Pentagon announces Trump approved Hegseth's recommendation that Nidal Hasan be executed by Army firing squad; Acting Army Secretary Telle sets Dec. 3 at Fort Hood

The Pentagon announced on Monday 2026-10-05 (announcement date, via chief spokesperson Sean Parnell on social media) that President Trump had approved Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s recommendation that Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist sentenced to death in 2013 for the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, be executed by Army firing squad. Hegseth replied with the one word “Justice.” The signing date itself is not stated in the coverage retrieved; one search summary gave 2026-10-02 from a Telle post on X, which could not be confirmed and is not relied on here. Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle then set the execution for 2026-12-03, 1 p.m. Central, at Fort Hood (set date, reported Tuesday 2026-10-06; the Army order itself was not retrieved).

What is “first”: coverage frames it as the first Army firing-squad execution since Pvt. Eddie Slovik in 1945. That claim is about the method. No service member has been executed by any method since 1961 (Pvt. John Bennett, hanged), and that is the sense in which the CNN headline “first firing-squad execution in decades” is accurate. A death sentence in the military requires the President’s confirmation; the approval here is that step.

Context for the record: Hegseth told Fox News Digital in September 2025 that Hasan “deserves the harshest lawful punishment.” Hasan’s final legal challenge was rejected in April 2025 (per the same report). Habeas litigation in federal court could still delay the date (expert view reported by Axios/Al Jazeera, not tested). No victim of the 2009 shooting is named here; none was quoted in the sources used.

Open: Parnell’s own post, the Army order, and the actual approval date (Tier-1) were not retrieved; CNN, CNBC, NPR, WaPo returned 403/451/timeouts to this worker. Sequel entries: 2026-10-08 livestream plan, 2026-10-15 reversal.

Site choice (added 2026-10-16). A U.S. official told NBC News (2026-10-15) that Army officials had planned for months a lethal injection at the federal facility at Terre Haute; once Hegseth discussed a firing squad they planned for Fort Leavenworth, and were “surprised again by the decision for Fort Hood.” The base had been renamed from Fort Cavazos in June 2025 (see 2025-06-10–army-announces-seven-base-name-reversals-fort-cavazos-becomes-fort-hood-honoring-col-robert-b-hood).