(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has asked a large number of general officers and admirals to gather next Tuesday at the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia, according to five U.S. officials. Two of them told ABC News they don’t know what prompted this gathering of potentially hundreds of the U.S. military’s most senior leaders.
It is very rare to hold such a large meeting of general officers who are based stateside and overseas in one location and for it to include the defense secretary.
The unusual meeting will also take place months after Hegseth ordered a 20% reduction in the number of officers of the four-star rank, in addition to the 15 senior military officers he has removed from their posts, including Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown, Jr. the then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s top admiral.
“The Secretary of War will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.
Parnell used to Hegseth’s informal title, which came from President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Department of Defense the Department of War earlier this month. The formal renaming of the department would require Congress to act.
Overall, there are 838 total general officers and admirals on active duty — 446 of them are from the higher two-star, three-star and four-star ranks — according to the Pentagon’s latest statistics from June.
It was unclear to the officials if all of the general and flag officers in the U.S. military were being invited to attend this meeting or if would only apply to a segment of those high-ranking officers.
The Washington Post was first to report the news of next week’s gathering.
It is not unusual for a defense secretary to meet with senior military officers at the Pentagon or those on domestic and overseas travel. Twice a year, the senior officers in charge of the U.S. combatant commands gather at the Pentagon to meet with the secretary.
However, the size and scope of the meeting that makes next week’s gathering rare and likely a security concern for planners. The meeting has also led to speculation among officials as to whether it has anything to do with Hegseth’s moves to reduce the number of officers serving as generals or admirals.
In May, Hegseth signed a memo directing a “minimum” 20% reduction in the number of four-star generals and admirals across the active-duty force.
He also called for at least a 20% reduction of general officers in the National Guard, as well as at least a 10% reduction in general and flag officers affiliated with combatant commands.
In a video accompanying the memo, Hegseth described it as a “Less Generals More GIs Policy.” In the memo, Hegseth said the order was needed to “drive innovation and operational excellence, unencumbered by unnecessary bureaucratic layers that hinder their growth and effectiveness.”
“A critical step in this process is removing redundant force structure to optimize and streamline leadership by reducing excess general and flag officer positions,” he also wrote.
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