Pete Hegseth is the U.S. Secretary of War — the cabinet official who leads the Department of War (the rebranded Department of Defense) and serves as the president’s top civilian advisor on military and war policy. He is a former U.S. Army National Guard infantry officer with deployments to Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and previously worked as a conservative television commentator before being sworn in as the 29th Secretary of Defense on January 25, 2025.
In this context, “Secretary of War” is the new public title for the official who is, in law, the U.S. Secretary of Defense. In September 2025, President Trump signed an executive order (“Restoring the United States Department of War”) that allows the Department of Defense to be referred to as the Department of War and the Secretary of Defense to use the secondary title “Secretary of War” in official communications and ceremonies, though all statutory references remain “Department of Defense” and “Secretary of Defense.” So it is a current, formally authorized title, but it refers to the same cabinet position that has long been known as the Secretary of Defense.
According to the Pentagon news release, Hegseth’s 90‑minute round of Christmas morale calls on December 19, 2025 reached six specific units across multiple branches:
The article states that all six units Hegseth called were deployed or stationed abroad: in South Korea, the Western Pacific (USS Abraham Lincoln in 7th Fleet), Kuwait, Norway, Guantanamo Bay, and Greenland. There is no indication that any of these particular Christmas morale calls went to units located within the continental United States, so these calls were to overseas or forward‑deployed service members.
The Pentagon article does not spell out the internal mechanics, but by practice holiday “morale calls” from senior leaders are usually organized as planned video or phone sessions coordinated by the Office of the Secretary of Defense/War and the Defense Media Activity, working with combatant commands and the specific unit chains of command to select units, schedule times, and set up secure communications. Public descriptions of similar Secretary of Defense holiday calls in past years simply note that they are arranged by the Pentagon with deployed units; detailed planning responsibilities are not publicly documented, so the exact coordinating office for this 2025 series is not specified in available sources.
The article notes that Hegseth hoped the troops would share the experience "with their friends and family," but it does not say that families participated in the calls or were notified in advance. It does indicate that unit leaders and public affairs personnel were involved enough to facilitate the calls and later provide quotes from service members, which implies that the units’ chains of command were informed and supported the events. However, there is no explicit information on any formal notification process for families or the full leadership structure, so those details are not publicly documented.
