Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered numerous basic officers and admirals to assemble subsequent Tuesday on the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia, based on 5 U.S. officers. Two of them advised ABC Information they do not know what prompted this gathering of doubtless a whole lot of the U.S. navy’s most senior leaders.
It is rather uncommon to carry such a big assembly of basic officers who’re primarily based stateside and abroad in a single location and for it to incorporate the protection secretary.
Secretary of Warfare Pete Hegseth attends an Oval Workplace assembly between U.S. President Donald Trump and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the White Home, September 25, 2025 in Washington.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Pictures
The bizarre assembly may even happen months after Hegseth ordered a 20% discount within the variety of officers of the four-star rank, along with the 15 senior navy officers he has faraway from their posts, together with Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown, Jr. the then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s prime admiral.
“The Secretary of Warfare might be addressing his senior navy leaders early subsequent week,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell mentioned in a press release.
Parnell used Hegseth’s casual title, which got here from President Donald Trump’s govt order renaming the Department of Defense the Division of Warfare earlier this month. The formal renaming of the division would require Congress to behave.
Total, there are 838 whole basic officers and admirals on lively obligation — 446 of them are from the upper two-star, three-star and four-star ranks — based on the Pentagon’s newest statistics from June.
It was unclear to the officers if all the basic and flag officers within the U.S. navy have been being invited to attend this assembly or if would solely apply to a section of these high-ranking officers.
The Washington Submit was first to report the information of subsequent week’s gathering.
It’s not uncommon for a protection secretary to satisfy with senior navy officers on the Pentagon or these on home and abroad journey. Twice a yr, the senior officers answerable for the U.S. combatant instructions collect on the Pentagon to satisfy with the secretary.
Nonetheless, the dimensions and scope of the assembly that makes subsequent week’s gathering uncommon and sure a safety concern for planners. The assembly has additionally led to hypothesis amongst officers as as to if it has something to do with Hegseth’s strikes to scale back the variety of officers serving as generals or admirals.
In Could, Hegseth signed a memo directing a “minimal” 20% discount within the variety of four-star generals and admirals throughout the active-duty power.
He additionally known as for at the very least a 20% discount of basic officers within the Nationwide Guard, in addition to at the very least a ten% discount basically and flag officers affiliated with combatant instructions.
In a video accompanying the memo, Hegseth described it as a “Much less Generals Extra GIs Coverage.” Within the memo, Hegseth mentioned the order was wanted to “drive innovation and operational excellence, unencumbered by pointless bureaucratic layers that hinder their development and effectiveness.”
“A essential step on this course of is eradicating redundant power construction to optimize and streamline management by lowering extra basic and flag officer positions,” he additionally wrote.
