Current Events > Hegseth is having almost every US military leader come to Virginia for a meeting

(+) Yeah! (+)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered hundreds of the U.S. militarys generals and admirals to gather on short notice and without a stated reason at a Marine Corps base in Virginia next week, sowing confusion and alarm after the Trump administrations firing of numerous senior leaders this year.

The highly unusual directive was sent to virtually all of the militarys top commanders worldwide, according to more than a dozen people familiar with the matter. The directive was issued earlier this week, as a government shutdown looms, and months after Hegseths team at the Pentagon announced plans to undertake a sweeping consolidation of top military commands.

In a statement Thursday, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell affirmed that Hegseth will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week, but he offered no additional details. Parnell, a senior adviser to the defense secretary, voiced no concerns about The Washington Post reporting on the meeting, scheduled for Tuesday in Quantico, Virginia.

There are about 800 generals and admirals spread across the United States and dozens of other countries and time zones. Hegseths order, people familiar with the matter said, applies to all senior officers with the rank of brigadier general or above, or their Navy equivalent, serving in command positions and their top enlisted advisers. Typically, these officers each oversee hundreds or thousands of rank-and-file troops.

Top commanders in conflict zones and senior military leaders stationed throughout Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region are among those expected to attend Hegseths meeting, said people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to publicly discuss the issue. The order does not apply to top military officers who hold staff positions.

None of the people who spoke with The Post could recall a defense secretary ever ordering so many of the militarys generals and admirals to assemble like this. Several said it raised security concerns.

People are very concerned. They have no idea what it means, one person said.

Two others expressed frustration that even many commanders stationed overseas will be required to attend. One said, this is not how this is done.

You dont call GOFOs leading their people and the global force into an auditorium outside D.C. and not tell them why/what the topic or agenda is, this person said, using an abbreviation for general officer or flag officer.

Are we taking every general and flag officer out of the Pacific right now? one U.S. official said. All of it is weird.

The orders come as Hegseth has unilaterally directed massive recent changes at the Pentagon including directing that the number of general officers be reduced by 20 percent, firing senior leaders without cause and a high-profile new order to rebrand the Defense Department as the Department of War.

Top administration officials also have preparing a new national defense strategy that is expected to make homeland defense the nations top concern, after several years of China being identified as the top national security risk to the United States. Some officials familiar with the order to travel said they thought that may come up.

Hegseths directive in May to slash about 100 generals and admirals also has generated concern among top military leaders. He called then for a minimum 20 percent cut to the number of four-star officers the militarys top rank on active duty and a corresponding number of generals in the National Guard. There also will be another 10 percent reduction, at least, to the total number of generals and admirals across the force.

Last month Hegseth fired Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency; Vice Adm. Nancy Lacore, the chief of the Navy Reserve; and Rear Adm. Milton Sands, a Navy SEAL officer who oversaw Naval Special Warfare Command. No specific reason was given in either case.

The firings were the latest in a wider purge of national security agencies top ranks. Since entering office, the Trump administration also has fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.; the chief of naval operations, Adm. Lisa Franchetti; the commandant of the Coast Guard, Adm. Linda F*gan; and the Air Force vice chief of staff, Gen. James Slife among others. The list includes a disproportionate number of women.

This is where they ask for loyalty to Trump or face being removed

Logistically that seems like a dangerously unsafe thing to do.

The coming shutdown they will gut the federal government to nothing and declare marital law. Any military leader not on board will be fired at that meeting.

Good luck with that. The manpower isn't there for it plus if they're stupid enough to fire anyone who doesn't go along with it, the fired can simply help any resistance that's there. And there WILL be resistance. The whole Kimmel thing proved people do not like having their rights taken away and will resist however they can.

Are these leaders Trump appointees? If not I really doubt they would capitulate. They were the reason why Trump ever put on a mask during the pandemic, when he went to that veterans hospital. I can only imagine they screamed at him how they would not only openly tackle his ass if he took one step into the door they would flip the kill switch and start a coup right there.

That's going to be a hell of a kegger

This is usually a purge scenario. And very dangerous in case somebody wanted to do a decapitation strike against our military.

https://youtu.be/kLUktJbp2Ug?si=ZVGey11CO6V1PdO0

Kinda stupid to let the world know about the location and time where so many critical people will be

Welp. Anyone got good song for my nuclear apocalypse playlist?

Let us begin with a prayer to our lord and savior, Charlie Kirk

These are not, on the whole, Trump appointees. They are career military leaders.

These are people who have been in the military since, at the absolute *latest*, Bush Jrs 1st term.

With the exception of maybe a very small handful of Senior Enlisted Advisors, not a single soul there has served less than 20 years and most have been in since the 90s.

And none of them are technically appointed directly by the President. They are nominated by the President and approved by Congress. Which, yes, is basically a rubber stamp procedure regardless of who is in office, but still.

You wouldn't need to do a (public) purge like this, you'd just BS some relief for cause reason and send them to retirement and nominate someone else.

This is more likely going to be regarding the UN stuff and every single General/Admiral there is going to absolutely tell them to be against the idea.

Fear. Fear will keep the systems in line.

https://youtu.be/-wntX-a3jSY

If the prism is truly within your grasp, may I suggest closing your fist?

Fear. Fear will keep the systems in line.

I realize Trump's put on some unseemly weight in his later years, but he still falls well short of qualifying for Death Star status.