Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered hundreds of U.S. military leaders, including generals and admirals, to gather on short notice next week at a U.S. Marine Corps base in Virginia.
According to the Washington Post, the directive included “virtually all of the military’s top commanders worldwide” and was issued this week. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed to the Post that Hegseth “will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week,” while offering no further details. He also expressed no concerns about the meeting.
“There are about 800 generals and admirals spread across the United States and dozens of other countries and time zones,” noted the Post. Hegseth’s order … 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.”
“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 outlet added.
One source said military officials could not recall seeing such an order previously, sparking concern.
“People are very concerned. They have no idea what it means,” one source told the Post.
The directive comes amid the Trump administration making several sweeping changes to the U.S. Military, including a recent executive order changing the Department of Defense to the Department of War. The order came after the president told reporters in August that he would likely change the name, arguing that the United States was more victorious when it was titled the Department of War until it was changed to the Department of Defense in 1949 after World War II.
“Everybody likes that we had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War,” Trump said. “Then we changed it to Department of Defense.”
Pete Hegseth made similar arguments during an interview on Fox & Friends.
“We won WWI, and we won WWII, not with the Department of Defense, but with a War Department, with the Department of War,” Hegseth said. “As the president has said, we’re not just defense, we’re offense.”
“We’ve reestablished at the Department the warrior ethos. We want warriors, folks that understand how to exact lethality on the enemy,” he added. “We don’t want endless contingencies and just playing defense. We think words and names and titles matter. So, we’re working with the White House and the president on it. Stand by.”
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