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A group of 10 American Olympians serving in the US military were honored at the Pentagon on April 17.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who was leading the war effort against Iran, found time to meet with the athletes at a ceremony to honor their achievements at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. All 10 were members of the high-performance World Class Athlete Program (WCAP) sponsored by the US military.
“It’s not every day you get invited to the Secretary of War’s office,” American sledder Frankie Del Duca told Pak Gazette Digital. “We had a good conversation about the military.”
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War Sec. Pete Hegseth addresses WCAP Olympians at the Pentagon. (Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Eric Brann)
Del Duca was the Olympic flag bearer for Team USA in Cortina in February. As an American of Italian descent, it had special cultural meaning for him and his family to have the honor in Italy.
Del Duca is also an infantryman in the US Army.
“I’m an infantryman,” he said. “There are different tasks I can take on as I gain experience. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve. I am very proud to serve our country and I love our country and the United States.”
Hegseth himself was an Army infantry officer who served in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.
But so far Del Duca has only worked as an athlete for the military: He enlisted in 2019 and trained as a bobsledder in Lake Placid, New York. But as a WCAP athlete, he will also play a military-related role.
“We’ve had WCAP members who have been in the military first… and then we have some who maybe do it after,” Del Duca said, adding that he falls into the “after” group.
“Wherever I might be stationed next, and where I might, different assignments, where I might end up, I’m going to take those same lessons that I learned and apply them to the next unit. So it’s something that I’m very grateful and proud of. And I hope that spreads across our country. I hope that it shows that we’re together and that we’re resilient and that we’re fit and ready.”
Del Duca is a young father of two children, each less than four years old.
“It’s made me a better father,” Del Duca said of his experience in the military. “I have two children, [ages] One and three, they keep me on my toes.”
Other branches of the military are well represented in WCAP, especially the Air Force.
Team USA skeleton athlete Kelly Curtis, who was also honored at the ceremony, is preparing to return to Italy after competing in the Milan Cortina games.
War Sec. Pete Hegseth takes a photo with 10 WCAP Olympians at the Pentagon (Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Eric Brann)
“I will be returning to the 31st Communications Squadron at Aviano Air Base,” Curtis told Pak Gazette Digital. “I’m a knowledge operations technician… it’s basically like an information traffic cop.”
Curtis says he has a lineage in his family, on his mother’s side, that includes service members in every American war dating back to the Revolutionary War.
She thought her brother would take on the duty of his generation. And he did, but she soon knew she would join him.
“I didn’t think I could serve in the military,” Curtis said. “When this opportunity came up, I became good enough at my sport. I was looking at the Army program, but talking to my brother, who had also served in the Air Force, I decided to give the Air Force a try.”
Now, as he continues his family tradition of serving in the U.S. Army during times of war, he feels great honor for that significance.
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“I don’t think any particular moment is more honorable than another,” he said. “When I take the oath of enlistment, you sign up to defend your country, and that’s something I take seriously. The work I do with the World Class Athlete Program is different, it’s softer diplomacy, so I don’t see a lot of what my colleagues might see…
“There is honor when you enlist to defend your country.”
The WCAP program delivered a medalist to Team USA in 2026, including Air Force women’s bobsledder Jasmine Jones.
Jones became a viral sensation on social media for an interview with Pak Gazette Digital when he expressed great pride in representing the United States on the world stage, at a time when many Americans yearned for patriotism among their Olympic athletes.
And then Jones won bronze in women’s bobsled, alongside her teammate, Olympic legend Kaillie Humphries, helping Humphries become the most decorated bobsled athlete in history.
Jones was honored with her medal during the ceremony at the Pentagon.
“I was honored to be recognized by Secretary Hegseth after earning the medal in Cortina and to share that moment representing my country,” Jones told Pak Gazette Digital.
“Being an Airman allows me to serve in more ways than one and I am grateful for that opportunity. The unity within our WCAP team is strong. We lead by example, support each other and continue to push each other to reach our full potential.”
Meanwhile, the military as a whole continues historic operations in the Middle East under the leadership of Hegseth and President Donald Trump.
Hegseth warned Friday that the US military will “fire to destroy” any Iranian ships laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
“President Trump has authorized the United States Navy to destroy any Iranian speedboat that attempts to place mines in the water or disrupt passage through the Strait of Hormuz, to shoot and kill,” Hegseth said. “Our commanders have clear rules of engagement. If Iran is laying mines in the water or otherwise threatening American commercial shipping or American forces, we will fire to destroy. Without hesitation. Just like drug ships in the Caribbean.”
Hegseth also said that Iran’s “battered” military, specifically the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has been “reduced to a band of flag-bearing pirates.”
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“They cover up their aggression with slogans, but the world now sees them for what they are: criminals on the high seas. They control nothing. They are acting like pirates, like terrorists. They are the ones who lay indiscriminate mines, they are the ones who shoot at random ships, they are the ones who killed 45,000 of their own people, innocent protesters, over the course of weeks, their own people. They are the bad actors,” Hegseth said.
“The ships that the Iranians captured in the last few days, a couple of them, are not American ships, they are not Israeli ships. They are just random ships that they drove their little speedboats into and shot them with AK-47s. Anyone with a speedboat, a gun, and the wrong intentions can do that. They know that we, the United States of America, control the flow of global shipping, and we know that they know it. Their real navy is at the bottom of the Sea Arabian Gulf,” Hegseth added.
Trump and his administration have repeatedly made clear that they are seeking a peace deal with Iran and have expressed optimism about reaching it soon.
Hegseth also said Friday that “Iran has a historic opportunity to reach a serious agreement and the ball is in its court.”
“Either way, the War Department is ready for what comes next. Ready and loaded,” Hegseth added.
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The comments come after a scheduled second round of US-Iran talks in Islamabad failed to materialize this week. Vice President JD Vance and the rest of the American delegation never left. Reports indicated that the Iranians said they would not negotiate in person again until the United States ended its blockade.
Vance, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, traveled to Pakistan for the first round of talks with the Iranians earlier this month, but no agreement was reached.
