{"id":177986,"date":"2026-01-05T11:53:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T16:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=177986"},"modified":"2026-01-05T11:53:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T16:53:42","slug":"pete-hegseth-to-censure-mark-kelly-orders-retirement-rank-and-pay-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=177986","title":{"rendered":"Pete Hegseth to censure Mark Kelly-Orders retirement rank and pay review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Senator-Mark-Kelly-of-Arizona.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-177988\" src=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Senator-Mark-Kelly-of-Arizona-222x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"222\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Senator-Mark-Kelly-of-Arizona-222x300.jpeg 222w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Senator-Mark-Kelly-of-Arizona-247x333.jpeg 247w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Senator-Mark-Kelly-of-Arizona.jpeg 568w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 222px) 100vw, 222px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War, announced that Senator Mark Kelly, Democrat from Arizona, will receive a formal censure letter. Additionally, Hegseth directed John Phelan, Secretary of the Navy, to review Kelly&#8217;s\u00a0 retirement rank and pay. Phelan was directed to provide a recommendation within 45 days. The decision could potentially impact Kelly&#8217;s retirement rank and pay.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>\u00a0From Fox News:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., will receive a formal censure letter and that he has directed Secretary of the Navy John Phelan to review the retired Navy captain&#8217;s retirement rank and pay and provide a recommendation in 45 days, sharply escalating an investigation alleging he made &#8220;seditious statements&#8221; that undermined military operations.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Six weeks ago, Senator Mark Kelly &#8212; and five other members of Congress &#8212; released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline,&#8221; Hegseth said in a statement to Fox News Digital. &#8220;As a retired Navy Captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he is still accountable to military justice. And the Department of War &#8212; and the American people &#8212; expect justice.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The review could result in a downgrade of Kelly&#8217;s rank at which he officially retired. As a result, his retirement pay, which is tied to rank, may also be reduced.<\/p>\n<p>A censure letter will also be issued outlining the &#8220;totality of Captain Kelly&#8217;s reckless misconduct,&#8221; Hegseth said.<\/p>\n<p>Such a letter typically calls out figures for wrongdoing and can be used to justify reductions in rank, pay or benefits. It also serves as an official warning that future misconduct could result in harsher consequences.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Additional Reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Chu, B., &amp; Taylor, L. (2026, January 5). Hegseth moves to censure Sen Mark Kelly, review his retirement rank and pay over &#8216;seditious video&#8217;. <em>Fox News<\/em>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/hegseth-moves-censure-sen-mark-kelly-review-his-retirement-rank-pay-over-seditious-video\">Link<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War, announced that Senator Mark Kelly, Democrat from Arizona, will receive a &hellip; <a title=\"Pete Hegseth to censure Mark Kelly-Orders retirement rank and pay review\" class=\"hm-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=177986\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Pete Hegseth to censure Mark Kelly-Orders retirement rank and pay review<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[703,237,84,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-177986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-navy","category-big-pentagon","category-military-issues","category-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=177986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177986\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=177986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=177986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=177986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}