Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has summoned hundreds of generals and admirals to an urgent meeting in Virginia next week, but the reason is unknown to many who have been ordered to attend, The War Zone has learned.
Many of these high-ranking officers have been in contact with each other to find out why Hegseth has ordered such an unprecedented gathering that will upend the schedules of hundreds of them, a U.S. official told The War Zone.
“They know about this through scheduling, but they have no idea what this is all about,” the official added. “It is something everyone is wondering. There is no indication of what the topic is.”
The Pentagon confirmed the meeting but provided no details.
“The Secretary of War will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week,” Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.
The meeting, first reported by The Washington Post, comes as Hegseth is looking to trim the ranks of the military’s top commanders and reduce the number of headquarters.
“The directive was issued earlier this week…months after Hegseth’s team at the Pentagon announced plans to undertake a sweeping consolidation of top military commands,” according to The Post.
There are more than 800 admirals and generals, and the order about the meeting affects all the commanding officers, the publication noted.
In May, Hegseth directed that about 100 of those positions be slashed to make the Pentagon more efficient. He has also indicated he wants to reduce the number of military headquarters, including discussions of combining U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command into one.
Though Hegseth has indicated he wants to cut more than 12% of top officer billets, that is just one possible reason for this meeting.
Calling in all these leaders to one meeting is a potential logistical challenge, considering how many are deployed across the globe. The order does not affect staff officers, The Post noted. While there are many commanding generals already in Washington at the Pentagon and a few more who have traveled to the D.C. area to attend an annual Air Force conference, most are elsewhere in the country or located in the Middle East, Europe and the Pacific regions.
Admirals and generals travel with a retinue of support staff and secure communications systems that require a lot of airlift capacity. Considering that most large-scale meetings are conducted by secure teleconference as a result, making so many top officers travel with the resulting schedule disruptions and security issues has raised alarm bells.
“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,” the newspaper explained. “Several said it raised security concerns.”
This is a developing story.
Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com