U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was at Tampa's MacDill Air Force Base on Thursday to get updates on the Iran war from Central Command, which oversees the U.S. military in the Middle East.
Hegseth said the U.S. is solely controlling the timeline of activities in Iran and will do so "as long as it takes to ensure the United States of America achieves" its objectives.
"We set the tempo," he said. "We set the timeline led by the commander on the ground."
Hegseth also paid tribute to six soldiers who died on the second day of the campaign by a retaliatory drone at a Kuwait base. That includes Capt. Cody Khork, a 17-year veteran from Winter Haven.
"We remember and honor our fallen — those six that we will soon welcome at Dover who gave everything for their country and this mission," Hegseth said.
Hegseth this week said the war could go as long as eight weeks, the longest timeline given by the Trump administration thus far.
Talking about U.S. weapons stockpiles, Hegseth said "our munitions are full up and our will is ironclad."
"Iran is hoping that we cannot sustain this, which is a really bad miscalculation for the IRGC in Iran," Hegseth said. "You see, there's no shortage of American will here.
"If you think you've seen something, just wait. The amount of combat power that's still flowing, that's still coming, that will be able to project over Iran is multiples of what it currently is right now."
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