the air and skewered on bayonets by sadistic Japanese who smeared the children’s eyeballs on walls like jelly.
Filipina survivor Carmen Guerrero Nakpil remembered: “It was like a scene from hell. We were running like rats. I saw my classmates dragged through the streets to be raped by the Japanese in the Bayview Hotel. I saw my neighbors cut down by sniper bullets. The killing was terrible.”
<div id="attachment_856917" style="width: 708px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856917" class="size-large wp-image-856917" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3139974-698x576.jpg" alt="20th March 1945: American soldiers watching as refugees pick their way through the debris of North Manila, after safely arriving in the American held part of the city while fighting continues elsewhere. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)" width="698" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3139974-698x576.jpg 698w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3139974-300x248.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3139974-768x634.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3139974.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 698px) 100vw, 698px" />20th March 1945: American soldiers watching as refugees pick their way through the debris of North Manila, after safely arriving in the American held part of the city while fighting continues elsewhere. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)</div>
When the Japanese burst into the LaSalle chapel, Jose and Juanita Carlos were hiding in the cellar with their children. Jose was dragged off and killed. Then they came back for the rest of the family. Sixteen-year-old Dionisia was bayoneted until unconscious. When she came too she looked for her family. She found her mother and nine-year-old sister and six-year-old brother bayoneted to death, and her nineteen-year-old sister shot dead.
Although it has been claimed that it was a spontaneous eruption of violence against the Filipinos upon whom rogue Imperial troops took out their rage for siding with the Americans (and fear as death closed in), captured Japanese records show that, as with Nanking, the massacre was officially sanctioned, even encouraged. One order went so far as to give explicit instructions on how to commit mass murder: “When Filipinos are to be killed, they must be gathered into one place and disposed of with the consideration that ammunition and manpower must not be used to excess. Because the disposal of dead bodies is a troublesome task, they should be gathered into houses which are scheduled to be burned or demolished. They should also be thrown into the river.”
And yet, throughout the carnage of what has been called the “Pacific Stalingrad”, courageous Filipinos risked their lives braving sniper fire and shell bursts to fill canteens and bring ammunition and food to the Americans hunkered down in the wreckage.
<div id="attachment_856915" style="width: 736px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856915" class="size-large wp-image-856915" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3241992-726x576.jpg" alt="February 1945: A Filipino guerrilla fighting Japanese forces of occupation in Manila. Lacking a tripod for his machine-gun, he has tied the weapon to a fire hydrant. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)" width="726" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3241992-726x576.jpg 726w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3241992-300x238.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3241992-768x609.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3241992.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 726px) 100vw, 726px" />February 1945: A Filipino guerrilla fighting Japanese forces of occupation in Manila. Lacking a tripod for his machine-gun, he has tied the weapon to a fire hydrant. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)</div>
Despite MacArthur’s repeated calls for the Japanese to surrender, they resisted with suicidal desperation while the American commander anguished over the destruction of the once beautiful city. GIs accustomed to fighting in jungles and beaches had to quickly learn the ways of deadly urban warfare, in which every floor of every building, every stairwell, even closets, were bitterly contested. It was a brutal, often hand-to-hand, form of combat the likes of which had not been seen in the Pacific before, made all the more difficult by the number of civilians.
The Americans, wielding rifles, grenades, satchel charges, flamethrowers, sometimes even rocks and spades, eventually cornered the remaining Japanese in the one-quarter-square-mile fortress of Intramuros, whose walls, twenty-five feet high and forty feet thick, had withstood maritime raiders and earthquakes since the 1570s. General Kenney wanted to bomb the citadel, but MacArthur, aware that many civilians were trapped within, denied his requests, especially the use of napalm. But he did allow the big guns to fire on the holdouts. (In the end, the shelling was so destructive it didn’t really matter.) Eventually the guns breached the walls and the Japanese, including the recalcitrant Iwabuchi, were wiped out or committed ritual suicide.
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With tactics in the capable hands of his field commanders, MacArthur set out to visit the liberated Santo Tomas and Bilibid prison camps. The conditions of the internees horrified him. He was especially moved by the military captives at Bilibid, who made pathetic attempts to stand at attention. In his memoirs he wrote: “Here was all that was left of my men of Bataan and Corregidor…As I passed slowly down the scrawny, suffering column, a murmur accompanied me as each man barely speaking above a whisper, said ‘You’re back,’ or ‘You made it’…I could only reply, ‘I’m a little late, but we finally came.’”
<div id="attachment_856923" style="width: 934px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856923" class="size-large wp-image-856923" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-563522359-924x576.jpg" alt="American soldiers who were part of the liberation of the Japanese Bilibid POW camp stop to talk with two internees who had been in the prison camp for two years, Manila, Philippines, February 11, 1945. (Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images)" width="924" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-563522359-924x576.jpg 924w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-563522359-300x187.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-563522359-768x479.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-563522359.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 924px) 100vw, 924px" />American soldiers who were part of the liberation of the Japanese Bilibid POW camp stop to talk with two internees who had been in the prison camp for two years, Manila, Philippines, February 11, 1945. (Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images)</div>
By the time the 29-day fight for Manila was over, and every last Japanese killed, the city had been utterly annihilated with some 11,000 buildings reduced to ruins and ash. 70% of the utilities, 75% of the factories, 80% of the southern residential district and the entire business district had been razed. Of all the Allied cities, only Nanking and Warsaw saw such destruction and civilian carnage. No one will ever know for sure but it is estimated that 100,000 Filipinos died at the hands of the enraged Japanese.
On March 4, 1945, Manila was officially declared secured. The smoking Philippine capital had been liberated, but at a horrific cost to the city and its bewildered inhabitants. CBS News correspondent Bill Dunn would reflect on the tragedy, summing up the horrible effects of war: “The Manila of 1941 was a unique Manila, a Manila that had never existed before, a Manila that would never exist again.”
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<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-battle-of-luzon-part-1-climax-of-the-southwest-pacific-war" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED: The Battle Of Luzon, Part 1: Climax Of The Southwest Pacific War</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-battle-of-luzon-part-2-race-to-manila" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED: The Battle Of Luzon, Part 2: Race To Manila</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-battle-of-luzon-part-3-the-massacre-of-manila" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED: The Battle Of Luzon, Part 3: The Massacre Of Manila</a></h3>
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-battle-of-luzon-part-4-victory-and-aftermath" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED: The Battle Of Luzon, Part 4: Victory And Aftermath</a></h3>
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Brad Schaeffer is a commodities fund manager, author, and columnist whose articles have appeared on the pages of The Daily Wire, The Wall Street Journal, NY Post, NY Daily News, National Review, The Hill, The Federalist, Zerohedge, and other outlets. He is the author of three <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD?ccs_id=55112527-86f6-4c89-b82e-a96d6869abed" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD?ccs_id%3D55112527-86f6-4c89-b82e-a96d6869abed&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1736518135479000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3K_WhJtiUZw7LF1PwSIHtH">books</a>. Follow him on <a href="https://bradschaeffer.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://bradschaeffer.substack.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1736518135479000&amp;usg=AOvVaw02hy-lB4UuAlHo7FfD_FIQ">Substack</a> and <a href="https://x.com/bschaeffer123" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/bschaeffer123&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1736518135479000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0P6pRoAqcBhUQ1W0qwN5rH">X/Twitter</a>.
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Manila Harbour

The Battle Of Luzon, Part 3: The Massacre Of Manila

In planning the battle for Luzon, MacArthur would have liked to surprise his waiting opponent. But Yamashita understood that Lingayen Gulf offered the only approach to the central Luzon plain, on which U.S. tanks could maneuver most effectively. It also had the best road and rail networks approaching Manila. Although he initially stationed 36,000 troops to cover the 22 miles of landing beaches, Yamashita conceded that U.S. naval firepower would just scythe his men down on the shoreline. And despite his public bravura, the Japanese commander knew that, with Halsey’s and Kinkaid’s U.S. fleets now masters of the sea, and Kenney’s planes filling the skies, the best he could really hope for was a holding action through a defense in depth to give the home islands time to prepare for the inevitable invasion. 
So, in December 1944, he withdrew his men and headquarters, along with members of Tokyo’s puppet Philippine government, headed by the controversial President José Laurel, into the more defensible terrain around the Philippine summer capital of Baguio, 30 miles east of Lingayen and 150 miles north of Manila.
<div id="attachment_856493" style="width: 750px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856493" class="size-large wp-image-856493" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-59525-740x576.jpg" alt="Battle line entering the Lingayen Gulf. The USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) leads the USS Colorado (BB-45), USS Louisville (CA-28), USS Portland (CA-33), and USS Columbia (CL-56) in a battle line entering the Lingayen Gulf preceding the landing off Luzon in the Philippines in January 1945. Catalog #: 80-G-59525. National Archives &amp; Records Administration." width="740" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-59525-740x576.jpg 740w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-59525-300x233.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-59525-768x598.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-59525.jpg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" />National Archives &amp; Records Administration.</div>
At dawn on January 9, 1945, code-named &#8220;S-Day,&#8221; the enormous U.S. fleet — the largest of any landings in the Pacific and equal to the American contingent at Normandy — lay to in Lingayen Gulf and over 800 anchors splashed into the unusually calm waters. It was an awesome display of U.S. industrial might. At 0700, the big guns of some 70 battleships and cruisers roared, sending shells of all calibers whistling down onto what turned out to be undefended beaches. Beginning at 0930, the first of 175,000 troops of Gen. Walter Krueger’s Sixth Army waded ashore while Gen. Robert Eichelberger’s smaller Eighth Army was held in reserve. 
<div id="attachment_856503" style="width: 722px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856503" class="size-large wp-image-856503" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-507339859-712x576.jpg" alt="Coast Guard-manned landing barges bringing troops to the beaches of Lingayen Gulf during World War Two, Luzon, Philippines, circa January 7th 1945. (Photo by US Coast Guard/Getty Images)" width="712" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-507339859-712x576.jpg 712w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-507339859-300x243.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-507339859-768x621.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-507339859.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 712px) 100vw, 712px" />US Coast Guard/Getty Images</div>
By the end of the day, the GIs would push eight miles inland. Only the occasional Kamikaze air and even suicide boat attacks, with sporadic artillery rounds warbling in from distant enemy gun positions, disturbed the otherwise smooth operations.
Once four of Kruger’s divisions made it ashore and began to press inland, MacArthur left his headquarters on the light cruiser USS Boise and headed in. Filipino peasants waving U.S. and Philippine flags joyfully greeted the Americans, while others raced ahead to spread the word that after over 1,200 days of Japanese rule, MacArthur had returned as promised, and their deliverance was finally at hand.
<div id="attachment_856693" style="width: 725px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856693" class="wp-image-856693 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-304340-715x576.jpeg" alt="Lingayen Gulf Landings, 1945. General Douglas MacArthur and staff leaving USS BOISE (CL-47) on 9 January 1945 to go ashore on the Lingayen Gulf beaches, Luzon Philippine Islands. Catalog #: 80-G-304340. National Archive. Naval History and Heritage Command" width="715" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-304340-715x576.jpeg 715w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-304340-300x242.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-304340-768x619.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-304340.jpeg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 715px) 100vw, 715px" />Lingayen Gulf Landings, 1945. General Douglas MacArthur and staff leaving USS BOISE (CL-47) on 9 January 1945 to go ashore on the Lingayen Gulf beaches, Luzon Philippine Islands. National Archive. Naval History and Heritage Command</div>
The central Luzon plain, the amphitheater in which Krueger’s army would be maneuvering, was roughly 40 miles wide and ran some 110 miles due south from Lingayen to Manila Bay. It was walled in on each side by high, rugged peaks blanketed under a thick layer of jungle vegetation. It provided ideal terrain for flying columns to advance quickly down the fine roads leading to Manila.
MacArthur had earned the epithet “Dugout Dug” on this island in 1942 when he rarely ventured from his headquarters in Corregidor’s Malinta Tunnel to visit the front lines during the bitter struggle to hold Bataan. But now the General was, quite literally, often out in front leading the GIs and tankers in their advance south. No doubt invigorated by the prospect of reaching his beloved city of Manila, he raced around the battlefield in his five-star-studded Jeep like a man decades younger. At one moment he could be found perched on the turret of a tank ascertaining Japanese positions. Other times up in a B-17 watching a parachute jump. Once when confronted by an enemy roadblock and a Nambu machine gun opened up, a flummoxed lieutenant shouted to him, “We’re going after those fellows, but please, sir, get down; we’re under fire!” Another time, while inspecting the lines of the 161st Infantry regiment, they were suddenly attacked by Japanese tanks and the lines buckled. In conduct reminiscent of his days leading the Rainbow Division over the top in the First World War, the highest-ranking general in the Pacific Theater personally rallied the troops who beat back the assault, earning him his third Silver Star.
Although courageous to the point of being reckless, there most likely was a method to MacArthur’s madness. It was to goad the cautious Krueger to move faster as he suspected, correctly, that Yamashita had opted to withdraw into the rugged mountains east of Lingayen to let the Americans come to him in time. Thus, he saw no need for caution. But Krueger feared a screaming host of Japanese might come charging down from the mountains to puncture his left flank, cutting him off from the beachhead to his rear, and, in Romulo’s words, “slicing him up like a pie.” But for a frustrated MacArthur, who justifiably feared Japanese reprisals against POWs and Filipino civilians alike, speed was everything. “Get to Manila!” he exhorted his commanders. “Go around the Japs. Bounce off the Japs. Save your men, but get to Manila!”
<div id="attachment_856567" style="width: 733px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856567" class="wp-image-856567 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-258490-723x576.jpeg" alt="Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, USN, Commander Seventh Fleet, and Lieutenant General Walter Krueger, USA Commander Sixth Army, on board PT-525, off Leyte Island, the Philippines, 23 October 1944. The boat was taking General MacArthur ashore at the time. Catalog #: 80-G-258490. National Archives. Original Date: Mon, Oct 23, 1944. Naval History and Heritage Command." width="723" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-258490-723x576.jpeg 723w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-258490-300x239.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-258490-768x612.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-258490.jpeg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 723px) 100vw, 723px" />Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, USN, Commander Seventh Fleet, and Lieutenant General Walter Krueger, USA Commander Sixth Army, on board PT-525, off Leyte Island, the Philippines, 23 October 1944. National Archives. Naval History and Heritage Command.</div>
While Kruger was directing his Sixth Army in their fight to capture the enormous complex of runways and installations that made up Clark Field, his commander unleashed his reserves in a series of rapid thrusts elsewhere that confounded his Japanese opponent. Due to the Mindoro landing, Yamashita had to contend with the possibility of an attack from the south. So he sent part of his army to shore up defenses below Manila. As such, the landings in Lingayen caught every Japanese column in motion.
On January 31, MacArthur put a division of paratroopers from Eichelberger’s Eighth Army ashore at Nasugbu, 40 miles south of Manila. The landings were virtually unopposed as Col. Masatoshi Fujishige, upon whose shoulders the defense of the area had been entrusted, had placed his troops in defensive positions closer to Mindoro. In a scene reminiscent of the Allied advance through Holland, civilians cheered their American saviors, gifting them with food and spirits, and covering their vehicles in flowers until they resembled victorious Roman chariots.
Meanwhile, the General landed another corps at Subic Bay west of Manila above Bataan, and with minimal losses captured the valuable port of Olongapo while hitting the bewildered Yamashita with another regiment at Mariveles on the southern tip of the peninsula, trapping the Japanese troops in a double envelopment. Bataan, on which the Americans and Filipinos held out for months in 1942, fell in seven days. By the end of January, Manila was surrounded.
The most difficult Japanese nut to crack should have been the 5,000 Imperial soldiers stationed on the island bastion of Corregidor in the mouth of Manila Bay. With exquisite timing, paratroopers descended on the island’s “topside” while GIs stormed the “bottomside” beaches. After a week of fighting, the remaining defenders blew themselves up in the Malinta Tunnel. Although the Japanese lost twice their initial landing force taking the island in 1942, the Americans suffered fewer than 300 KIA (50 in the final explosion).
<div id="attachment_856583" style="width: 759px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856583" class="size-large wp-image-856583" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3225792-749x576.jpg" alt="16th February 1945: American paratroops of the 503rd Regiment (Parachute Regiment) drop on the bomb-shattered terrain of the island of Corregidor in the Philippines. The air warriors quickly seized batteries and defences, clearing the entrance to Manila Bay and opening the harbour to the Allied fleet. (Photo by Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)" width="749" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3225792-749x576.jpg 749w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3225792-300x231.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3225792-768x590.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3225792.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 749px) 100vw, 749px" />Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images</div>
The landings and subsequent race to Manila from all sides had been a remarkable strategic enterprise, which earned the ardent praise of no less an astute observer than Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. George Marshall, who in his report would declare: “Yamashita’s inability to cope with MacArthur’s swift moves, and his desired reaction to the deception measures, combined to place the Japanese in an impossible situation.” The enemy, he went on, “was forced into a piecemeal commitment of his troops” which left the Agno River, a potential major defensive stronghold, lightly defended. MacArthur was able to neutralize Japanese numerical parity by compelling his opponent to split his forces and then scramble to attack with whatever units were in the zone of operations. The General himself would write in his memoirs with typical MacArthur braggadocio (though in this case justified) “Never had such large numbers of troops been so outmaneuvered…and left tactically impotent to take an active part in the final battle.”
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With Clark Field finally in the methodical Krueger’s hands after heavy fighting, as well as engineers clearing out booby traps the Japanese had sewn all over the installation, the Americans from both the north and south were poised to enter the capital.
It was now early February and the 1st Cavalry, the vanguard of 100,000 Americans pouring down Luzon’s main highways while the rest guarded the beachhead, had reached the suburbs of Manila. With the bulk of Yamashita’s forces nullified in the rugged terrain around Baguio, victory was in the air. The triumphant MacArthur, now at the threshold of all he’d been pushing towards for the past three years, was preparing a grand parade through Manila ala the Allies’ triumph down the Champs Élysées. The media celebrated. Newsweek reported: “Prize Of The Pacific, Manila, Fell To MacArthur Like A Ripened Plum!” Time magazine headlined its Philippine story “Victory! Mabuhay!” (Tagalog for “Hurrah!”).
But the headlines were shatteringly premature. In fact, before the fight for Luzon was over, the city of Manila would suffer one of the most cruel and heartbreaking tragedies of the Second World War.
* * *
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* * *
Brad Schaeffer is a commodities fund manager, author, and columnist whose articles have appeared on the pages of The Daily Wire, The Wall Street Journal, NY Post, NY Daily News, National Review, The Hill, The Federalist, Zerohedge, and other outlets. He is the author of three <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD?ccs_id=55112527-86f6-4c89-b82e-a96d6869abed" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD?ccs_id%3D55112527-86f6-4c89-b82e-a96d6869abed&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1736518135479000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3K_WhJtiUZw7LF1PwSIHtH">books</a>. Follow him on <a href="https://bradschaeffer.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://bradschaeffer.substack.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1736518135479000&amp;usg=AOvVaw02hy-lB4UuAlHo7FfD_FIQ">Substack</a> and <a href="https://x.com/bschaeffer123" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/bschaeffer123&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1736518135479000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0P6pRoAqcBhUQ1W0qwN5rH">X/Twitter</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Correction: And earlier version of this article contained a photo of General Douglas MacArthur returning to the Philippines, wading through the water. MacArthur&#8217;s famous return took place in 1944 not in January of 1945. The image has been removed.

80-G-59525

The Battle Of Luzon, Part 2: Race To Manila

Inside the imperial palace in Tokyo, Prime Minister Koiso Kuniaki stood uneasily before his Emperor Hirohito and apologized for the catastrophe that had just befallen his majesty’s army and navy at the hands of the Americans on and around the Philippine island of Leyte. In the fierce land and sea combat that lasted from October 17 to December 24, 1944, the backbone of the Japanese fleet, as well as some 65,000 troops and hundreds of aircraft, were erased from the order of battle. When the Emperor reminded Koiso that he’d promised Leyte would be a repeat of Japan’s 1582 victory at Tennozan, the prime minister sheepishly mumbled that Luzon, not Leyte, would be the Kentai Kessen, “decisive battle,” that would once and for all destroy the Americans and their allies advancing ever closer to the home islands.
Luzon was the main island in the Philippines archipelago, and site of the nation’s capital city Manila. Slightly larger than Cuba, it stretches some 460 miles running north-to-south, and sits roughly equidistant between Japan and Australia. If Japan could not fight off the Americans here and regain the initiative then the sea lanes between the home islands and her vital raw materials in the Dutch East Indies, which had been severed when Leyte was lost, would be forever cut off. And should Luzon fall, only the island bastions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa stood between the Allies and Japan.
<div id="attachment_855787" style="width: 726px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-855787" class="size-large wp-image-855787" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-289537-716x576.jpeg" alt="Leyte Invasion, October 1944. General Douglas Macarthur and Philippine president Sergio Osmena in a landing craft on their way to ceremonies proclaiming the liberation of Leyte, 23 October 1944. On the right is Brigadier General Carlos P. Romulo. Catalog #: 80-G-289537. National Archives. Mon, Oct 23, 1944. National Archives. Naval History and Heritage Command." width="716" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-289537-716x576.jpeg 716w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-289537-300x241.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-289537-768x618.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-289537.jpeg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 716px) 100vw, 716px" />General Douglas MacArthur and Philippine president Sergio Osmena in a landing craft on their way to ceremonies proclaiming the liberation of Leyte, 23 October 1944. National Archives. Naval History and Heritage Command.</div>
Bearing down on Luzon was an immense U.S. invasion force of over 800 ships, 3,000 landing craft — many just arrived from Normandy — and some 280,000 troops. This formidable army, fielding more men than Eisenhower landed at Sicily, was led by America’s most brilliant strategist, Five-Star General Douglas MacArthur. For two years this American Caesar had dazzled the Japanese with one victory upon the next in a relentless drive up New Guinea and the Bismarck Sea with the aim of recapturing the Philippines.
<div id="attachment_855769" style="width: 727px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-855769" class="wp-image-855769 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-281338-717x576.jpeg" alt="Carrier Raids on Formosa, October 1944. Crewmen on USS Hancock (CV-19) move 3.5-inch rockets (with 5-inch diameter warheads) to planes, while preparing for strikes on Formosa, 12 October 1944. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.Catalog #: 80-G-281338. Naval History and Heritage Command. " width="717" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-281338-717x576.jpeg 717w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-281338-300x241.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-281338-768x617.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-281338.jpeg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 717px) 100vw, 717px" />Carrier Raids on Formosa, October 1944. Crewmen on USS Hancock (CV-19). National Archives. Naval History and Heritage Command.</div>
Beginning in November 1942 with a grinding, bloody fight for Buna on New Guinea’s northern coast, MacArthur’s advances steadily accelerated. Utilizing amphibious thrusts by coordinating land, sea, and air power — what Churchill described as “triphibious warfare” — the general leapfrogged from beachhead to beachhead in ever more audacious envelopments up the world’s second largest island. Indeed, by the time his landing force steamed towards Leyte in October 1944, the first of the Philippine islands targeted for assault, MacArthur had captured more territory while suffering fewer casualties than any commander in modern warfare — while inflicting ten times as many losses on the enemy.
MacArthur now set his determined sights on the ultimate prize, Luzon, 300 miles north of Leyte. Waiting for him, however, was a Japanese garrison numbering some 270,000 determined troops, the largest enemy contingent the Americans would confront in the Pacific War. Moreover, the Emperor’s forces would be under the overall command of a formidable general in his own right, Tomoyuki Yamashita, the “Tiger of Malaya.” On this most vital Philippine island, two gifted generals, each at the height of his power, would face off in the climactic battle of the Southwest Pacific campaign.
<div id="attachment_855827" style="width: 463px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-855827" class="wp-image-855827 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3201763-453x576.jpg" alt="circa 1945: Japanese army general Tomoyuki Yamashita uses a cane while walking along a dirt road ahead of several soldiers. Yamashita was known as the 'Tiger of Malaya' for his leadership of the Japanese forces against the British troops in the Philippines. (Photo by US Army/Getty Images)" width="453" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3201763-453x576.jpg 453w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3201763-236x300.jpg 236w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3201763-768x977.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3201763.jpg 805w" sizes="(max-width: 453px) 100vw, 453px" />Japanese army general Tomoyuki Yamashita. US Army/Getty Images.</div>
Although the primary aim of seizing Leyte in the fall of 1944 was to provide MacArthur an aerodrome from which Allied planes could cover his Luzon campaign, as well as stage raids on Formosa and the Chinese mainland, the soil proved to be unstable during the rainy season, which had just begun (24 inches of rain fell in November alone). Although some air bases were eventually operational, due to the soggy runways as well as washed out roads in need of constant repair, MacArthur’s air chief, General George Kenney, was unable to utilize the bulk of the island’s airstrips for the upcoming operations. Still, even with this unexpected setback, the imaginative MacArthur saw an opportunity.
The island of Mindoro, a mere hour-and-a-half ferry ride from Luzon and just 200 miles from Manila, offered ideal ground for Kenney’s aircraft. Adm. Chester Nimitz, MacArthur’s naval counterpart, agreed to support an operation to seize the island, with Adm. William “Bull” Halsey’s carrier task force providing vital top cover until Mindoro could be seized and converted into a land-based aerodrome. But the approach was dangerous. So perilous, in fact, that MacArthur’s reliable naval head, Adm. Thomas Kinkaid, vehemently opposed the landings as he feared his transports would be exposed to attacks from land-based enemy aircraft — especially the deadly Kamikaze suicide planes that made their debut at Leyte and whose attacks were growing in number and lethality — as the vulnerable convoy wiggled its way through the narrow waters of the Surigao Strait and Sulu Sea. Furthermore, should there be a significant number of Japanese on Mindoro, the operation could be costly, even repulsed. The Joint Chiefs in Washington, DC were also alarmed; the Pentagon declared MacArthur’s plan “too daring in scope, too risky in execution.”
But MacArthur’s sixth sense told him Yamashita had no stomach for another Leyte, but was instead husbanding his strength for the defense of Luzon. He also might have assumed that, just as his subordinates had been frightened by the hazards facing any convoy on the narrow approach to Mindoro, Yamashita would figure no enemy would risk such a passage. MacArthur’s contrarian instincts proved correct.
<div id="attachment_855783" style="width: 712px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-855783" class="size-large wp-image-855783" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-301022-702x576.jpeg" alt="Mindoro Operation, December 1944. Caption: Escort carriers of task group 77.12.7 getting under way from the Palau Islands, en route for the invasion of Mindoro, 10 December 1944. Photographed from USS KADASHAN BAY (CVE-76). Catalog #: 80-G-301022. National Archives. Naval History and Heritage Command." width="702" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-301022-702x576.jpeg 702w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-301022-300x246.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-301022-768x630.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-301022.jpeg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 702px) 100vw, 702px" />Mindoro Operation, December 1944. Photographed from USS KADASHAN BAY (CVE-76). National Archives. Naval History and Heritage Command.</div>
On December 16, 1944, 10,000 American troops raced from their Higgins boats and overwhelmed the barely 1,000 Japanese stationed on Mindoro; the GIs soon captured four abandoned airstrips. The U.S. suffered just 240 KIA (a mere 18 on the ground, the rest Naval losses from air attacks). And unlike Leyte, the ground here was solid. U.S. engineers went to work refurbishing the captured airfields and constructing two more. Overhead, Halsey’s pilots fended off waves of marauding Japanese fighters and suicide planes swooping down from Luzon. By New Years Day 1945, an ebullient Kenney declared Mindoro his main aerodrome, allowing MacArthur to once again operate under the protection of his land-based air force.
The capture of Mindoro, the last stepping stone to Luzon, also confronted Yamashita with the possibility that MacArthur could hit him from the south as well as the obvious landing spot in Lingayen Gulf 140 miles north of Manila. And he was now cut off from his garrisons in the southern Philippines.
<div id="attachment_855845" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-855845" class="size-large wp-image-855845" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-183023714-864x576.jpg" alt="acprints. Getty Images." width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-183023714-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-183023714-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-183023714-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-183023714-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-183023714-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-183023714-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-183023714-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />acprints. Getty Images.</div>
Yamashita’s motivations for defending the island were purely military. But for MacArthur, his return to the Philippines was a deeply personal crusade. He’d lived in the archipelago for many years and felt the U.S. had a solemn obligation to free a people over whom we’d assumed responsibility after wresting the islands from the Spanish in 1898. He had been in command of the joint US-Philippine army in December 1941 when the Japanese invaded. Abandoning the capital, he consolidated his forces on the Bataan Peninsula due west across Manila Bay, and the Island fortress of Corregidor covering the mouth of the inlet. The General had hoped to fight a holding action, anticipating a U.S. relief force would come to the rescue and save his command. 
In early 1942, however, Japan was at the zenith of its power while the U.S. was just getting on a war footing, and thus in no position to relieve the beleaguered defenders. In May 1942 a combined 75,000 ragged and malnourished American and Filipino troops surrendered. Although it had been a heroic if forlorn stand that upset the Japanese timetable, it was the largest capitulation of U.S. forces in history.
<div id="attachment_855835" style="width: 801px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-855835" class="size-large wp-image-855835" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3272158-791x576.jpg" alt="May 1943: Premier Tojo arriving in Manila. He responds to the salute from General Waui Ehk of the Japanese Administration and the Commander of the Imperial Japanese Fleet (in the white uniform). (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)" width="791" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3272158-791x576.jpg 791w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3272158-300x219.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3272158-768x560.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3272158.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 791px) 100vw, 791px" />May 1943: Premier Tojo arriving in Manila. Hulton Archive/Getty Images.</div>
MacArthur believed his government had abandoned not just the brave garrison, but also the 18 million inhabitants of his beloved islands to a cruel occupier in the dark days of the war’s opening rampage of Japanese conquest following Pearl Harbor. He also felt an individual obligation to return as he’d been ordered by FDR to leave his doomed garrison and escape to Australia before the inevitable defeat, where he would organize the island continent’s defenses and then lead the eventual Allied counter-offensive in the Southwest Pacific. For almost three years, while American and Filipino captives languished in brutal captivity* and civilians endured privations and repressions, the Japanese military ruled the American protectorate.
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But now, to the jubilation of the Filipinos, who’d feared their islands would be bypassed in favor of a U.S. landing on Formosa farther to the north, and thus abandoned a second time, the Americans were back.
Carlos Romulo, the Philippine writer and diplomat who had been with MacArthur on Corregidor, was one of the General’s confidants. When in October he descended from the transport John Land to join the landing party of brass, politicians and war correspondents onto the barge headed for the beaches of Leyte, MacArthur embraced his friend. “Carlos, my boy, how does it feel to be home?” Two months later, the elated Romulo found himself in Lingayen Gulf amidst a vast Allied armada whose ships stretched out to the horizon. Thirty-seven agonizing months before, it had been a Japanese landing force in these waters. He recalled his “cold horror” when Manila Radio announced the news of Japanese transports in Lingayen. But now, he wrote with satisfaction, “it is their turn to quake.”
Meanwhile, following an interview with Yamashita who promised, “I shall write a brilliant history of The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere on the Philippine Islands”, Radio Tokyo confidently announced: “The battle for Luzon, in which 300,000 American officers and men are doomed to die, is about to begin.”
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Brad Schaeffer is a commodities fund manager, author, and columnist whose articles have appeared on the pages Daily Wire, The Wall Street Journal, NY Post, NY Daily News, National Review, The Hill, The Federalist, Zerohedge and other outlets. He is the author of three <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD?ccs_id=55112527-86f6-4c89-b82e-a96d6869abed" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD?ccs_id%3D55112527-86f6-4c89-b82e-a96d6869abed&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1736518135479000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3K_WhJtiUZw7LF1PwSIHtH">books</a>. Follow him on <a href="https://bradschaeffer.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://bradschaeffer.substack.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1736518135479000&amp;usg=AOvVaw02hy-lB4UuAlHo7FfD_FIQ">Substack</a> and <a href="https://x.com/bschaeffer123" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/bschaeffer123&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1736518135479000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0P6pRoAqcBhUQ1W0qwN5rH">X/Twitter</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Daily Wire.
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NOTES:
<ol>
<li>In World War II some 40% of U.S. POWs died at the hands of the Japanese, as opposed to only 1% of those captured by the Germans.</li>
</ol>

NH 44317

The Battle Of Luzon, Part 1: Climax Of The Southwest Pacific War

American History

BULGARIA-NATO-DEFENCE-MILITARY-EXERCISE

A Daily Wire Investigation: Are There Really 15K Trans Military Members?

LGBTQ

Transgender

US Navy

President-elect Donald Trump attended the 125th Army-Navy football game on Saturday, marking the fifth time Trump has made it to the face-off.
Trump was accompanied by a host of conservative figures, including incoming Vice President JD Vance, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, nominee for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, who&#8217;s been selected by Trump to be a national security adviser; Director of National Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard, billionaire Elon Musk, subway hero Daniel Penny, among others.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Will be going to the Army/Navy Game tomorrow to root on these fantastic young men. Should be a great game. See you there! DJT
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1867819780809666804?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
&nbsp;
When Trump arrived in the presidential suite, he was greeted with cheers and chants of &#8220;U-S-A.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
President <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> arrives at Northwest Stadium 🇺🇸🏈 <a href="https://t.co/rVqLLT2A9i">pic.twitter.com/rVqLLT2A9i</a>
— Margo Martin (@margomartin) <a href="https://twitter.com/margomartin/status/1868024822036623490?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
Trump saluted during the playing of our national anthem.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
WATCH: President Donald J. Trump salutes as the National Anthem is performed at the <a href="https://twitter.com/ArmyNavyGame?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ArmyNavyGame</a>.
GOD BLESS OUR MILITARY! <a href="https://t.co/NAcYXKE4IY">pic.twitter.com/NAcYXKE4IY</a>
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1868029497095930162?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
Waltz, Gabbard, and Hegseth said they were rooting for Army before the game. &#8220;We love our Navy — except today,&#8221; they said. &#8220;Go Army, beat Navy.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🇺🇸 <a href="https://t.co/AvHLqB7xea">pic.twitter.com/AvHLqB7xea</a>
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) <a href="https://twitter.com/michaelgwaltz/status/1868022853850865860?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
This past week, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daniel-penny-to-attend-army-navy-game-as-jd-vances-guest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vice President-elect JD Vance invited subway hero Daniel Penny</a> to attend the game, as highlighted by The Daily Wire.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/gift-guide/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://get.dailywire.com/gift-guide/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1733885540339000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3AN1vxuvN8UmdriyXYDBvs">CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE</a>
“Daniel’s a good guy, and New York’s mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone,” Vance wrote on X. “I’m grateful he accepted my invitation and hope he’s able to have fun and appreciate how much his fellow citizens admire his courage.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Daniel’s a good guy, and New York’s mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone.
I’m grateful he accepted my invitation and hope he’s able to have fun and appreciate how much his fellow citizens admire his courage. <a href="https://t.co/b4bY0G0EM3">https://t.co/b4bY0G0EM3</a>
— JD Vance (@JDVance) <a href="https://twitter.com/JDVance/status/1867574373806215465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 13, 2024</a></blockquote>
Penny accepted the invitation and was spotted with Vance in the presidential suite.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
SPOTTED: American Hero Daniel Penny joins VP-elect <a href="https://twitter.com/JDVance?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JDVance</a> at the <a href="https://twitter.com/ArmyNavyGame?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ArmyNavyGame</a>.
President Trump is en route. <a href="https://t.co/bigGt8xyBj">pic.twitter.com/bigGt8xyBj</a>
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1868021739873304684?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Daniel Penny joined President Donald J. Trump and VP-elect JD Vance at the <a href="https://twitter.com/ArmyNavyGame?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ArmyNavyGame</a> today in Landover, Maryland. <a href="https://t.co/RCpxDQqcQn">pic.twitter.com/RCpxDQqcQn</a>
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1868059241866838139?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daniel-penny-to-attend-army-navy-game-as-jd-vances-guest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daniel Penny To Attend Army-Navy Game As JD Vance’s Guest</a>

President-Elect Donald Trump Watches Army-Navy Football Game

Trump Rolls Deep With Conservative Entourage At Army-Navy Game, Elicits ‘USA’ Chants

Daniel Penny

Football

President-elect <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> announced on Wednesday that he has nominated Daniel P. Driscoll of North Carolina to serve as the Secretary of the Army.
&#8220;As a former Soldier, Investor, and Political Advisor, Dan brings a powerful combination of experiences to serve as a disruptor and change agent,&#8221; Trump said in a statement. &#8220;Dan will be a fearless and relentless fighter for America’s Soldiers and the America First agenda.&#8221;
Driscoll graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in three years before joining the U.S. Army and completing Army Ranger school.
After deploying with the 10th Mountain Division in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Driscoll returned home and attended Yale Law School on the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
&#8220;Dan has worked in venture capital and private equity, and most recently has been serving as Senior Advisor to Vice President-Elect JD Vance,&#8221; Trump added. &#8220;Hailing from Boone, NC, Dan is married to his high school sweetheart, Dr. Cassie Driscoll, a plastic surgeon. They have two beautiful children, Daniel Jr. and Lila.&#8221;
Trump was praised by U.S. senators for nominating Driscoll to the position, including by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who called Driscoll &#8220;a great choice!&#8221;
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/gift-guide/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE</a>
&#8220;Congratulations to my friend and fellow North Carolinian Dan Driscoll on being nominated as Secretary of the Army,&#8221; said Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC).
&#8220;Dan honorably served our nation in uniform and has what it takes to lead the U.S. Army,&#8221; Budd added. &#8220;Looking forward to his hearing before the Armed Services Committee.&#8221;
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) said in a post on X: &#8220;Dan Driscoll will make a fantastic Secretary of the Army. He has the right experience—including as a soldier in combat—to bring the change and refocus on warfighting that the Army desperately needs. I look forward to seeing his confirmation through to the finish line.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨 President Trump announces the nomination of Daniel P. Driscoll to serve as the Secretary of the Army 🇺🇸 <a href="https://t.co/tG4FjyI4Gg">pic.twitter.com/tG4FjyI4Gg</a>
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1864339563541356646?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 4, 2024</a></blockquote>

V Corps Headquarters To Be Located In Poland

Trump Praised For His Army Secretary Pick

Executive

Politics

Trump Administration

On November 24, 1864, Union Lieutenant Samuel Nichols, 37th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, prepared for the nation’s first Thanksgiving Day, as the fourth Thursday of November had been officially declared a day of celebration by President Lincoln.
The morning, Nichols wrote, “dawned beautifully upon civilians and soldiers. Starting wildly from our slumbers at the unearthly sound of &#8216;Reveille&#8217;…we found ourselves with an appetite adequate for the occasion and fully equal to that usually demanded on that auspicious and chicken-stuffed day.”
Still encamped at Winchester, Virginia, where two months before his regiment helped lead the Union Army to victory and seize the town, Lt. Nichols appreciated that he and his comrades were enjoying relatively peaceful duty. However, soldiers are a wary lot, especially combat veterans. They understand that the tranquility of a clear, crisp November morning can be very quickly shattered by the unpredictable nature of war.
Most in the regiment, Nichols remembered, had opted to pass on breakfast so they could save their appetites for the much-anticipated Thanksgiving feast. But Nichols, being a veteran and used to having meals interrupted by the sudden call to action, wasn’t waiting until the official dinner time, which was 2:00 p.m. “At one o’clock, therefore, I dined in company with three of my companions. We all ate a sufficiency and had a good time.”
No sooner had he finished his meal than the Yankee lieutenant’s cautious instincts were vindicated. The regiment received an order to be “in readiness to move at a moment’s notice.” In about ten minutes, he recalled, “we were moving at quick step.” They reached the destination at 6:00 p.m. only to receive yet another order to countermarch back to Winchester, where the column didn’t return to their bivouac area until 9:00 p.m. For many in the regiment, Thanksgiving came and went with no meal or fanfare and at great disappointment.
<h3><a href="https://get.dailywire.com/gift-guide/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE</a></h3>
Such is army life, as any veteran will tell you. Besides the grind, the long periods of stifling boredom that are only occasionally broken up by the terrors of front line combat, perhaps the deepest sacrifice of national service beyond risking life and limb, is separation from loved ones for long tours of duty. The separation is especially felt during holidays like Thanksgiving. Even those troops not under fire know they are missing precious times with dear family and friends — times they can never truly reclaim.
But Nichols’ unit was lucky, even if most of them lacked the foresight of their hungry lieutenant. Some in the regiment missed out on a hardy meal, but they did not have the experience of their descendants in the U.S. Army hunkered down 80 years later in the wet and cold and endless shelling and artillery tree bursts of the Hürtgen Forest. For the members of the 121st Infantry Regiment, 8th Infantry Division, Thanksgiving Day, 1944 would be remembered as a preventable tragedy, courtesy of the high command’s misplaced attempt to bring a semblance of home to the men in the foxholes.
The regiment was on the very front lines, acting as the tip of the U.S. spear, one that had snagged itself into the stubborn ribs of the Hürtgen Forest’s determined German defenders dug in among the expansive woodland’s dense foliage and frozen ravines. When 1st Lt. Boesch, crouched down in his hole, picked up the phone from HQ he was astonished to hear a cheery rear echeloner’s voice on the line: “Happy Thanksgiving! We’ve got a hot turkey dinner here for every man in the outfit.” The staff officer informed the lieutenant that the food was on its way to his company.
Boesch couldn’t believe it. “Are you guys nuts?” he said with incredulity. “It’s almost dark and my carrying parties have already made the trip up the hill with rations and water. I can’t send them up there again. Besides, they can’t feed a hot meal in the positions they’re in now. Good God, they’re right on top of the Jerries!” 

Those were the orders, the staff officer said. And didn’t the men want a nice taste of home? Boesch shook his head in frustration before screaming into the handset, “I want to see them get three hot meals a day and a dry bed every night and a babe to sleep with, but let’s save the turkey until they can pull back where they can enjoy it!”
Despite expressing fears to the battalion commander that the kind gesture might get men killed when the Germans saw them bunching up for their meal, the orders stood. Hot turkey meals were delivered to the men right on the front lines. Those delivering the meals had only the lowering darkness as cover, otherwise they were in clear line of sight of the Germans.
As Boesch warned, German artillery and mortar shells soon rained down on the hapless GIs bunched around the turkey canisters to get their fill, killing many and wounding more.
In 1978, a retired Major William Freeman who was with the 121st caught an interview with Gen. Jim Gavin, in which the young general confesses that the high command didn’t know what the GIs were dealing with in the Hürtgen Forest. He informed the general of what happened next, thanks to the misplaced gesture from the top brass.
&#8220;Jerry turned all hell loose! Branded in my mind is position after position with men torn to shreds around busted up turkey canisters—as many as ten in one place.&#8221;
In the same letter Freeman tries to unburden himself.
&#8220;Hindsight says I could have stalled off the dinner and I doubt that the higher echelons would have known about it—but I didn’t. Granted that greater control could have been used all down the line… but dangle hot turkey to men in a cold, wet forest, that have had nothing but K rations, and it’s not that easy to keep them from bunching…
&#8220;For many, many years after the war I would go to one of my relations for Thanksgiving dinner, and before I could touch a bite I would get up and go to the back yard and cry like a baby, I passed up a helluva lot of turkey dinners.&#8221;
Two different American regiments, two different wars, two different enemies, two different Thanksgivings. The same sacrifice for country and each other. As the Holiday Season begins in earnest, let’s take a moment to reflect on those who walk the line so that we can enjoy one another without fear of enemies with malicious intent. 
Happy Thanksgiving to all who will be serving in dangerous, faraway places. We are thankful for you.
* * *
Brad Schaeffer is a fund manager and author of three books. His articles have appeared on the pages of Daily Wire, The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, New York Daily News, National Review, The Hill, The Federalist, The Blaze, Breitbart, Zerohedge and other outlets. His best-selling novel, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Extraordinary-Brad-Schaeffer/dp/1642939420">The Extraordinary</a>, tackles the subject of living with a veteran father with PTSD as told by his autistic teen son.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Soldiers of the 87th US Division line up for food, on their drive towards Laroche

Two Thanksgivings On Two Different War Fronts: Same Sacrifice

Civil War

Soldiers

Thanksgiving

President-elect Donald Trump got immediate backlash when he nominated decorated U.S. Army veteran and Ivy League graduate Pete Hegseth to be his incoming Defense Secretary, with most critics harping on the fact that Hegseth also happened to be a regular cohost on Fox News.
In turn, Hegseth has gotten a fair amount of backlash for his unequivocal statement in a recent interview about the idea of female service members serving in combat roles.
&#8220;I&#8217;m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles,&#8221; Hegseth said on &#8220;The Shawn Ryan Show,&#8221; adding, &#8220;It hasn&#8217;t made us more effective, hasn&#8217;t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated. We&#8217;ve all served with women and they&#8217;re great, just — our institution don&#8217;t have to incentivize that in places where traditionally — not traditionally, over human history — men in those positions are more capable.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Pete Hegseth 5 days ago: &quot;I&#39;m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/0W3LDSakud">pic.twitter.com/0W3LDSakud</a>
&mdash; Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) <a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1856529823038091780?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
As a woman who served proudly in the U.S. Army for ten years — five years in the Army Reserve and five on active duty — I wholeheartedly agree with Hegseth here: women should not be placed in combat roles.
It&#8217;s important to understand that I&#8217;m not saying — and neither is Hegseth, as far as I can tell — that there are no women who could handle combat. I&#8217;m quite certain that some women could, just as I&#8217;m certain that there are a fair number of men who could not.
I&#8217;m also not saying that, even if they weren&#8217;t supposed to be in combat roles, some women won&#8217;t end up in combat scenarios in the chaos of war. History is replete with examples of the heroics of non-combatants, so we know that happens. That is the reason that every soldier, regardless of sex or occupational specialty, spends the first ten weeks in the Army completing Basic Combat Training (BCT). Males and females alike train on weapons like the M16-A2 rifle, hand grenades, and Claymore mines. I even got the chance during training to fire an AT-4 rocket launcher into a junkyard full of retired tanks (five stars, highly recommend).
What I am saying, however, is that putting women in combat should not be the goal, and the reason for that is simple: most can&#8217;t — and shouldn&#8217;t — handle it. And that fact is made abundantly clear by the fact that most, &#8220;G.I. Jane&#8221; notwithstanding, can&#8217;t even make it through training and meet the standards set for men in the same roles.
What Hegseth said on that point was exactly right: women in combat roles have not made the military &#8220;more effective&#8221; or &#8220;more lethal.&#8221;
When then Defense Secretary Leon Panetta opened combat roles to women in 2013, I participated in a panel discussion on <a href="https://danaloesch.com/on-women-in-combat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Dana Loesch Radio Show</a> (along with Air Force veteran Stacey Washington) and predicted exactly what the fallout would be when women were allowed in combat — and I said more or less exactly what Hegseth did.
&#8220;The real issue is this: do we want a military that is first and foremost a formidable fighting force or one that is first and foremost dedicated to enforced equality? We can’t have both,&#8221; I said at the time.
I went on to explain:
<blockquote>The military is strong in part because it is the most discriminatory workplace in the nation. You can be kept out, fired, or barred from promotion simply for being too tall, too short, too thin, too fat, too sick, too injured, too stupid, and the list goes on. Every move [the military] has made in the direction of political correctness has been a move away from strength.
From the very first day that women were allowed to serve in the military, they have been held to a lower standard than the men who held the same positions. Even as far back as WWII, by regulation the bench seats in standard transport trucks were designated to hold eight men. The same regulation stated that only seven women would fit on the same bench seat, in an effort to ensure that female Marines were given enough space to remain comfortable during transport. Today’s Army physical training tests require much higher standards of men than of women – men are required to run faster and do more push ups than women who have the same MOS (military operational specialty).</blockquote>
&#8220;Every time a job is opened to women in the military, instead of demanding that the women meet the same standards set by the men, they create a new (nearly always lower) standard for the women,&#8221; I concluded at the time. &#8220;As more and more women qualify for jobs based on these lowered standards, the efficiency and overall performance of the unit as a whole is decreased. To add close combat jobs to that list is asking for an Army that cannot help but be weakened as the standards for such jobs are lowered in the name of &#8216;equality.'&#8221;
This is, across the board, exactly what happened in the years since Panetta opened the doors to women in combat roles, and Hegseth is absolutely correct that it has done nothing to increase the efficiency and lethality — the primary reasons for its existence — of our military.

Take It From A Female Army Vet: Pete Hegseth Is Right About Women In Combat

Military

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) tried to trash U.S. Army veteran <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/pete-hegseth" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pete Hegseth</a> — President-elect Donald Trump&#8217;s choice for incoming Defense Secretary — but instead she got a quick lesson on who he really is.
Warren took to X to voice her grievances with Hegseth — who, in addition to his military service, has spent a fair amount of time as a host on Fox News — and she suggested in her post that his tenure at the network was the only reason Trump could have for choosing him.
&#8220;A Fox &amp; Friends weekend co-host is not qualified to be the Secretary of Defense,&#8221; she posted. &#8220;I lead the Senate military personnel panel. All three of my brothers served in uniform. I respect every one of our servicemembers. Donald Trump’s pick will make us less safe and must be rejected.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
A Fox &amp; Friends weekend co-host is not qualified to be the Secretary of Defense.
I lead the Senate military personnel panel. All three of my brothers served in uniform. I respect every one of our servicemembers.
Donald Trump’s pick will make us less safe and must be rejected. <a href="https://t.co/6ADUJSm8x6">https://t.co/6ADUJSm8x6</a>
&mdash; Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/1856502912551158049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2024</a></blockquote>
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But as critics pointed out, Hegseth had also put on the uniform — and had served multiple combat tours — and had earned an Ivy League education to boot.
&#8220;You left out some of his resume: 20 years of military service. 2 bronze stars. Degrees from Princeton and Harvard. Active with veterans organizations since leaving active duty. You can go ahead and sit this one out, Senator,&#8221; Evan Berryhill posted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
You left out some of his resume:
20 years of military service. 
2 bronze stars.
Degrees from Princeton and Harvard.
Active with veterans organizations since leaving active duty.
You can go ahead and sit this one out, Senator. <a href="https://t.co/tcNm71tuaB">https://t.co/tcNm71tuaB</a>
&mdash; Evan Berryhill (@EvBerryhill) <a href="https://twitter.com/EvBerryhill/status/1856519035493478887?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2024</a></blockquote>
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The Federalist&#8217;s Sean Davis had a similar thought: &#8220;Pete Hegseth is a 20-year military veteran, a decorated combat veteran, a recipient of the Bronze Star (2x), and graduated from both Harvard and Princeton. You falsely claimed to be an Indian to get a job you couldn’t get on the merits. Sit down, Pocahontas.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/?_gl=1*jtghwp*_gcl_au*ODQ1NjYzNTg2LjE3Mjg5MDk3OTE.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczMDEyMDgwOS40OS4xLjE3MzAxMjA4MzkuMzAuMC4w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+</a>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Pete Hegseth is a 20-year military veteran, a decorated combat veteran, a recipient of the Bronze Star (2x), and graduated from both Harvard and Princeton.
You falsely claimed to be an Indian to get a job you couldn’t get on the merits. Sit down, Pocahontas. <a href="https://t.co/BjCiROQVGn">https://t.co/BjCiROQVGn</a>
&mdash; Sean Davis (@seanmdav) <a href="https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1856522470573973616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;You left out that Hegseth is twice a bronze star recipient, served 20 years in the military including Iraq and Afghanistan, is a veterans’ advocate, and is Ivy League educated,&#8221; another posted, going on to tie Warren&#8217;s comments to the sentiment that left so many Americans fed up with Democrats in last week&#8217;s general election. &#8220;Characterizing him as simply a Fox News host is a despicable lie of omission. This bulls*** is why your party was wiped out in the election. Are you all not capable of learning anything, or do you plan to just keep imploding?&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
You left out that Hegseth is twice a bronze star recipient, served 20 years in the military including Iraq and Afghanistan, is a veterans’ advocate, and is Ivy League educated.
Characterizing him as simply a Fox News host is a despicable lie of omission.
This bullshit is why…
&mdash; IT Guy (@ITGuy1959) <a href="https://twitter.com/ITGuy1959/status/1856506071562534974?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;By framing veteran and double bronze-star recipient Pete Hegseth as &#8216;weekend co-host,&#8217; you prove you don&#8217;t respect everyone one of our servicemembers,&#8221; Margot Cleveland added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
By framing veteran and double bronze-star recipient Pete Hegseth as &quot;weekend co-host,&quot; you prove you don&#39;t respect everyone one of our servicemembers.
&mdash; Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) <a href="https://twitter.com/ProfMJCleveland/status/1856503942836039742?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
During his military career, Hegseth — who achieved the rank of Major — served tours in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay and was awarded two Bronze Stars. He also earned the <a href="https://www.hrc.army.mil/content/Combat%20Infantryman%20Badge%20CIB" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Combat Infantryman&#8217;s Badge</a> (CIB), which is only given to soldiers assigned either to an infantry unit or to a Special Forces unit who have taken enemy fire while engaged in ground combat.
Hegseth is still a member of the Minnesota National Guard&#8217;s Inactive Ready Reserve (IRR).

Nick Lachey Visits “Fox & Friends”

Elizabeth Warren Tries To Trash Pete Hegseth, Gets A Quick Lesson On Who He Really Is

2024 Election

Elizabeth Warren

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