The Protection Division has added extra context to provocative feedback Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth made about aggressive and even bodily troop coaching in his handle to the navy’s normal officers and admirals in late September.
In a letter responding to queries from a coalition of lawmakers, Anthony Tata, the Pentagon’s undersecretary for personnel and readiness stated that “hazing and bullying haven’t any place within the U.S. navy,” regardless of feedback from Hegseth that appeared to blur the traces on acceptable coaching.
“The definition of poisonous has been turned the wrong way up, and we’re correcting that. That’s why immediately, at my path we’re endeavor a full evaluation of the division’s definitions of so-called poisonous management, bullying and hazing, to empower leaders to implement requirements with out worry of retribution or second guessing,” Hegseth stated in his remarks.
“In fact, you possibly can’t do, like, nasty bullying and hazing. We’re speaking about phrases like bullying and hazing and poisonous. They’ve been weaponized and bastardized inside our formations, undercutting commanders and NCOs. No extra. Setting, attaining and sustaining excessive requirements is what you all do. And if that makes me poisonous, then so be it.”
Drill instructors, Hegseth stated, could be empowered “to instill wholesome worry in new recruits.”
“Sure, they will shark assault, they will toss bunks, they will swear, and sure, they will put their fingers on recruits,” he stated. “This doesn’t imply they are often reckless or violate the regulation, however they will use tried and true strategies to inspire new recruits, to make them the soldiers they should be.”
In his response letter, Tata put guardrails round the usage of bodily contact with navy recruits, saying it might be used to make sure the security of personnel.
“Drill instructors have the troublesome job of shaping civilians into troopers, sailors, airmen, guardians, and Marines,” he wrote. “Primary coaching includes actual world eventualities and weapons. When the security of the recruit or others is jeopardized, drill instructors could take acceptable actions to make sure the security of the recruits.”
The response letter didn’t outline the scope of “acceptable actions” or what would decide whether or not a drill teacher’s bodily response to a recruit was justified. However Tata did stress that Hegseth’s effort to reevaluate definitions of phrases together with “bullying” and “hazing” would, he stated, make it simpler to determine and reply to really objectionable conduct.
“What the division is attempting to get after is the unduly burdensome complaints system within the navy that undermines leaders’ effectiveness,” he wrote. “By offering definitions that concentrate on the egregious misconduct described in your letter, leaders can be empowered to extra simply handle inappropriate conduct that doesn’t represent hazing or bullying whereas focusing sources on stopping and addressing incidents of hazing and bullying.”
Rep. Judy Chu, the California congresswoman who led the group of 28 Democratic lawmakers in requesting responses from Hegseth relating to his plans to vary recruit coaching and hazing definitions, has a private connection to the problem: Her nephew, Lance Cpl. Harry Lew, died by suicide in Afghanistan in 2011 after an evening of bodily hazing and abuse by fellow Marines in punishment for falling asleep on put up.
“We would like a powerful navy the place individuals really feel that they’re unified of their need to guard this nation,” Chu advised Navy Occasions in a November interview. “Not the place they’re torturing each other to the purpose the place sure individuals really feel like they must kill themselves.”
Essentially the most lately compiled report on navy hazing, from 2024, exhibits that about one in 5 hazing and bullying complaints is substantiated, and that reporting numbers, whereas on a latest upswing, are comparatively low, with 138 hazing complaints for that yr. The Marine Corps has accounted for a disproportionately excessive share of hazing allegations since congressionally mandated reporting started in 2020.
Tata maintained within the letter {that a} “clearer definition” of hazing and bullying following the Hegseth-ordered evaluation of definitions would improve the proportion of substantiated complaints. He additionally cited a brand new database beneath improvement by the Pentagon, due to funding supplied in 2025 to gather and compile hazing complaints extra successfully.
“Traditionally, these information had been collected manually, and a few particulars of the complaints weren’t reported to the division,” he wrote.
Pentagon officers didn’t formally have an replace on the definitions evaluation, which was initially anticipated to take 30 days, however was affected by the October authorities shutdown.
In a press release to Navy Occasions following the Pentagon’s response letter, Chu was cautious.
“I’m happy that the Division of Protection has responded to our letter however stay involved about its resolution to vary the definition of hazing and processes to deal with hazing, bullying and harassment complaints,” she stated. ”I’ll proceed to steer my congressional colleagues in guaranteeing the dignity and security of all service members and recruits and that the division precisely fulfills its annual reporting necessities to Congress. Nobody ought to must endure abuse and hazing whereas honorably serving our nation.”
Hope Hodge Seck is an award-winning investigative and enterprise reporter masking the U.S. navy and nationwide protection. The previous managing editor of Navy.com, her work has additionally appeared within the Washington Submit, Politico Journal, USA Right now and Fashionable Mechanics.
