Pete Hegseth’s Crew Got Chewed Out at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Narrowly dodging impeachment yesterday might have put Pete Hegseth in too chipper a mood. After a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Hegseth posed for photos in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with a group that included his wife, Jennifer, and several other members of his staff.

But when loud laughter and chatter from their group rang out from the top of the steps, the sentinel on patrol turned and forcefully rebuked them: “All visitors will maintain an atmosphere of silence and respect at all times,” the sentinel boomed. 

Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell didn’t dispute what happened. “The Secretary and the entire Department have always honored—and will always honor—the sacrifices our military men and women have made to keep America safe,” he insisted in a statement. 

The Tomb is one of the most sacred war memorials in the country. It has been guarded around the clock since 1937, and soldiers from the 3rd US Infantry Regiment, known as the Old Guard, have held the post since 1948. Their job is to protect the Tomb from any desecration or disrespect—which usually means correcting oblivious tourists and unruly children, not the Pentagon’s top official and his inner circle. 

It’s also extremely difficult to become a tomb sentinel. The guards must be in peak physical condition and possess an unblemished military record—the exact kind of soldier Hegseth is constantly claiming the military needs more of. Although they’re just a bit more diverse than he’d probably prefer: women have guarded the Tomb since 1996, and the first all-female guard change took place in 2021. 

Luckily for Pete, his boss doesn’t much care about military decorum either. In 2024, Trump campaign staffers reportedly pushed an Arlington cemetery official who tried to stop their photographer, as federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities at the cemetery. Rather than apologize, then–campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung—now the White House Communications Director—said the official was “clearly suffering from a mental health episode.”

Reverence for history isn’t exactly this administration’s strong suit, either. Hegseth has spent his tenure scrubbing trailblazing service members off military websites, railing against “beardos,” and stopping the promotions of high ranking female and Black officers.

On Tuesday, defending himself against impeachment articles filed by outgoing GOP Rep. Thomas Massie, Hegseth specifically invoked the holiday, saying that “on the eve of Veterans Day,” Massie’s resolutions supposedly told every veteran “that their service was a crime.” 

But the people he claims to speak for aren’t feeling especially championed. In a September poll commissioned by the veterans advocacy group Common Defense, 79 percent of veterans, service members, and military family members said they felt left behind by politicians and society. Fully half disapproved of Hegseth. 

Getting shushed at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Veterans Day probably won’t help.