Wednesday, August 27, 2008 9:33 PM CDT
Meet Pete Hegseth
By BOB SCHULTZ, For the JG/T-C
DENVER — Wednesday night’s Democratic National Convention focused on America’s security. It was one of the more memorable evenings of my life and it had nothing to do with the activities in the Convention Hall.
His name is Pete Hegseth. And even though he’s only 28 years of age, he’s been interviewed by MTV, CNN, National Public Radio, Fox, MSNBC, CNBC and the AP. Pete can now add the Mattoon Journal Gazette and the Charleston Times Courier to that list.
Pete’s remarkable story begins in Forest Lake, MN (pop. 6,000). One of three sons of a high school basketball coach and stay-at-home mom, Pete excelled at basketball. In fact, basketball was his ticket to attend Princeton University.
At Princeton, Pete’s focus was not limited to the hardwood. He served as publisher of the school newspaper, The Princeton Tory, and was also a member of the ROTC. In fact, in the latter half of his college career, Pete signed with the National Guard to help defray his college expenses. (Princeton doesn’t offer athletic scholarships, only the opportunity to play.)
Following graduation, Pete’s life was flurry of activity. He married. And, he and his new bride began their careers on Wall Street with investment banking firms. It was just one month after the wedding, and Pete received the call. His guard unit was called to active duty.
Although the war in Iraq was at full throttle, Pete’s unit drew the lucky assignment of providing external security at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Not a tough assignment; in fact his unit was rarely in contact with the prisoners detained there. Following his year in Guantanamo, Pete retuned to his waiting bride and the Wall Street job.
Only three months later, Pete sat at his desk; the news was filled with the latest tragedy in Iraq. A U.S. soldier had been distributing candy to children in an Iraqi city square. The suicide bomber stepped forward and ended the life of the soldier along with 15 young lives.
That day, Pete decided his work on Wall Street paled in comparison to the impact he might make in Iraq. He called the army and asked if he might become a platoon leader in Iraq. While political leaders were pushing for what some called a cut-and-run strategy in Iraq, Pete wanted to leave a cushy job and beautiful bride to put himself in harm’s way. Talk about courage.
Ten weeks from that fateful day, Pete landed in Iraq. Two months later he led his platoon of 40 members on an air assault raid in Baghdad. As the helicopter was landing in the chaos of that battle, Pete thought to himself, “I can’t believe I volunteered for this.” Unknown to him, he had actually volunteered for a much bigger role in the war against terrorism.
With the success of Pete’s platoon in Baghdad, he was assigned to Samara, a city considered the “hell hole” of the country. Near civil war was in full bloom as tribal leaders battled with sheiks and imams. And into the fray entered Pete Hegseth. He was assigned the unenviable task of bringing peace to these groups that had been warring for centuries. And just two days before Pete began this delicate assignment, the Golden Mosque, a spiritual center, was bombed.
Deploying his Midwestern sensibilities and earnestness, Pete gained the trust of the warring factions. He offered sympathy with determination. And the foes responded. Pete made progress in bringing civility to the city, but he could not end the violence. Before he could respond to that frustration his tour was completed.
He returned home to the US in July of 2006, but his thoughts and heart remained in Iraq. Pete’s frustrations were due two overriding views on Iraq. First, he felt, the enemy had to be defeated. Second, he was frustrated by the ground strategy — what he called the Vietnam approach.
In Samara, Pete’s group was stationed on the exterior of the city, but they were trying to provide security throughout the many neighborhoods. While they might restore order in an area for a day or a week, returning to their base offered the enemy a chance to return.
Upon his return to the U.S., Pete composed a 15-page report on his perspective of Iraq. In particular, he saw that with the return of each group from Iraq, valuable insight was lost in the rotation. His report was to be a primer for his successors.
He then went onto compose an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal titled, “More troops please.” The piece advocated an increase in the level of troop involvement and a new approach to dealing with the enemy. One could even call it a “surge” idea.
Pete’s report and the op-ed piece were circulated through a host of governmental offices including Congress and the Bush administration. Six months later, President Bush announced the highly controversial surge policy.
The modest Hegseth is quick to point out that the surge policy was not his idea alone, but was advocated by a host of others. He calls his effort “one bullet in the magazine of ideas.”
It was shortly thereafter that Pete met Wade Zirkle, the founder of a fledgling organization named, Vets for Freedom, which gives a voice to the returning war veterans. As Pete tells it, the public discourse on the war rarely includes the valuable insight of the feet on the ground — the veterans. In fact, only anti-war veterans were seen on TV until Vets for Freedom was created.
Pete was invited to join Vets for Freedom in its earliest days. But he envisioned the power and promise of the mission. Through the foundation laid by Zirkel, and Pete’s leadership, Vets for Freedom boasts more than 30,000 members. It includes chapters in all 50 states. So many of the members have compelling stories on the efforts and successes in Iraq. And their mission is simple. They simply want to share their story with America.
Due to his leadership, Pete became the chairman of the Vets for Freedom in 2007.
By September 2007, the surge was working — a fact that so many in the media and Congress would refuse to acknowledge. Along came Pete’s group. Vets for Freedom delivered countless veterans to Capitol Hill to tell the story of success. While many still refused to listen, their story was too compelling to ignore.
It even impacted the political campaigns of 2008. In the spring of 2008, the Vets for Freedom created their first ad, one exclusive to the Internet. The ad pointed out that Sen. Barack Obama, a possible presidential nominee and member of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, had never met with Gen. Petraeus, the commander of the Iraq campaign. While Obama was free with his negative view of Iraq, he had never thought to have a private meeting with the general.
So Vets for Freedom put out the ad on a Friday in spring. It’s typically a poor day to make the news cycle. The ad was anything but typical. By Sunday morning the ad was the focus of “Meet the Press.”
From the Vets for Freedom firsthand view, the surge is working. This is something that candidate Obama refuses to acknowledge. And Nancy Pelosi still maintains “the surge is a failure.”
Pete acknowledged that groups of Iraqi veterans exist who have a counter view of the war. But those groups have less than 1,000 members. Thirty times as many members in Vets for Freedom make a compelling counter-argument.
Pete just returned to Iraq this month. He wanted to update his view of the war. He pointed out that 15 of 18 benchmarks for Iraq have now been achieved. The city council meeting he attended in Samara, just last week, barely discussed issues of security. Things have gotten that good.
More to the point, violence has dropped considerably in Iraq. U.S. troops are returning home without having to be replaced. Al Qaida no longer has a haven, and Iran no longer has undue influence in the region.
Pete’s is a compelling story of courage in Iraq and in the United States. His attendance at the convention is to ensure that the story of Iraq from the Americans closest to the facts is heard.
As the Democrats express concern over the war in Iraq, it’s ironic that, for the first time in 44 years, their presidential ticket does not include a veteran. Despite many politicians’ best efforts, Pete Hegseth is making sure that the veteran’s voice is not forgotten or diminished.
Bob Schultz is an East Central Illinois businessman, investor and political enthusiast. Although he identifies as a Republican, he is attending the Democratic National Convention to bring JG/T-C readers a local perspective.
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The Question wrote on Aug 28, 2008 6:38 AM: