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Hegseth orders rare, urgent meeting of hundreds of generals, admirals

Now what? You can bet that it's nothing good.

Following are excerpts from a current report in The Washington Post. (Should be a free link.)

The Pentagon has summoned military officials from around the world for a gathering in Virginia. Even top generals and their staffs don’t know the reason for the meeting.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered hundreds of the U.S. military’s 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 administration’s firing of numerous senior leaders this year.

The highly unusual directive was sent to virtually all of the military’s top commanders worldwide, according to more than a dozen people familiar with the matter. It was issued earlier this week, against the backdrop of a potential government shutdown, and as Hegseth’s overtly political moves have deepened a sense of distress among his opponents who fear that he is erasing the Defense Department’s status as a nonpartisan institution.

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. It was not immediately clear whether the White House is involved with the meeting or if President Donald Trump also intends to be there.

There are about 800 generals and admirals spread across the United States and dozens of other countries and time zones. Hegseth’s 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, each of these officers oversees 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 Hegseth’s 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 military’s generals and admirals to assemble like this. Several said it raised security concerns.

The Defense Department possesses and often uses highly secure videoconferencing technology that enables military officials, regardless of their location, to discuss sensitive matters with the White House, the Pentagon or both. Another person said ordering hundreds of military leaders to appear in the same location is “not how this is done.”

On Capitol Hill, where Hegseth’s unorthodox stewardship of the Defense Department has rankled members of both political parties, lawmakers also appeared caught off guard. Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate and House armed services committee did not immediately comment on the development.

Hegseth’s 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 military’s 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 reasons were given in those cases.

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 Fagan; and the Air Force vice chief of staff, Gen. James Slife among others. The list includes a disproportionate number of women.

Gen. David Allvin, the chief of staff of the Air Force, announced last month he will step down in November, after he was asked to retire.

Comments

  • turns out it is almost certainly a pep rally

    if you can imagine
  • According to the WP article, this is a highly unusual directive.
    Since Mr. Hegseth is exceedingly unqualified to be Defense Secretary,
    I have concerns regarding the results of this "special" meeting.
    An email address was required to read this article via the provided link.

    Alternative Link
  • I seem to be the only one concerned about putting a large number of the defense leadership of the United States in the same location. Isn't that rather risky in terms of unnecessary risk of, maybe remote but real, deadly consequences. Losing the military leadership is unlike losing the White House, legislature or, even the courts. Military leadership training and knowledge is not easily replaced if the second, third and more rungs of the leadership are also lost when a plane with a major explosive load plows into the building.
  • edited September 27
    "I seem to be the only one concerned about putting a large number of the defense leadership
    of the United States in the same location. Isn't that rather risky in terms of unnecessary risk of,
    maybe remote but real, deadly consequences."


    Anna,

    You are not the only one concerned about placing many of our military leaders
    in the same location when it doesn't seem to be necessary.
  • How dare anyone question the wisdom of our freely elected administrators! They ALL have impeccable backgrounds and extensive experience at important institutions such as Fox News.
  • edited September 27
    Are we allowed to guess?

    (1) We’ve captured an alien from another world.
    (2) Something to do with the 25th Amendment

    Keep in mind Pete hasn’t had good luck communicating with his military through normal channels.

    @Anna makes a good point.
  • Yes, she certainly does.
  • edited September 30
    Was speaking to the generals when I flipped on the TV today. I first thought it was an SNL parody. But no. It was PH. Didn’t stay around for Trump who followed him. Sounds like they’re trying to scare the living hell of the brass not to question orders or be very concerned about the propriety of actions within the ranks. Told them to resign if they didn’t agree with him.
  • edited September 30
    Do as we like or get the hell out!
    Since Mr. Hegseth is unqualified and incompetent, this is very concerning.
    But it's just one more example of the Trump regime's ill-conceived actions which are detrimental
    to our military, foreign relationships, economy, environment, and overall health/well-being.
    The Trump regime is quite the Wrecking Crew — not to be confused
    with the legendary session musicians that have the same name.

    https://www.openculture.com/2021/04/how-the-wrecking-crew-secretly-recorded-some-of-the-biggest-hits-of-the-1960s-70s.html
  • edited September 30
    image
  • edited October 1
    There is more than a pep talk.
    "This is going to be a big thing for the people in this room, because it's the enemy from within, and we have to handle it before it gets out of control," Trump told those gathered for the highly unusual event at Quantico, Va. "It won't get out of control once you're involved at all."

    Trump said he told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that the U.S. "should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military," a reference to the Democratic-run cities that he has long said have high crime rates that make them uninhabitable.
    https://npr.org/2025/09/30/nx-s1-5557232/hegseth-generals-trump
  • edited October 1
    Hegseth’s War on Fat

    Has he looked at his boss? Obviously not familiar with Julius Caesar

    CAESAR: “Let me have men about me that are fat,
    Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep a-nights.

    Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look.
    He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous
    .

    Such men as he be never at heart's ease
    Whiles they behold a greater than themselves,
    And therefore are they very dangerous.”
  • If the intent of this meeting was to perk up or beef up the military the best thing those two could have done was to resign and then just disappear. The roar would be deafening.
  • The roar would be deafening.
    ++++
  • So the generals didn't want to cheer for him? :)
  • edited October 1
    Excerpts from Heather Cox Richardson's Letters from an American
    regarding Trump's Quantico speech to top military leaders:

    For the next 70 minutes, he spoke slowly, slurring words, delivering to the hundreds of professionals who had rushed from around the world to attend this meeting a rambling, incoherent stream of words that jumped from what appeared to be prepared remarks to his own improvisation. He covered the “Gulf of America,” the seven or eight wars he claims to have ended, the “millions and millions of lives” he has saved, nuclear weapons (one of the two “n-words” he informed the military leaders you can’t say), his demanding “beautiful paper, the gorgeous paper” with “the real gold writing” when he signs things (“I love my signature. I really do. Everyone loves my signature,” he said), finding $31 billion on “the tariff shelf,” making Canada the 51st state, his dislike of the “aesthetics” of certain Navy ships, wild claims about his 2024 electoral victory, the press, America First, immigrants from prisons and mental institutions, and Venezuelans not daring to go out in boats for fear
    the U.S. will “blow [them] out of existence.”

    The speech was highly partisan, attacking former president Joe Biden by name eleven times,
    calling him “the auto pen” and claiming his administration was really run by “radical left lunatics.”
    “We were not respected with Biden,” Trump said.


    This lunatic is our president?
    The leader of the (formerly) "free world?"
    God help us all...
  • edited October 1
    Nothing like a 2 hour speech by a draft dodging, loony crybaby droning on and drunk with bad makeup to rally up the troops I always say.
  • edited October 1
    I've been very afraid of this from the day that Trump was elected.

    I very much fear that our military is eventually going to be forced to take "sides". The "sides" being the unconstitutional usurpation of power by Trump vs the protection of the Constitution for U.S. citizens.

    We've seen this scenario play out countless times in our South American neighboring countries. The day will come... something will trigger... one final straw will break the military into two factions.

    This will cause irreparable damage to our military, and therefore to the strength of the U.S. in world affairs. One military faction may attempt to arrest and imprison Trump and his minions, another faction may answer Trump's call to protect him and his friends.

    I can't even imagine how that might turn out, but we do know that in many South American countries it hasn't gone at all well.

    Excerpts from The Guardian-
    Trump, like Hegseth, sometimes paused, seeming to expect the generals to clap or laugh. But the laughs were not forthcoming; the military audience was largely silent.

    Ben Hodges, a retired general, suggested the ostentatious idiocy of these men does not mean that the generals and admirals assembled will not follow their orders.

    "These military leaders have received received the instruction that their next missions will involve suppressing domestic dissent.

    They have a choice between following their orders and keeping their jobs, or following an abstract set of principles, and leaving them.

    Most of them will choose the former."

    Our military leaders see this coming too, and their silence tells they are not at all happy.
  • inspiring duo...for very expensive taxpayer funded laughs.

    image
  • LOL..."Fat Man" and "Little Boy". Two Atomic bombs.
  • Toxic explosions hemmed-in by bad suits. Is he dead yet? Are they dead yet?
  • edited October 1
    Hegseth: "It's tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops … Likewise, it's completely unacceptable to see fat generals in the Pentagon and leading commands around the country and the world."

    Famous Fat People in History

    Winston Churchill
    William the Conqueror
    Queen Anne of England
    Catherine the Great
    Nikita Kruschev
    King Charles X of Sweden
    Hermann Goring
    Ben Franklin
    Babe Ruth
    Alfred Hitchcock
    Sancho "the Fat" of Leon
    General Winfield Scott
    August III of Poland
    Boleslaw Chrobry of Poland
    Waza of Poland
    Louis XVIII of France
    Emperor Vitellius of Rome
    General Subedei of the Mongol Horde
    King Edward VII
    Stanislaw Koniecpolski (opponent of Charles X)
    Thomas Aquinas
  • Oh, no. My life is ruined. Thomas Aquinas, too?????? I'd love for the extra 20 pounds I'm wearing to just fall off, like that song about the tequila:
    "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off."

    Hey, Pete: check back in about 30 years... Maybe you'll be lucky enough not to sustain any injuries which restrict what you are able to do.
    ...And oh, yeah, Pete: go fuck yourself. Then go do it to your Orange boss.
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