Hundreds of American generals and admirals all over the world, summoned by the Pentagon chief for an urgent and unusual reunion
Pete Hegseth, the head of the Pentagon. Photo: Michael Probst / AP / Profimedia
The US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, ordered several hundred generals and admirals in the US Army to gather next week at a base of Virginia of Marine prisoner, sowing confusion and alarm in the context of pre-year by the Trump administration, writes The Washington Post, not not convening the meeting.
The extremely unusual directive was practically sent to all the high -ranking US military commanders around the world, according to the details made by a dozen people familiar with the situation. The order was issued earlier this week, a few months after Hegseth's team announced plans for a large strengthening of the top American commandments.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the spokesman of the Pentagon, Sean Parnell, said Hegseth “will address his high-ranking military leaders at the beginning of next week”, but did not provide additional details.
Who is targeted by order
There are around 800 generals and admirals spread in the US and in several dozen countries and time spindles. Hegseth's order, people have declared familiar with the situation, applies to all senior officers with a rank of brigadier or senior, or their equivalent in the navy, who serve in command positions, as well as their high -ranking counselors. Usually, these officers supervise hundreds or thousands of soldiers each.
Among those expected to participate in the meeting convened by Hegseth are top commanders from conflict areas and high-ranking military leaders in Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region, people who spoke under anonymity said because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the issue. The order does not apply to high -ranking military officers holding positions of General Staff.
“All the general officers in order in the O-7 grades at O-10 and their higher general counselors are trained to participate within the operational limits,” according to a person who saw a copy. The phrase “O-7 to O-10” refers to the military classification of all generals and admirals.
“People are very worried”
None of the people who spoke to The Post remembered that any secretary of the defense has ever ordered so many generals and admirals of the army to gather in this way. Some of them claim that this raises security concerns.
“People are very worried. They have no idea what it means,” said a person.
Other voices have expressed their dissatisfaction with the fact that even commanders stationed abroad will be forced to participate in Hegseth's improvised summit, some questioning the wisdom of such a situation. “This will make the number of commemurations simply diminished if something occurs,” said a defense official.
The Defense Department has an extremely safe video conferencing technology, which allows military officials, regardless of their location, to discuss sensitive issues with the White House, the Pentagon or both. Another person said that ordering the hundreds of military leaders to appear in the same location “is not the way this is done”.
Orders come in the context in which, recently, Hegseth unilaterally ordered massive changes to Pentagon. Initiatives include reducing the number of general officers by 20%, dismissal of senior leaders and a large order for the renaming of the Defense Department in the War Department.
High officials of the administration have also prepared a new national defense strategy, which is believed to make the homeland defense the main concern of the nation, after a few years in which China has been identified as the main risk of national security for the United States. Some officials familiar with the Travel Order have said that they believe that this topic could be addressed.
