WBUR Podcasts, Boston.

This is on point. I'm Megna Chakrabardi. In January, after his swearing in as the Secretary

of Defense, Pete Hegseth promised to change the culture of the United States military.

We will put America first. We will bring peace through strength. And the three principles I talked

about are what we will bring to that Pentagon. Restore the warrior ethos in everything that we do,

rebuild our military, and reestablish deterrence. Two months later, many of those changes have come to pass.

Last month, the Trump administration fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, CQ Brown.

They also fired Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Lisa Franquette,

and the Air Force's Vice Chief of Staff General James Slife,

and each of the top judge advocates general for the Army, Air Force, and Navy.

They are the most senior uniformed legal authorities in the Defense Department.

And this month, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shuttered the Office of Net Assessments and cut 60,000 civilian jobs at the Pentagon.

Now, that office of net assessments has been charged for decades with helping America prepare

for future wars.

So today, we're going to look at those sweeping changes at the Pentagon under the Trump

administration.

What do they indicate about how the White House views the very purpose of the United States Armed Services?

Secretary Frank Kendall joins us for this. He was the United States Secretary of the Air Force in the Biden administration, also a retired lieutenant colonel from the U.S. Army Reserve.

He recently wrote a guest essay in the New York Times titled America has a rogue president. Secretary Kendall, welcome to on point.

Like me. It's great to be with you. Well, first, if I may, I'd like to spend some time helping our listeners getting to know you, right, and your military background.

Because it forms a good sort of basis by which to

listen to your analysis of what's happening now. When did you first join the military?

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