U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has invited top U.S. military commanders from across the globe to meet in Quantico, Virginia next week, five officials informed Reuters on Thursday, a unusual convergence of U.S. military brass in one place.
It was not entirely certain why Hegseth has asked the generals and admirals to gather in one location on such short notice, and two of the officials indicated this has left uncertainty among the invited attendees.
Senior military personnel in some instances command thousands of troops. Most have intricate schedules weeks in advance, which have now been disrupted.
People are rushing to alter their schedules and find out if they need to go,” said one U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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It was not known how many of these officials are actually going to make it to the event, but it is unusual to have so many top officials in one place at the same time.
Contacted for comment, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell would only say: “The Secretary of War will be speaking to his senior military leaders next week.” Parnell’s office did not answer questions regarding the number of officers, intended purpose of the meeting or why Hegseth summoned so suddenly.
Trump directed the department to officially change its name to the Department of War, a shift that will take Congressional action.
The U.S. has soldiers all over the world, including in far-flung parts of the globe such as South Korea, Japan and throughout the Middle East– which are led by two, three and four-star admirals and generals.
Hegseth, a one-time Fox News host, has acted with breathtaking haste to remake the department, dismissing senior generals and admirals as he works to put Trump’s national security agenda in place and eliminate diversity programs he deems discriminatory.
In February, he dismissed Air Force General C.Q. Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and five other admirals and generals in a unprecedented reshuffling of U.S. military command.
Last month, Hegseth dismissed the director of the Pentagon’s intelligence agency and two other high-ranking military commanders.
Hegseth directed a 20% cut in the number of four-star generals in May. In that May memorandum, Hegseth indicated there would be at least a 20% cut in the number of general officers in the National Guard and another 10% cut in general and flag officers throughout the military.
“More admirals and generals does not equate with greater success,” Hegseth explained then.
Now, most of those admirals and generals will be in the same place.
“It’s likely to be more bureaucratic than people realize… (but) the ambiguity isn’t serving us well,” the official stated.
