Pete Hegseth

ROBERT MAGINNIS: God, duty and the return of moral clarity at West Point

Secretary of War spoke candidly about faith, combat, and the military's retreat from merit-based standards

By Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, (ret.) Fox News

Published May 23, 2026 3:46pm EDT

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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth reveals Army hit its recruiting goal early

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth revealed that the U.S. Army reached its 2026 recruiting goal four months early during his commencement speech at West Point Military Academy.

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On Saturday morning, I sat watching the rain fall over the United States Military Academy as another generation of cadets marched across Michie Stadium and into the Long Gray Line. The scene stirred memories I had not revisited in years. I graduated from West Point in 1973, and I tuned in partly to refresh my memory before a television interview later that afternoon. By the end of the ceremony, something more important had happened: for the first time in many years, I heard a commencement address at West Point that spoke honestly about God, duty, sacrifice, and war.

The speaker was Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Years ago, after retiring from the Pentagon, I joined the Family Research Council and eventually became its vice president for policy. During the summer of 2000, we had several interns, including a young Princeton student and basketball player named Pete Hegseth. He was intelligent, personable, disciplined, and openly grounded in his Christian faith even then. My children liked him immediately.

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth salutes graduating cadets during the United States Military Academy commencement ceremony in Michie Stadium at the U.S. Military Academy on May 23, 2026 in West Point, New York. U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was announced as the 2026 commencement speaker just two days before the event. (Adam Gray/Getty Images)

Years later, I watched Pete emerge as a prominent television personality on Fox News, where I have also spent many years as a military analyst. But beyond television, Pete served his country in uniform, deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan with the Army National Guard and later advocating........

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