Secretary of War Pete Hegseth Speaks to Personnel at U.S. Strategic Command and Hosts a Reenlistment and Coin Ceremony in Omaha, Neb.

Adm. Richard Correll: Good afternoon. I guess it's still morning, right? Feels like afternoon already. It's been a busy day. Uh, and we have some pretty special guests visiting us today. I guess the first point I'd make is, they're not here to see me, right, they're here to see the command, the mission set, and all of you, and express appreciation for what you do each and every day for our nation.

Um, specifically in the order of speakers that we have today, um, Senator Ricketts is going to be speaking, former governor of Nebraska, right, now, freshman Senator, long supporter of the command, completely invested in our mission set. Similarly, Senator Fischer is going to be, uh, is going to be giving a few a couple of minutes of remarks.

Uh, she, as you all know, is on the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Strategic Sub - the Strategic Forces Subcommittee on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a deep, deep supporter of this command and invested a lot of time in understanding our mission set. And then to cap that off, we have the Secretary of War, Secretary Hegseth here to, uh, you know, again, to express, uh, his confidence in all that you do for our nation each and every day. Along with the secretary is the Honorable Michael, who is the undersecretary of war for research and engineering, USWR&E [ph].

And the Honorable Duffey, who is the undersecretary of war for acquisition and sustainment. So without further ado, please, you know, welcome each of our guests, uh, as they, uh, as they spend a couple of minutes, talk to - talking to us about our mission and what we perform for the country. With that, over to you.

Announcer: Thank you, Admiral Correll. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the honorable, Pete Ricketts, United States Senator from Nebraska.

[Applause]

SEN PETE RICKETTS: Good morning, everybody. Thank you for what you do to keep us safe. The mission is one of the most challenging we have seen in decades. With two peer nuclear adversaries, the strategic environment continues to get more challenging, and we see that these adversaries are aggressive. Obviously, we've got a dictator in Russia who's launched a ground war, the first since World War II, and we've got a dictator in communist China that is aggressively expanding their nuclear forces as part of the largest buildup of military might in the history of the world.

We've got a lot of challenges, but I have confidence that we have the best people in the world right here to deter our adversaries. I want to thank Secretary Hegseth and President Trump because they have seen we need to invest to be able to deter our adversaries, and we have been working in the US Senate to be able to do that.

We're very fortunate that we have Senator Fischer, who is both on the Armed Services Committee and on the Appropriations Committee. Last year, in our reconciliation bill, we were able to invest an additional $150 billion to be able to continue to upgrade our capabilities, to be able to direct $168 million towards SAOC [ph], continue to move forward on the Sentinel project and on the B-21s, on NC3.

All these key critical projects are going to be important to deterring our adversaries in the future, and I appreciate that we have a supportive administration to make this happen. I also want to make sure that the secretary knows that we have the best place in the world to be able to do this as well.

You are not going to find a community that does more for a base than we have right here in Nebraska, between Bellevue and Omaha, and all the different things we do to support all the women and men in uniform here on the base. When I was governor, I know one of the things that was key was getting our runway repaired.

Part of the conditions for that was building up the dikes around the base, and that was a partnership between our local NRD, the Natural Resource District, the city of Bellevue, the city of Omaha, and the state of Nebraska to be able to put the money together to get that done. And that's just one example as to how we here in Nebraska support the mission here on Offutt Air Force Base and what STRATCOM does.

We continue to see it in the ways that the local school districts support all the kids, how we look to make sure we take care of the quality of life for all of the military here, and some of the things we did to make it easier on the spouses to come here and get jobs, by allowing teachers certificates to be able to come here.

So we want to continue to support this mission, we want to continue to see more missions come here, because we believe that we are the best place to be able to continue to defend our great nation. Again, thank you all very, very much for what you do each and every day. This is a seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, 365 days mission to deter our adversaries.

Failure is not an option you all know that and you deliver on that superbly. God bless you all and God bless America.

[Applause]

Announcer: Thank you, Senator Ricketts. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Honorable Deb Fischer, United States Senator from Nebraska.

SEN DEB FISCHER: Good morning, everyone. It is so wonderful to be here with you today, not just to welcome the Secretary of War here to Offutt Air Force Base in STRATCOM, but also to be able to be here with you for your reenlistment ceremonies. It's a very special day, as once again, you raise your hand and you make the commitment to your country and to the defense of our freedoms.

And you're doing so at a very, very critical time. We face a more dangerous and complex world than we have seen in decades our adversaries are watching us closely. They are expanding their militaries they are modernizing their nuclear forces, and they are looking for any sign of weakness. Well, they won't find it here.

And that makes the mission here at Offutt more important than ever. Every day, the men and women who serve, they help to deter our adversaries, defend our homeland, and to keep America safe. Much of that work happens quietly, far from the public eye, But make no mistake, it is essential for our national security.

As a Nebraskan, I could not be prouder that Offutt calls our state home. Nebraskans understand the importance of this mission, and we are deeply grateful to the men and women who carry it out. Reenlisting is not simply a career decision; it's a decision to keep putting something larger than yourself first.

It is a commitment to your fellow service members, to your family and to the American people. So I thank you for choosing to serve. I thank you and your families for standing beside you in the work and the service that you do every day, and I thank you for everything you do to defend our great nation. Thank you.

Announcer: Thank you, Senator Fisher. Now, ladies and gentlemen, Team STRATCOM, please give a nuclear hot welcome to Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth.

[Applause]

SECRETARY OF WAR PETE HEGSETH: Now, this might be the best scene in America right now, no doubt. It is an honor to be here with all of you, an incredible group of great Americans. And I want to start by thanking the admiral. We had a chance to go down into the bowels, and into the basement, deep beneath. It looks exactly like it would in the movies.

He gave us, gave me yet another reminder of the incredible capabilities of this command, uh, both uniform and civilian, across all services. what this place does, no other command and no other country can do, full stop. Thank you for your leadership, Admiral. Under your leadership, the modernization, the acceleration, every aspect of what we do has been on hyper-speed, and that's what we've asked for and you've delivered. So thank you very much, Admiral, appreciate it.

[Applause]

And Senators Ricketts and Fischer, God bless you. Thanks for being here. Thanks for inviting me all the way back in confirmation and more recently in Shangri-La [IISS Shangri-La Dialogue], and reminding us of how important it was to come out here and see it and feel it and touch it, uh, right here on the ground.

And you have - you couldn't have two better advocates for United States Strategic Command than the two Senators here in Nebraska, who, you know, live, breathe and eat all things NC3 and nuclear triad and understanding the - the incredible importance of deterrence and that it lives here. Thank you for being incredible advocates for the budget required here, as well.

Uh, we are going to deliver on $1.5 trillion, we are going to deliver on a reconciliation bill, a supplemental bill, a baseline bill, add it all up. I don't care how we do it, we're going to get to $1.5 trillion and a generational investment. The President's committed to it, your two Senators are committed to it, and we're going to make sure in the upcoming months or in a lame duck, that we deliver on that.

So two great Senators. Thank you, Senators.

[Applause]

Most Americans probably don't know what the United States Strategic Command does. It's got a high-falutin [ph], fancy title that's sufficiently ambiguous. United States Strategic Command, what is it? What is it, it's the - it's the absolute foundation of our deterrence.

I talk a lot about reviving the warrior ethos and rebuilding the military and reestablishing deterrence; deterrence never left this place, never has. And that's a 24/7, 365 responsibility that the men and women in this - at this location live every single day. It is the absolute bedrock, which is why the investments that we're making at the department start right here.

They have to. And it's something these Senators ingrained in me from the very beginning, all aspects of NC3, the nuclear triad. And so what you'll see in Columbia, what you'll see in B-21, what you see in Sentinel, what you'll see in NC3, what you see in the new E-4b. All the things that we are trying to push and accelerate are a reflection that we will leave this place better than we found it. That's certainly my responsibility -

My job is to serve all of you. We serve the American people. You serve for your families you serve because you love this country. And a lot of the things that we do here, yes, we'll see in 2026 and 2027 and 2028, but a lot of them, we won't see until 2034 or 2038. And an example I use all the time are these beautiful B-2s, which thankfully, a lot of folks in Washington, DC got to see yesterday at that great Indy car race and those flyovers, but that - those B-2s that were, say, for example, used at Midnight Hammer, that's not an asset that we procured.

It was previous Congresses, previous secretaries, previous military leaders who said, we need a strategic bombing capability that looks like that, and they were willing to invest in it and fund it and resource it to ensure that future presidents and future secretaries had a strategic asset like that.

They didn't know how and when it would be used, and it was used powerfully and exquisitely in that particular example as it's used on a regular basis. Same thing goes for the assets that we're investing in right here. I won't be the secretary. There'll be future secretaries and future presidents that employ them, but my responsibility is to ensure that my kids and grandkids and your kids and grandkids sleep safely under the net of freedom provided by a future United States Strategic Command, with the best assets, the most capable and the most modern to ensure a 100 percent credible threat of nuclear deterrence that the American people expect, that a president needs to have at his or her fingertips, and that ultimately, our adversaries have to understand and know works.

And that's what's different about what you do at Strategic Command. You see, the Senator did a nice job laying out the threats in the world today and you know them and I know them, they're countries building exquisite capabilities only specifically designed to defeat and target us. That's it; there's no other rationale and reason for that buildup.

But they know right now that if we have to employ the capabilities of this particular command, we can at the president's direction, at any time. And that is the absolute bedrock that keeps us, our people, our nation free, full stop. You want to talk deterrence, it's that deterrent right there. It limits the abilities of adversaries, it limits the ambitions of adversaries, maximizes the decision space of the President of the United States.

And this President does a nice job of using that latitude and that deterrence in order to advance American interests. Uh, speaking of that, I mean, it's pretty simple when it comes to what President Trump asked me to do, it's put America first, Americans, American citizens, our terrain, our people first.

It's peace through strength and this place is the bedrock of peace through strength. And then it's apply common sense throughout the entirety of our formations, and that gets to reviving the warrior ethos. As I work my way backwards a little bit here, reviving the warrior ethos is putting commanders back in charge, to ensure that standards can be enforced and clearly and equally across our formations. No more distraction of social engineering and DEI and social justice stuff. That's good for academia and colleges and universities.

Inside our formations, we do merit-based, colorblind, gender neutral, full stop. That's it. And we don't want commanders walking on eggshells when they enforce the basics, like accountability, like standards, like readiness. You want to talk about something - a place where meritocracy has to reign no matter what, where you have to be ready at all times, no matter what. It's the United States strategic command. Nothing else matters; we just need folks that are very good at their job and able to conduct that without - with minimal distraction, up and down echelon, subsea and space, that's this place right here.

And then my job is we restore the warrior ethos is to help rebuild the military and that's why I want to come back to what the Senators are focused on, what we're focused on. My main effort right now is ensuring that we get the resources to you to ensure that these modernizations happen, not eventually, but that every deadline is moved to the left. With this President, trust me, I hear it across the resolute desk every day, Pete, faster, more uh, don't - don't be comfortable with the status quo of some deadline that's been set for you because the bureaucracy set that deadline, move at the speed of business. And that's why we're not asking for $1.5 trillion to do things the way we've always done them.

We're asking $1.5 trillion to make a generational investment to operate at the speed of business, which is why the next stop we're taking today, actually, we're flying over to Wisconsin to talk to a defense manufacturer to restart our Arsenal of Freedom tour, which is a tour across the country over the course of this year to businesses large and small in our defense industrial base that will build the things that you - will be in your hands to ensure deterrence.

But for too long, we outsourced those capabilities or we didn't invest in our defense industrial base and we allowed our defense companies to effectively become appendages of government. So many of the things that you rely on that are incredible, exquisite capabilities were built by just a small handful of companies, great companies, many of which we still rely on, we're investing in right now, and they're fantastic, we need them, but they started to look a lot more like the department than like business. And our department can be a bureaucratic maze and in order to navigate a bureaucratic maze, you build your own bureaucracy to navigate that maze, and bureaucracies are not built to move quickly. Well, in the 21st century battlefield, everything has to iterate and move quickly.

It's all about autonomy and AI and tech and cyber, the ability to move information, move people, move things, execute and iterate quickly. Bureaucracies are not built that way, and so we need to build and operate at the speed of business. And our arsenal of freedom needs to expand. It can't just be five prime contract defense contractors.

It's got to be 10, it's got to be 15, it's got to be 20, it's got to be 25. We've got to open the bureaucracy so that more companies, great American companies, can compete. They build it here, they employ Americans here, they manufacture here at scale and at speed. That'll take investment from us but it takes a different kind of investment.

And I wish our deputy secretary of war was here. He chains himself to his desk because he's so dedicated to ensuring that we fix the bureaucracy, but I wish he could come out and see all of you more regularly to understand and see the people that he's helping. He's been a businessman, he's a, I don't know, multibillionaire businessman whose entire career has been in turnarounds, turning around failed businesses, and he's effectively turning upside down the way our department operates to ensure that smaller companies can compete and larger companies look more like businesses again.

And one of those things is demanding companies invest in additional assembly - plants and assemblies of their own. You see, for a long time, our department would fund not just a company's weapon systems, we're buying more weapons, but if they were to invest in a new plant, we had to build it for them. And President Trump, a businessman, said, well, that's not the way it's supposed to work.

How about instead, we give you long lead time orders, meaning we're going to buy your stuff for five, six, seven, eight years. We know we are because it's a great capability, but in return, we're going to ask you to build a new plant or a new factory, in America, for American jobs. And what happens when you build something?

It's a basic principle of economics. If you build something yourself, you're more likely to want to take care of it and make sure you make money with that investment, with the thing that you build. And so as a result, American taxpayers are saving money because these private companies are investing in new plants and new manufacturing capability.

Taxpayer also wins when you get a seven year order on a fixed price. And most importantly, for this audience, who wins, the warfighter, who gets the capabilities that you deserve faster than you've ever gotten them before, and with a magazine depth that you need for a modern battlefield, an arsenal of freedom requires not just a few more missiles or a few more satellites, or a few more capabilities.

It requires 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x of the things that you do and the things that you build. And then, of course, the ability to build really sophisticated, exquisite systems like the B-21 or the Columbia class, that only America can build. And they take a long time to build and only a certain few number of companies can build them.

We invest in those things, too. So it's high end and low end mix. It's commercial, using commercial applications and not just defense applications that the company we're going to today does 90 percent commercial business and 10 percent defense. That's great. We want more of our big domestic manufacturers involved in defense.

So we've acknowledged that the defense industrial base is one of the core pillars of how we ensure that America stays free, so that the things that you deter with are both modern and we have sufficient amounts to do it. I would just - I would just close by saying, and I mean this, I get a chance to travel the globe.

I get a chance to look out at audiences and my security detail that's with us, you know, all the time and we'll get ready for church or we'll, we'll be going somewhere and they're waiting outside. And I always, I'll yell at the kids and say, kids, the great Americans are waiting outside.

Kids, don't make the great Americans wait. And that's what I've sort of taken as a phrase when I look out at all of you, just great Americans, just great Americans doing incredible things, selflessly, standing on the shoulders of 250 years of other great Americans who put their country first, who realized that the freedoms that we love and that we cherish, they don't defend themselves.

Somebody's got to carry a rifle and put on a uniform and do something about it, deploy away from their family, put their life on the line, up to and including the cost of their own life in order to defend those freedoms. You do that at the highest, most strategic level, putting yourself between geopolitical adversaries and their calculations about what they will or will not do, whether today is the day or not the day. You've raised your right hand to do the same thing, whether you're in uniform or a civilian, both locked together.

That's the other reason I'm doing the Arsenal of Freedom Tour, is that I want the hard hats to know that they're in it with us. If you're building something and you're building it faster and you're building more of it so that all of you can use it, you're in the fight too; you're a part of the arsenal of freedom.

So to this audience of great Americans, I simply just want to say thank you. I want to encourage you, ask you to keep going as fast and as hard as you can, and please know that we have your back, that President Trump has - tells me that on a regular basis, Pete, go out and do what you got to do, we've got your back.

And so to you, I say, we untie your hands, we give you maximum authority and the admiral certainly knows that. What authorities do you need? What kind of legislation do you need? We'll give you all the runway you can to be as effective as possible at every echelon of what you do, running at the speed of business with full hearts for love of this country.

So please pass to your families also my gratitude, the gratitude of everyone at the Pentagon, that we know you serve for them, but we serve for you and we serve for them also - and our job is to have your back in every way in the incredible work that you do. You are the foundation of American deterrence.

We know it. I read the reports every week that get sent to me of the work that you're doing. There's a close eye on the incredible modernization going on here, and it's going to make the difference about keeping the 21st century a free century. God bless you all. Thank you very much.

[Applause]

ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, today Secretary Hegseth will reenlist three of our US STRATCOM members, Sergeant Kevin Crespo Molade [ph], Master Sergeant Andrew Call [ph] and Tech Sergeant Anthony Moore [ph]. Please join Secretary Hegseth on stage.

SECRETARY OF WAR PETE HEGSETH: Thank you, all. Raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, state your full name.

[Crosstalk]

Do solemnly swear -

[Crosstalk]

- that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States -

[Crosstalk]

- against all enemies -

[Crosstalk]

- foreign and domestic.

[Crosstalk]

And that I will bear true faith -

[Crosstalk]

- and allegiance to the same.

[Crosstalk]

That I will obey the orders -

[Crosstalk]

- of the President of the United States -

[Crosstalk]

- and the orders of the officers -

[Crosstalk]

- appointed over me -

[Crosstalk]

- according to regulations -

[Crosstalk]

- and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

[Crosstalk]

So help me God.

[Crosstalk]

Congratulations, appreciate it.

[Applause]

SECRETARY OF WAR PETE HEGSETH: Thank you very much, appreciate you guys. Thank you, appreciate it. You got it.

[Crosstalk]

SECRETARY OF WAR PETE HEGSETH: Thank you.

UNKNOWN: Thank you, sir.

[Applause]

ANNOUNCER: Secretary Hegseth will now recognize five top performers within US STRATCOM. Please hold your applause until we have finished coining.

SECRETARY OF WAR PETE HEGSETH: [Inaudible]

ANNOUNCER: Captain Taylor Matarazzo [ph] serves in the Plans and Policy Directorate, where she brilliantly led the tempo of the 2026 US STRATCOM Deterrence Symposium. Staff Sergeant Alec Richardson [ph] is a strategic warning controller in the Global Operations Center, where he relayed vital information during 590 real world missile events.

Sergeant Malik Harris [ph] serves as an administrator and site security manager who revived a critical team after an 18 month vacancy to achieve 100 percent command compliance. Petty Officer Second Class Caitlin Bradbury [ph] led a 10 person team migrating US STRATCOM task system, optimizing workflows for 1,200 users and modernizing decision space operations.

Staff Sergeant Joshua Stelly [ph] is an administration specialist and the Intelligence Directorate who deployed a personnel tracking system for the fiscal year 27 Manpower Board. Ladies and gentlemen, give congratulations to our five superior performers and thank you, Secretary Hegseth.

[Applause]

SECRETARY OF WAR PETE HEGSETH: Congratulations. Can I do a picture? Let's do a picture. Come on over.

DEB FISCHER: We're back.

SECRETARY OF WAR PETE HEGSETH: Come on back.

DEB FISCHER: Thank you so much for the work you do. Thank you for the work you do.

SECRETARY OF WAR PETE HEGSETH: Great job.

DEB FISCHER: Thank you.

DEB FISCHER: Good job.

SECRETARY OF WAR PETE HEGSETH: Awesome. Thank you.

[Applause]