The Pentagon confirmed on Thursday, Sept. 25, that U.S. Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, has ordered hundreds of senior military officers, including Navy admirals, to attend a meeting next Tuesday (Sept. 30) at the Quantico military base in Virginia. The agenda for the meeting has note announced.
Pentagon confirms but offers no explanation
The story was first reported by The Washington Post. Pentagon Chief Spokesperson Sean Parnell later confirmed that Hegseth will address senior military leaders early next week, but he did not disclose the content of the meeting or whether the order applies to all generals and admirals.
According to more than a dozen sources, those summoned include senior U.S. commanders worldwide, covering all officers of brigadier general rank and above, their Navy equivalents, and their top enlisted advisors — approximately 800 individuals in total.
CNN cited multiple officials as saying that even the officers summoned are unaware of the meeting’s agenda. Speculation ranges from collective fitness assessments and briefings on the state of the War Department to large-scale dismissals. One official joked that the gathering has been dubbed a “Generals’ Squid Game.”
Meanwhile, some congressional aides and military personnel have raised concerns about security risks posed by concentrating so many senior officers in one location. A congressional aide commented: “Unless Hegseth plans to announce a major military operation or fundamentally restructure the chain of command, I can’t think of a reason to do this.”
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Background: Large-scale senior military adjustments
The meeting order comes amid significant high-level personnel changes. Earlier this year, the Trump administration dismissed several senior officers, including:
- Gen. C.Q. Brown, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
- Adm. Lisa Franchetti, former Chief of Naval Operations
- Adm. Linda Fagan, former Commandant of the Coast Guard
- Gen. James Slife, former Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force
- Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, former Director of Defense Intelligence Agency
- Vice Adm. Nancy Lacore, former Commander of Navy Reserve Forces
- Rear Adm. Milton Sands, former Commander of Navy Special Operations Command
Since taking office, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has ordered a 20 percent reduction in the number of four-star generals and admirals and plans to cut the total number of officers of one-star rank and above across the armed forces by 10 percent, from approximately 900 to fewer than 720.
Prior to his appointment as Secretary of War, Hegseth repeatedly criticized the military’s senior leadership as “politicized.” On his podcast, he claimed that one-third of senior officers were “actively colluding” and “following Washington’s wrong rules” to conform to political ideologies.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon is reportedly drafting a new National Defense Strategy. For the first time, the strategy is said to prioritize homeland defense over external threats, replacing China as the United States’ primary security concern.
By Gao Yun, Janet Huang
