President Trump’s Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth today addressed a new class of soldiers at the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, the large U.S. Army base in Georgia.
Hegseth said: “I’m not here to give you advice on how to live your life, except you can’t go wrong when you FEAR GOD, and FEAR NO MAN, except maybe your First Sergeant.”
. @SECDEF "I'm not here to give you advice on how to live your life, except you can't go wrong when you FEAR GOD and you FEAR NO MAN except maybe your First Sergeant.
— DOD Rapid Response (@DODResponse) September 4, 2025
You already succeeded because you made the decision to be here, and you decided to come to this place, and you… pic.twitter.com/WESHiBm3eg
Hegseth, a Christian who has invited soldiers to join him in a Christian prayer and worship service at the Pentagon, has been accused of violating the First Amendment for doing so. (The Establishment clause prohibits the government from “establishing” a religion, to avoid “excessive entanglement between church and state.”)
While attendance at Hegseth’s prayer and worship service isn’t mandatory, veteran and critic of the prayer service Fred Wellman noted: “We were all taught as young officers that there are no ‘suggestions’ from Commanders. When a leader suggests or invites people to something it’s an implied task. To do so during duty hours in the military’s headquarters only makes it worse. I know the law. I did 22 years in the Army and graduated from West Point. I learned some stuff.”
Note: When Fort Benning opened in 1918 it was named after named after Confederate General Henry L. Benning, who said that he would rather be stricken with illness and starvation than see African Americans liberated from slavery and be given equality as citizens. (“I say give me pestilence and famine sooner than that,” he said.)
During the Biden administration, in May 2023, Fort Benning was officially renamed Fort Moore, as a result of a congressional mandate to remove Confederate names from military bases. (Fort Moore was named after Lieutenant General Hal Moore, a commander of the Vietnam War, and his wife, Julia Moore, who was a leader of Army Family programs including those for widows of fallen soldiers.)
In March 2025, Hegseth ordered the name changed back to Fort Benning and, bypassing the 2021 congressional law prohibiting names connected to the Confederacy, said the new name honors Corporal Fred G. Benning, a World War I hero.
