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Secretary Hegseth Brings the Send Me Tour to the Air Force Academy, Oct. 3, 2026

October 3, 2026 · Department of War · 0:21:10

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth spoke to cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on October 3, 2026, in a full address published by the Department of War. He opened on game day — “Beat Navy,” he said, noting he had been with the Naval Academy the year before — and said he had done physical training with about 400 cadets that morning: “No better way in this country, on this planet, to start a day than PT with the best Americans on the planet.”

The visit was a stop on what Hegseth called the “Send Me Tour,” meant, he said, to showcase places like the Academy and “the real one percent, the best of our country who made the decision when you were young to serve something greater than yourself.” He traced the tour’s name to Isaiah — “Who will go for us? He said, here I am, send me” — and to 251 years of Americans answering that call. He closed on the standard he expects of the force: that when missiles fly or Patriot batteries activate, the person on a service member’s left and right should be among “the most capable human beings to have your back inside those formations,” as he put it. The Secretary also spoke to the press in Colorado Springs the same day, in a separate department upload queued on this site.

Why it matters

The Academy address is the Send Me Tour’s message in its purest form — recruiting language aimed at cadets already inside the pipeline — and it fixes the tour’s theology and standard in the Secretary’s own words: willingness to be sent, and capability as the measure of the person beside you.

Sources: U.S. Department of War, “Secretary Hegseth’s FULL ADDRESS at the United States Air Force Academy,” October 3, 2026 (official upload, embedded above). Remarks as delivered; transcript reviewed in the site’s private research store.