What branch of the military did Pete Hegseth serve in and when?
Executive summary
Pete Hegseth served as an officer in the U.S. Army National Guard (including service with the Minnesota and New Jersey Army National Guard units), rising to the rank of major and deploying repeatedly to Guantánamo Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan; public records and biographical profiles list his Guard service spanning the post‑9/11 era through roughly 2021 (with multiple breaks and returns) [1] [2] [3]. Reporting and official biographies consistently identify the Army National Guard as his service branch, while timelines for exact start and stop dates vary across sources [4] [1] [2].
1. The branch: Army National Guard — not active‑duty Navy or Marines
Every authoritative profile examined identifies Hegseth as an Army National Guard officer, specifically tied to state Guard units such as Minnesota’s and at times a New Jersey unit for a Guantánamo Bay rotation; none of the reliable sources claim he served in the Navy or Marine Corps, and multiple fact checks explicitly reject assertions that he was a Navy SEAL [1] [3] [5]. The Department of Defense biography and mainstream encyclopedias describe his commissioning as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard and list his deployments and positions—details consistent with Guard service rather than full‑time active‑duty service in another branch [4] [1].
2. When he served: deployments and timeline through the 2010s into 2021
Public records and contemporaneous biographies show Hegseth deployed three times after 9/11: to Guantánamo Bay in roughly 2004–2005, to Iraq in 2005–2006 (as an infantry platoon leader and civil‑military operations officer), and to Afghanistan around 2011–2012 as a senior counterinsurgency instructor; those deployments are documented in multiple profiles and organizational bios [3] [5] [1]. Multiple outlets summarize his broader service window as spanning the early 2000s through about 2021: Ballotpedia and other biographical compilations list service periods such as 2003–2006, 2010–2014, and 2019–2021 and state that he transitioned to the Individual Ready Reserve after promotion to major in 2015 before rejoining the Guard later [2] [6]. Some summaries condense the record to "since 9/11" or list 2003–2021 as his Guard affiliation, which aligns with the pattern of repeated active‑duty mobilizations interleaved with reserve/IRR status [6] [7].
3. Rank and roles: infantry officer, platoon leader, counterinsurgency instructor
Hegseth’s military specialty and roles are consistently described as infantry and civil‑military operations: sources report he served as an infantry platoon leader in Baghdad, as a civil‑military operations officer in Samarra, and later as a senior counterinsurgency instructor at the Counterinsurgency Training Center in Kabul; these roles are cited in biographical entries and veterans’ organization pages [3] [5] [1]. He is listed as having risen to the rank of major and earning combat and service awards such as Bronze Stars and an infantryman’s combat badge, details repeated across Ballotpedia, Britannica, and veterans’ bios [1] [2] [5].
4. Where sources agree, differ, and why it matters
Sources uniformly agree on the branch (Army National Guard), on multiple overseas deployments, and on his rank as major, but they differ in precise calendarization and phrasing: some write his service began "since 9/11," others list discrete service blocks (2003–2006, 2010–2014, 2019–2021), and a few summaries give a continuous 2003–2021 span—differences that reflect Guard service patterns (mobilizations, IRR status, returns to the Guard) rather than substantive contradictions about branch or operational roles [6] [2] [7]. Official DoD and historical biographies emphasize current civilian office and confirmation dates, so timelines in media bios can blur gaps; relying on Guard and DoD biographies provides the clearest confirmation that Hegseth’s military service was with the Army National Guard and included the documented deployments listed above [4] [8] [1].