Pete Hegseth's Military Career: Rank, Deployments, And Key Roles

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Fox News anchor Pete Hegseth to serve as his secretary of defense, one of the most powerful cabinet-level positions in the incoming government."I am honored to announce that I have nominated Pete Hegseth to serve in my Cabinet as The Secretary of Defense," Trump said in a statement on Tuesday. "Pete has spent his entire life as a Warrior for the Troops, and for the Country. Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First. With Pete at the helm, America's enemies are on notice-Our Military will be Great Again and America will Never Back Down," Trump added. Hegseth is an Army veteran and former executive director of political advocacy groups Concerned Veterans for America and Vets for Freedom. After graduating from Princeton in 2003, Hegseth was appointed as an infantry officer in the US Army National Guard. He along with his unit was called to Guantanamo Bay in 2004, where he served as an infantry platoon leader, according to his Fox News biography. Later he served in Iraq where he was awarded a second Army Commendation Medal, Bronze Star medal, and Combat Infantry Badge, the bio said. Soon after completing duties in Iraq, he was deployed to Afghanistan along with the Minnesota Army National Guard in 2012. He served as a senior counterinsurgency instructor in Kabul. Hegseth, 44, has authored several books, out of which the most recent is "The War of Warriors," that portrays, "the kind of men prepared to face the dangers that the Left pretends don't exist," according to a Fox News summary.