| Pete Hegseth | |
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| Born | Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Allegiance | United States of America |
| Service/branch | U.S. Army National Guard |
| Years of service | 2003–present |
| Rank | Captain |
| Awards | Bronze Star Army Commendation Medal (2) Expert Infantryman Badge Combat Infantryman Badge |
Captain Pete Hegseth, USA has been the Executive Director of Vets For Freedom since 2007, and is one of the senior counterinsurgency instructors at the Counterinsurgency Training Center in Kabul with the Minnesota National Guard. Captain Hegseth has made multiple appearances on national TV shows as a military analyst and is currently on leave of absence from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
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Hegseth attended Forest Lake Area High School in Forest Lake, Minnesota and then received his Bachelor of Arts at Princeton University in 2003. Following graduation, Hegseth was commissioned as an infantry officer into the U.S. Army National Guard in 2003. In 2004, his unit was called to Guantanamo Bay where Hegseth served as an infantry platoon leader, during which he was awarded the Army Commendation Medal. Shortly after returning from Cuba, Hegseth volunteered to serve in Baghdad and Samarra, where he held the position of Infantry Platoon Leader and, later in Samarra, of Civil-Military Operations Officer. During his time in Iraq, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, and a second Army Commendation Medal.
Upon return from Iraq, Hegseth worked briefly at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. In 2007, he left the conservative think tank to take the helm of Vets For Freedom as Executive Director. At that time, the organization had no staff, limited membership, and no budget. By 2008, after eighteen months of Hegseth's leadership, the group had grown to 95,000 members with a $9 million budget and a dozen staff members. While leading Vets For Freedom from 2007-2010, he was also a Fox News military analyst and made multiple television appearances on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC.
Captain Hegseth is currently serving as Senior Counterinsurgency Instructor in Afghanistan. He is also a team member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a contributor to the National Review Online, as well as the author of many editorials in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, New York Post, and The Washington Times.
Hegseth was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and raised in Forest Lake, Minnesota. He married his second wife, Samantha, in the spring of 2010 and in June 2010 the couple had a son, Gunner.
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Bronze Star |
| Army Commendation Medal | |
| Expert Infantryman Badge |