Tim Parlatore, Navy veteran and personal lawyer for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, told Breitbart News on Wednesday that on Friday he will be commissioned into the United States Navy to serve the country in uniform once again.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve my country again and am looking forward to making a difference for our servicemembers,” said Parlatore, who is a former naval officer.
“Veterans like me are excited with everything Secretary Hegseth is doing and I wouldn’t be surprised if you see more people looking to come back as well,” he said.
Parlatore is an Operation Enduring Freedom veteran, and served as a surface warfare officer on board the USS Normandy. He also served as the officer in charge of a security detachment in the Bronx, as well as a commanding officer of a reserve military police unit at the Naval Support Activity La Maddalena, a former U.S. base in Italy.
He is a 2002 U.S. Naval Academy graduate, and was honorably discharged from the Navy in 2013.
In 2019, he successfully defended Navy SEAL veteran Eddie Gallagher, who was accused of first-degree murder of an ISIS fighter, a case that brought him widespread attention, including from President Donald Trump. He has served as Hegseth’s personal lawyer for eight years.
He will be direct commissioned as a Navy Reserve commander in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, and will serve in a reserve unit that works for the secretary of defense’s office.
Parlatore told the New York Times that he intends to focus on improving how the military’s uniformed lawyers are trained.
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