Pete Hegseth on Speaking with WWII Vets in Normandy: ‘They All Said We’d Do It Again’

EXCERPT:

HEGSETH: “You know, in fact, I started my morning doing PT on the beach with the rangers from the 75th Ranger Regiment right there on Omaha Beach, just about the exact time that the first landing craft would have hit. And I’ll tell you, it's pouring now, of course, as it happens, you look back toward the land from the beach and you realize there’s nothing there but German guns. And these men were willing to charge toward the guns with almost no chance of success, especially in those first waves, and they did it for us. So we just finished a ceremony here at the Arlington Cemetery, where over 9,000 Americans are buried and there were about 25 World War II vets still there, still here, and I had a chance to meet every single one of them after the ceremony, and they all said, 'We would do it again. We did it for freedom. We did it for our brothers. We did it for our home town, for those that we loved and for those that are still here in the cemetery.' So it’s just a reminder 81 years later, guys. And the contrast of those 100-year-old World War II vets and then those 25-year-old army rangers that I did a workout with this morning, like, that kind of — the blood of fighting for freedom still pumps in the veins of Americans, and we still raise those types. And that’s what was really cool to see here today and have a chance to honor them."