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Being a sensible young Marine Corps aviator, I did not go to the Cheryl Crow concert in Honolulu the night before my helicopter aircraft commander (HAC) board. Also, I had a wife and an eight-month-old child at home, so the concert was completely out of the question. Childcare was not the issue. When you are a young couple and your child is the first grandchild on either side of the family and you are stationed in Hawaii, babysitters float down from the sky like Mary Poppins. The concert was out of the question because my wife knew that my HAC board was the next morning.
It was probably better that I got some sleep that night. HAC boards are rigorous, hours-long affairs that even bulletproof young Marines should enter well rested. Mine began with the easy stuff: missions of the Marine Corps, missions of Marine Corps aviation, aviation missions the CH-53D Sea Stallion could perform, aircraft systems and capabilities, normal and emergency procedures, helicopter aerodynamics, aircrew coordination, and operational risk management. That took up about twenty percent of the allotted time. The rest was dedicated to scenario-based questions to test my decision making. I would have expected nothing less.
The first school all newly-commissioned Marine Corps officers attend is The Basic School (TBS) in Quantico, Virginia, where instructors specialize in handing out hypothetical situations and asking, “What now, Lieutenant?” The situation might be a tactical dilemma or an ethical one, and there’s often not a clear right answer. However, since scenarios are often drawn from historic accounts of from the battlefield, there is a course of action that worked for some lieutenant or captain or sergeant in the past.
What now, Lieutenant?
What now, Corporal?
What now, Colonel?
You’re between this rock and that hard place. What are you going to do?
I cannot overstate how common these hypothetical scenarios are for training and evaluation across all ranks and services.
And also outside the military. People interviewing for all kinds of jobs are asked what they would do if faced with situation X or scenario Y. Parents ask children what they are going to do if a stranger asks them if they want a ride.
But what if it’s a nice lady who says she is friends with your mom?
Not even hypothetically rigorous:
Unlike my HAC board, Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing was not rigorous. For Republican senators, it was a chance to remind their target audience that they should be very worried and/or outraged about wokeness and the woke agenda and DEI and “social Marxism” and even CRT, though it may be too late now that CRT is taught in both kindergarten and law school.
None of the Republican Senators took the actual confirmation hearing part of their TV appearance any more seriously than Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), who was very impressed with himself for having Googled the qualifications for Secretary of Defense and found that the only one was that the Secretary of Defense had to be a civilian, so why were these silly Democrats saying all this stuff about qualifications? Pete Hegseth was a civilian and could fog a mirror. As far as Senator Mullin was concerned, this whole thing could have been handled in an email.
In one exchange, Senator Jim Banks (R-IN) and Hegseth showed that neither of them know how military training is conducted. Also, Senator Banks was off on one of his numbers, but only by three million.
At least Hegseth did that very boots-on-the-ground military thing and fielded scenario-based questions, right? Here is an exchange with Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA):
Sen. Kaine: You would agree that that (committing physical violence against a spouse) would be a disqualifying offense, would you not?
Hegseth: Senator, you’re talking about a hypothetical.
Such an easy one, too. Here, Pete, I will help: “Yes, Senator. That would most certainly be disqualifying for a platoon commander, much less a cabinet-level position.”
A bit later, Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) was shocked and saddened by all of this untoward asking of questions.
Sen. Cramer: I am sorry for what has been happening to you, particularly the idea that you should have to sit there and answer hypothetical—somebody’s imagination—crimes that may take place at some point . . .
Hegseth enjoyed talking over Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI)—she is, after all, a woman—without actually answering her questions.
Sen. Slotkin: Your predecessor in a Trump administration, Secretary Esper, was asked and did use uniformed military to clear unarmed protestors, given the order to potentially shoot at them. He later apologized publicly for those actions. Was he right or wrong to apologize?
Hegseth: I’m not going to put words in the mouth of Secretary Esper.
Sen. Slotkin: You don’t have to. What are you scared of? Did he do the right thing by apologizing?
Hegseth: I’m not scared of anything, Senator.
Sen. Slotkin: Then say yes or no.
Hegseth: (Never says yes or no.)
Sen Slotkin: President Trump said in November he is willing to consider using the active duty military against “the enemy within.” Have you been personally involved in discussions of using the U.S. military, active duty, within the United States?
Hegseth: Senator, I’m glad we finally got around to the topic of border security equaling national security, because blah Biden, blah blah blah
Sen. Slotkin: You didn’t answer my question.
He didn’t, and “the enemy within” statement wasn’t about border security.
Senators are now facing a very real situation. They have interviewed an astoundingly unqualified job applicant who refused to answer easy hypothetical questions relevant to the position he seeks or questions about real situations faced by a predecessor in that position. There are hundreds of millions of other people who are qualified for the job. (Just ask Senator Mullin.) There is even another guy named Pete who is right there in DC. He speaks a bunch of languages, has been in a cabinet-level position, and is amazing at answering questions.
What now, Senator?
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