Hegseth’s Small-Ball Directive

Review by Bill Doughty––

The Pentagon’s new requirement for periodic testosterone screening for males over 30 aims to restore energy, metabolism, muscle strength, concentration and energy. Hegseth’s directive states that “targeted testosterone therapy directly optimizes Warfighter readiness.”

But testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) can also shrink testicles.

The Endocrine Society and the American College of Physicians) and other health experts criticize universal screening as unnecessary and potentially harmful. They say testosterone replacement therapy and artificial hormone injections carry known medical risks, not just the potential for smaller cojones.

Health risks include permanent natural hormone suppression, reduced sperm count, infertility, blood clots, stroke, heart rhythm risks, and aggravated sleep apnea. Clinical trials showed a nearly 50 percent relative increase in pulmonary embolism and an increased incidence of bone fractures among testosterone-treated men, according to the Endocrine Society.

How testosterone affects the psyche is more nuanced, according to science writer Robert M. Sapolsky.

Sapolsky explains the pros and cons –– and misconceptions –– about testosterone in his books “The Trouble with Testosterone: and other Essays on the Biology of the Human Predicament” (Scribner, 1997) and “Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst” (Penguin Press, 2017).

In the tradition of Stephen J. Gould, Oliver Sacks, and Edward O. Wilson, Sapolsky takes complicated scientific issues and translates them for the general public in a readable, friendly, and humorous style. His main idea about testosterone is this: it “isn’t causing aggression, it’s exaggerating aggression that is already there.”

From The Trouble with Testosterone:

“Round up some male monkeys. Put them in a group together, and give them plenty of time to sort out where they stand with each other –– affiliative friendships, grudges and dislikes. Give them enough time to form a dominance hierarchy, a linear ranking system of numbers 1 through 5. This is the hierarchical sort of system where number 3, for example, can pass his day throwing around his weight with numbers 4 and 5, ripping off their monkey chow, forcing them to relinquish the best spots to sit in, but, at the same time, remembering to deal with numbers 1 and 2 with shit-eating obsequiousness.”

In other words, with increased testosterone, those in the mid-level ranks will kowtow to their superiors while have increased aggression to subordinates. [Incidentally, it can take big testicular fortitude to stand up to those in power.]

In his various works Sapolsky (right with friend) cites studies of baboons, hyenas, humans, and other animals. In particular, he focuses on the brain’s role in affecting traits of dominance and submission.

Notably, at the same time that Hegseth touts TRT as necessary for enhanced readiness, critics and medical studies show that hormone interventions can shorten emotional triggers and increase reactivity and aggression. This is especially true, as Sapolsky reveals, in individuals with pre-existing impulsive or dominance traits.

From Behave by Sapolsky:

“Testosterone has far less to do with aggression than most assume. Within the normal range, individual differences in testosterone levels don’t predict who will be aggressive. Moreover, the more an organism has been aggressive, the less testosterone is needed for further aggression. When testosterone does play a role, it’s facilitatory — testosterone does not 'invent' aggression. It makes us more sensitive to triggers of aggression. Also, rising testosterone levels foster aggression only during challenges to status. Finally, crucially, the rise in testosterone during a status challenge does not necessarily increase aggression; it increases whatever is needed to maintain status.”

Testosterone, therefore, is a building block to a caste system, cementing a rank structure that relies on aggressive behavior to subordinates especially in stressful situations.

Critics of Hegseth’s requirement for TRT also decry the costs, likelihood of false-positives, and risk of unnecessary over-diagnosis and over-treatment. Thoughtful experts note the inequality of the “MANdate” –– requiring screening for men only. Does the policy give an unfair advantage to males for key assignments and promotions?

The controversy seems to be in line with Hegseth’s previously stated stance against women in combat as he expressed in his book War on Warriors and in a 2024 podcast shortly before his nomination as Secretary of Defense. Prior to his nomination Hegseth announced, “I'm straight up just saying we shouldn't have women in combat roles.” Since then he said if women can’t meet male standards “so be it.”

While the Pentagon has excluded women from hormone screening so far, officials say they are reviewing a  “female clinical practice guideline” related to “hormone disruptions,” with consideration of possible estrogen-based therapies.

Critics also renounce the apparent hypocrisy of removing vaccine mandates to protect service members from influenza and COVID while requiring mandatory testosterone screening.

In removing vaccine requirements last April, Hegseth proclaimed, ”your body, your faith and your convictions are not negotiable.” Some say forcing hundreds of thousands of male troops 30 years old and older to undergo blood draws for hormone levels may violate that exact principle of medical autonomy.

By the way, public health officials criticized dropping the flu mandate, saying it was an ideological choice rather than an informed decision backed by medical science. (After Lackland Air Force Base experienced a massive flu outbreak, the military quickly reinstated the vaccine for basic recruits.) 

Some free thinkers argue the testosterone policy mirrors a similar disregard for established medical professionals’ consensus. It should be noted that only screening for testosterone levels is required, and TRT is not yet mandatory. 

But men who wish to advance in rank or be selected for plum assignments may feel compelled to accept TRT regardless of the health consequences (including, as mentioned, testicular atrophy.) One can easily see how those who get the T will be considered as more promotable Team players.

Some men may even try to juice up on testosterone prior to their screenings in order to be considered for promotion.

Hegseth’s finalized clinical guidance related to career advancement goes one step further: leaders diagnosed with testosterone deficiency and undergoing TRT may face immediate disqualification for duty in high-stakes specialized fields, including aeromedical, dive, submarine, and nuclear operations.

In one of his Dr. Seuss-like utterances, Hegseth said the U.S. military should conduct operations with “maximum lethality, not tepid legality.” (His recent announcement of wanting to conduct a public execution by firing squad for the religiously inspired Fort Hood shooter seems to dovetail with that philosophy. His desire for hormonally enhanced warfighters also fits the mold.)

Yet, author Sapolsky’s research highlights that testosterone, as a baseline level for "lethality" and physical dominance, is scientifically flawed for three reasons: (1) the “volume control” myth, (2) environmental impacts, and (3) exaggeration of what testosterone actually does.

Volume control: Hegseth frames the policy as a way to ensure troops have the "right" level to operate at their absolute best. Sapolsky’s core thesis is that testosterone does not cause behavior or aggression; it simply “permits” it. As an analogy, Sapolsky asks readers to consider a volume knob. You need a baseline level of testosterone for a radio to play, but turning the volume knob all the way up doesn't change which song is playing.

Environment: Sapolsky writes about the mystery of nature vs. nurture, and in the case of testosterone, he notes the fallacy of believing low testosterone causes poor performance or lack of readiness. Sapolsky’s research shows that social context and environment dictate testosterone levels. A temporary drop in testosterone levels does not justify an arbitrary and artificial universal baseline via injections, ignoring health risks.

Exaggeration: Sapolsky writes, “Violence is more complex than a single hormone.” Testosterone does not create a superior, tougher alpha male, and because the Pentagon is purportedly targeting clinical hormonal deficiency, the actual results are negligible and could actually have a negative impact on readiness.

Consider submarine crews operating in high-stress, closed environments. If Sapolsky is right that an environment dictates that status and authority are maintained through intimidation within the hierarchy, a spike in testosterone could cause more volatile intimidation of subordinates and perceived inferiors.

Citing a New England Journal of Medicine report, Sapolsky acknowledges in The Trouble with Testosterone that, “I have emphasized that while testosterone levels in the normal range do not have much to do with aggression, a massive elevation of exposure, as would be seen in anabolic steroid abusers, does usually increase aggression.”

Considering all the risks, however, the biggest concern for men may be the possible link between Hegseth’s Big-T policy and small-t outcome.

Nuremberg: Avoiding the Abyss

Review by Bill Doughty––

How could the German people experience the rise of a narcissistic megalomaniac who took over their nation, waged war, separated and deported families, betrayed allies, subverted elections, and brought about the ultimate destruction of their economy and democracy?

That’s one of the questions considered in a rare and powerful book, “Nuremberg and Beyond: The Memoirs of Siegfried Ramler from 20th Century Europe to Hawaii” (Ahuna Press, 2008).

Hitler’s rise and fall is a subject covered in hundreds of other books. This memoir, on the other hand, by a simultaneous interpreter at the Nuremberg trials, focuses on the dozens of enablers and criminals accused of (1) crimes against peace, (2) waging aggressive war, (3) commission of war crimes, and (4) commission of crimes against humanity.

Hitler purged his military of nonbelievers, promoted demented loyalists, and surrounded himself with sycophants and power-hungry yes-men.

Ramler gives us close-up perspectives of Herman Göring, Albert Speer, Rudolf Hess, Martin Bormann, and especially Rudolf Höff as well as the military officers and doctors who carried out Hitler’s crimes. The portrayals are chilling and stomach-turning but also, as Hannah Arendt reported, simply “banal.” Ramler says many of the perpetrators seemed ordinary and normal on the outside.

Then, what power, belief, or other factor motivated the Nazis and their fueled their ability to commit atrocities such as the Holocaust in the name of the German people?

“In the years after the trials, when asked to speak or write about Nuremberg, I responded to this question by extending it beyond Germany and giving it a universal significance.

When checks on governmental power and control do not exist, when a dictatorship disregards and nullifies existing laws and creates its own decrees, when the achievement of a desired end for a nation justifies any means to obtain it, when persecution of segments of a population becomes government policy, and when the world community fails to react to crimes being committed by a dictatorship, the result leads to the abyss into which Germany descended during the Nazi era. In this sense the Nuremberg legacy, as a cornerstone of international law, takes on a universal significance beyond the role of Germany during the Hitler regime.”

Some may ask, how could the German people themselves go along with the rise of the Third Reich in their homeland?

“As for the German man and woman in the street, their support of the Nazi regime must be seen in the context of Germany's struggle for survival during wartime and living under the pressure of a dictatorship where dissent had harsh, even fatal consequences. Nevertheless, isolated and heroic examples exist of German resistance to the Nazis. The failed July 20, 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler, led by Claus von Stauffenberg, stands out as a courageous attempt which, had it succeeded, would have hastened the end of the war and influenced postwar policies and attitudes affecting Germany.

There were other, less well known, stands of defiance.

The question of the average German's knowledge about ongoing deportations, killings, and gassings, let alone shared guilt and complicity, continues to be asked. In his controversial book, Hitler's Willing Executioners, political scientist Daniel Goldhagen draws a strong causal relationship between antiSemitism and the persecution and extermination of Jews, to which many ordinary Germans contributed and supported.

His attribution of collective German guilt, however, fails to take into account the silent segment of the German population unable, and also often unwilling, to raise their voices in an atmosphere of a cruel and punitive dictatorship.

From my perspective, living for several postwar years among Germans, I came to understand this silent segment of the German population, seeing themselves also as victims of the Nazi regime. And I came to appreciate the decency of many of my German neighbors and friends.”

Under the leadership of Supreme Court Justice and U.S. Chief Prosecutor Robert Jackson, the international court set important precedents of accountability on a world scale.

“Nuremberg broke new ground and established a milestone in the practice and implementation of international law,” Ramler writes. “Nuremberg also established the principle that following superior orders cannot excuse the commotion of the crimes charged under the indictment.”

Defendants attempted obfuscation, what-aboutism deflection, and the superiority of their White Nationalism ideals to justify their actions persecuting gypsies and Jews. Even the doctors defended their experiments on people by saying their medical discoveries would help others.

Ramler reflects:

“There is no doubt that the Nuremberg experience had a powerful impact on my life, on my world view, and on my later role as educator and communicator. Facing the former leaders of Nazi Germany, both during pretrial interrogations and in the courtroom, stripped of their position and power, I saw them as ordinary individuals, characterizing what has been described by the philosopher Hannah Arendt as ‘the banality of evil.’ In Nuremberg I learned, through witnesses, testimony, and documents, of man's inhumanity to man on a massive scale and the consequences of a brutal dictatorship.”

Confronting a would-be demented dictator prevents a slide into a abyss of corruption and destruction.

Ramler’s memoir includes stories about a disrupted childhood between Germany and England in WWII and joining the military; going AWOL in order to be part of the Nuremberg team of interpreters; raising a family after the war; and serving in international peace efforts from Hawaii, where he worked as an educator and his wife Pi’ilani worked for the Navy at Pearl Harbor.

His love of reading and books as well as his study of languages prepared him for a life of success.

Siegfried Ramler

Later in life, Ramler developed a close professional –– and personal –– tie to Japan. His association with the East-West Center in Hawaii gave him a perspective on the similarities of the rise of fascism in Imperial Japan at the same time war was raged by Germany. Today, a majority of the educated and free populations in both countries respect constitutional law.

Ramler writes, “On a personal and family level, with the arduous flight of my parents from Austria and the arrest and killing of a grandparent (in a Nazi concentration camp), that inhumanity resonated directly and deeply. The Nuremberg experience, indeed the history of the Nazi era in the 1930s, convinced me of the danger of unchecked power and of the need for a global rule of law.”

In avoiding another “abyss” Ramler concludes, “Im am convinced that in facing 21st century challenges to global peace and survival, education represents the most important element in our quest for a harmonious world.”

Tattoos, Black Teeth, & Dugong Vertebrae

Review by Bill Doughty

It’s called the Great Age of Sailing … and whaling … and shipwrecks.

Two hundred years ago Europeans and Americans were sailing the seas “discovering” the islands of the Pacific, and sometimes encountering indigenous people who often captured and even enslaved shipwrecked sailors.

Mentor flounders.

Imagine how those sailors felt when confronted by naked and heavily tattooed men and women with betel-blackened teeth and adorned with jewelry made from hawksbill turtle shells, giant clam shells, and dugong vertebrae.

Eric Jay Dolin does more than imagine the encounters. His “The Wreck of the Mentor: A True Story of Death, Despair, and Deliverance in the Age of Sail” (Limelight Publishing, W.W. Norton, 2026) presents a fulsome history of the Micronesian archipelago of Palau. U.S. Navy sailors will be especially interested in his sweep of history of through the middle and late age of imperialism.

Empires like the Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, and British all had their encounters with Palau and other parts of Micronesia. The imperial age culminated with the Second World War, when the United States and its Allies successfully confronted Germany, Italy, and –– in the case of the Pacific –– Japan.

Dolin

But a hundred years prior to WWII, the world was still being explored in wooden ships under sail. It was a time when commerce and international ambitions clashed with environmental and local sovereignty. Using extensive research and over 100 illustrations, Dolin dives into that history and resultant human relations, including attempts at diplomacy and longterm peace.

Dolin’s saga begins with the foundering of the whaling ship Mentor, shipwrecked on a reef in Palau. Some of Mentor’s sailors, as well as other shipwrecked crew in the South Pacific, were held against their will or chose to be assimilated and remain in the islands as “beachcombers.”

“The Mentor, however, is not just another example of a shipwreck during the Age of Sail. It is one of the most complex and intriguing of such stories ever told, and also one that is unique. It spans multiple years and islands and provides insights into the clash of civilizations and cultures that attended the West's commercial onslaught in the Pacific. The case of the Mentor is a compelling saga full of surprising twists and turns, along with a cast of fascinating characters that are forced by dramatic circumstances into a sometimes deadly and almost always fraught embrace.”

Thankfully, Dolin includes a list of key people in his “cast of characters.”

That cast includes sailors and key personnel associated with the merchant vessel Friendship and USS Vincennes. These and other large ships represented a turning point in the history of the Age of Sail.

“The USS Vincennes, a 703-ton Boston class sloop, was A fine vessel, measuring 127 feet long and nearly 34 feet wide, with a complement of 190 officers and seamen, and bristling with 20 guns. It was built in 1825, and already had an impressive reputation: just a few years later it became the first navy ship to circumnavigate the globe.

One contemporary chronicler declared that the Vincennes was ‘said to be the most beautiful vessel of her class, and the fastest sailer in our navy.’ It was part of a growing maritime force that was, with each passing year, extending its reach throughout the world and showing other nations that America was willing to protect itself and its citizens wherever they may be.

In March 1834, the Vincennes was tasked with traveling to various South Pacific islands to repatriate Americans who were either there as beachcombers or who were being held against their will. At the top of the Vincennes's to-do list was to bring home the Americans at Palau…”

(Two namesakes of USS Vincennes, CA-44 and CL-64, would go on to fight in World War II. USS Vincennes (CA-44) escorted USS Hornet (CV-8) during the 1942 Doolittle Raid on Tokyo and fought in the Battle of Midway; it was sunk in the Battle of Savo Island in the Solomons. USS Vincennes (CL-64) fought in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the invasion of the Philippines, the Battle of Okinawa, and raids on the Japanese mainland. Nearly 50 years ago, another USS Vincennes, a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser, mistakenly shot down an Iranian airliner, killing 290 people on board — including 66 children.)

Dolin’s epilogue highlights the role of Palau in World War II as the age of imperialism came to an end.

“By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Palau was just a shadow of its former self. It had become a pawn in international politics, with no self-determination or say in its fate. The first power to step in was Spain, who in 1885 was given control over Palau as a result of an arbitration determination made by Pope Leo XIII that settled the dispute between Spain and Germany over who had rights to the Caroline Islands, including Palau. Next, Palau was sold to Germany for about $4.5 million in 1899 after Spain's defeat in the Spanish-American War. Then it was seized by Japan in 1914 after the Japanese declared war against the Germans in World War I—a seizure that was given the international seal of approval by the newly created League of Nations in 1920. On the eve of World War II, there were roughly thirty thousand Japanese in Palau, and Japanese military and administrative officials basically ran the place, bolstering the economy and fostering Japanese customs and beliefs while at the same time pushing Palauan ones aside.

Japan militarized Palau during the early years of World War II and maintained control of the islands until late 1944, when American forces defeated them. The most noteworthy clash was the bloody Battle of Peleliu, which a later US general called ‘one of the most vicious and stubbornly defended battles of the war?’ According to Lieutenant General Sadae Inoue, the Japanese general overseeing the defense of Peleliu, the Japanese Prime Minister, General Hideki Tojo, issued the following orders: ‘Your objective is to hold the island as long as possible to deny its use by the enemy to support their future plans, and kill as many Americans as you can before the last Japanese soldier dies at his post.’

The Americans faced off against Japanese soldiers who had spent years building hundreds of defensive fortifications on Peleliu, including bunkers buried deep into hillsides and above-ground pillboxes.

The Japanese also made good use of the island's numerous caves to rain down fire on the advancing American marines and soldiers. In his classic book, With the Old Breed, Marine private and mortarman Eugene Sledge reported his emotions upon hitting the beach on Pele-liu for the first time. ‘The world was a nightmare of flashes, violent explosions, and snapping bullets. Most of what I saw blurred. My mind was benumbed by the shock of it.’ Later in the campaign, he noted that ‘it was like no other battlefield described on earth. It was an alien, unearthly, surrealistic nightmare like the surface of another planet.’”

Dolin’s tale of the Mentor is one of extraordinary tragedy and documented hope –– where power projection, sea control, forward presence, and deterrence combine with maritime security and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

Today, Palau is a peaceful, colorful, and welcoming of outsiders.

The Navy’s 2026 Pacific Partnership mission conducted operations and engagements recently in Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Timor-Leste, Palau, and the Philippines. In Palau, Sailors conducted infrastructure and environmental cleanup projects, including removal of abandoned vessels.

Navy Divers, assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit (EODMU) 9, prepare the abandoned derelict vessel “Justice 1” for removal during a Pacific Partnership 2026 salvage operation in Koror, Palau, Aug 30, 2026. Now in its 22nd iteration, the Pacific Partnership series is the largest annual multinational humanitarian assistance and disaster management preparedness mission conducted in the region. Pacific Partnership works collaboratively with host and partner nations to enhance regional interoperability and disaster response capabilities, increase security in the region, and foster new and enduring friendships in the Indo-Pacific. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Moises Sandoval)