Pete Hegseth is the current U.S. secretary of defense, who since January 25, 2025 has also used the revived secondary title “Secretary of War.” In this role he is the top civilian leader of the U.S. military and heads the Department of War/Defense, serving as the president’s chief adviser on defense policy and overall military operations. He was born in 1980 in Minneapolis, served as an Army National Guard infantry officer with deployments to Guantánamo Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan, then became a conservative activist and Fox News host before being nominated and narrowly confirmed as secretary of defense in 2025.
Historically, the U.S. office of "Secretary of War" headed the War Department from 1789 until it was abolished in 1947, when the National Security Act replaced it with the Department of Defense and the cabinet-level secretary of defense. In 2025, Executive Order 14347 (“Restoring the United States Department of War”) authorized the existing Department of Defense to use “Department of War” as a secondary official name, and allowed the secretary of defense to use the additional title “Secretary of War.” This did not create a separate post—Pete Hegseth holds both titles for the same job, with the same legal powers and responsibilities as the secretary of defense; the difference is primarily historical branding.
Shinjirō Koizumi is a Liberal Democratic Party politician who has served as Japan’s minister of defense since October 2025. He is a long‑time member of the House of Representatives for Kanagawa’s 11th district and previously served as minister of the environment (2019–2021) and minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries (May–October 2025); he is also the son of former prime minister Junichirō Koizumi. The U.S. Department of War advisory states that he will conduct a joint physical training session with U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and soldiers of The Old Guard at Joint Base Myer‑Henderson Hall, which appears intended as a public, symbolic event to showcase close U.S.–Japan defense ties; any broader diplomatic agenda for his trip is not detailed in the accessible public notice.
The 3rd Infantry Regiment, nicknamed “The Old Guard,” is the oldest active‑duty infantry regiment in the U.S. Army and serves as the Army’s official ceremonial unit and “Escort to the President.” Based at Joint Base Myer‑Henderson Hall in the National Capital Region, its main duties include conducting military funerals and other memorial affairs at Arlington National Cemetery, guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier around the clock, providing honor guards and ceremonial support for visiting foreign dignitaries and state events at the White House and Pentagon, and performing public ceremonies such as the Twilight Tattoo; it also maintains trained infantry elements that can act as a quick‑reaction force for the Washington, D.C., area.
Joint Base Myer–Henderson Hall is a U.S. military installation composed mainly of Fort Myer and the adjacent Marine Corps Henderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia, just west of Arlington National Cemetery and across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The installation is operated by the U.S. Army; its Public Affairs Office at Joint Base Myer–Henderson Hall manages media relations, including releasing information, arranging interviews, and coordinating and escorting news media access onto the closed base.
The text of this specific advisory is not fully accessible, so its exact instructions are unknown, but Joint Base Myer–Henderson Hall is a closed installation whose policy is that news media may only conduct reporting on post with a public affairs escort and must RSVP for invited events using the directions in the news release so an escort and access can be arranged. In practice, that means members of the press should expect to RSVP in advance to the contacts listed on the advisory and to bring standard press identification and government‑issued photo ID in order to be credentialed and escorted onto the base.
The advisory inviting media to this physical training session is not publicly viewable in full, so it does not clearly state the ground rules; therefore photography and video cannot be confirmed from official text. However, Joint Base Myer–Henderson Hall’s Public Affairs Office is responsible for coordinating and escorting all news‑gathering activities on the installation, and invited media events of this kind are generally organized so that reporters can film and photograph, subject to any restrictions the public affairs escort imposes (for example, limits on filming certain facilities or security measures). Final authority on what may be recorded will rest with the Department of War and the base’s Public Affairs Office at the event.