‘A real sh*tshow’: Arizona veterans slam Hegseth’s speech to generals

Former servicemembers react to Defense Secretary Hegseth’s speech at Quantico, calling it a show of “aesthetics” and “an egregious waste of taxpayer money.”

In a speech Tuesday morning at Quantico, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gathered the nation’s top generals and admirals for a bizarre speech, calling for an end to “woke” culture in the military and announcing major changes to standards, such as higher fitness standards for women serving in combat roles.

“The era of politically correct, overly sensitive, don’t-hurt-anyone’s-feelings leadership ends right now,” Hegseth said. “No more division, distraction, or gender delusions.”

During the address, Hegseth complained about “fat troops,” adding that it is “completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon.” Hegseth also announced new grooming standards, which include no beards, long hair, or “superficial individual expression.”

Derek Duba, a lifelong Arizonan who served eight years in the US Army, said watching the address felt like watching “a dog and pony show,” and described the address as “a huge waste of time, effort, and attention to make a couple of people feel important.”

For Duba, who served as a linguist and intelligence collector in places like Germany, Morocco, and Poland, the gathering was nothing but a show of “aesthetics and symbolism,” for Secretary Hegseth and President Donald Trump.

“Veterans deserve better than that,” he said.

Duba also expressed concerns about Trump’s suggestion for the military to use US cities as training grounds, and called those comments “an abdication of leadership.”

Duba recalled that during his time in the Army, he and fellow servicemen were instructed to follow orders only if they were legal, ethical, and moral. To him, any instruction from Trump to turn on fellow citizens does not meet those qualifications, and he urged servicemen to remember their oath to the Constitution, not to Trump.

“These are young people who want to serve their country. They didn’t sign up to bully or harass their fellow citizens. They didn’t sign up to step on people exercising their First Amendment rights to assemble,” he said.

Arizona veteran Joanna Sweatt found herself yelling at the television during Hegseth’s address, calling the ceremony, “a real shit show,” and a “huge, egregious waste of taxpayers dollars.”

“I’ve never heard that from any other president in my lifetime, my father’s lifetime, my grandparents. You just don’t hear that rhetoric. It doesn’t make sense,” she said. “This is not what the United States military’s mission, purpose and will is. This is terrible.”

Sweatt served for 10 years in the US Marine Corps. She was stationed in Okinawa, Japan and later deployed to Iraq in 2003 before serving as a recruiter for four years. She is now the national organizing director of Common Defense, a progressive veterans group.

She criticized Hegseth’s claim that women receive accommodations, stating that she was held to the same standards as the men in her unit, and often had to overachieve to prove herself.

“We had to perform the exact same from physical testing to combat fitness testing to shooting on weapons,” she said.

In the address, Hegseth said the military had lowered standards to accommodate women, and that he is issuing new directives that will bring them back to a “higher level.” He said about the changes, “if that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it.”

Elisa Cardnell, the president and CEO of the Service Women’s Action Network, said in a statement to Axios that the “physical requirements for infantry school, special operations, or any other combat role are already gender-neutral.”

Women serving in combat roles are already subjected to the same standards as men. Those standards apply to specific combat special operations, infantry, armor, pararescue, and other jobs, regardless of age or gender.

Women make up 20% of the US military, and recent data shows that female recruitment increased by 18% from 2023 to 2024, compared to an 8% increase among men. The comments come at a time when the military has struggled with recruiting men.

Melissa Cordero, an Air Force veteran who lives in Tucson, said she had to work twice as hard to outperform the men in her unit to prove herself, all while navigating a military culture that could be toxic at times.

“I worked so hard to outperform men. You’re not only out in a combat zone trying to survive that, but you’re one out of [many] men,” she said.

Cordero continued, expressing concern about the direction of the military under the leadership of Hegseth, particularly after this address.

“It’s so hard to take it seriously. This is not the military. That is not how good military leaders lead.”

Selina Cardenas-Lemley, a lifelong Arizonan, former Marine, and Arizona deputy director at Common Defense, called the address a “waste of time.” She said that was evident when Hegseth’s speech ended in absolute silence from the generals.

“We were always taught, you don’t have to respect the person, but you have to respect the position. That was very evident in that room. Everyone was just stone faced,” she said. “It was just a waste of time, a waste of taxpayer money.”