Hegseth is an illustrative subtype of the “martinet” archetype.

In his case, he reveals the motivations behind the martinet’s obsession with order and protocol: a juvenile fixation on the trappings of combat, at the cost of any real understanding of war. The martinet drills and drills pointlessly; Hegseth does pushups and brags about counts of targets destroyed, all while both lose the whole war itself.