Hegseth orders mysterious, urgent US meeting of hundreds of generals, admirals

1 week ago 2

By Konstantin Toropin, Emma Burrows and Ben Finley

September 26, 2025 — 10.33am

Washington: US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has summoned the American military’s top officers – hundreds of generals and admirals – to a base in northern Virginia for a sudden meeting next week, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The directive did not offer a reason for the gathering of senior commanders of one-star rank or higher and their top advisers at the Marine Corps base in Quantico on Tuesday.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon last week.

It was unclear how many officials would actually attend the event, but it is rare to have so many senior officials in the same room at the same time. The people, who described the move as unusual, were not authorised to publicly discuss the sensitive plans and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Top Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed that Hegseth “will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week”.

The Washington Post reported that the directive was sent this week to virtually all the US military’s top commanders worldwide, citing more than a dozen people familiar with the matter.

Across the military, there are 800 generals and admirals of all ranks. Many command thousands of service members and are stationed across the world in more than a dozen countries – including in active conflict zones in the Middle East, Africa and Europe – and time zones.

“All general officers in command in grade O-7 through O-10 and their general officer senior enlisted advisers are directed to attend within operational constraints,” the Post reported the order as stating, according to one person who saw a copy. The designation O-7 through O-10 refers to the military’s classification for all generals and admirals.

Senior military officials in some cases command thousands of troops. Most have detailed schedules weeks in advance, which have now been upended.

“People are scrambling to change their plans and see if they have to attend,” one US official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

US President Donald Trump didn’t seem to know about the meeting when asked about it by reporters during an Oval Office appearance on Friday (AEST).

US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the White House on Thursday.

“I’ll be there if they want me, but why is that such a big deal?” Trump said.

Vice President JD Vance argued that the media had turned it into a “big story” and that it was “not particularly unusual that generals who report to” Hegseth were coming to speak with him.

“It’s probably more mundane than people think ... [but] the lack of clarity isn’t helping,” the US official said.

The Washington Post said that none of the people it spoke to could recall a defence secretary ever ordering so many of the military’s generals and admirals to assemble like this. Several said it raised security concerns.

“People are very concerned,” one person told the Post. “They have no idea what it means.”

Others questioned the wisdom of doing so. “It will make the commands just diminished if something pops up,” a defence official told the Post.

Tuesday is also the final day of the US fiscal year – and the day before a possible shutdown, when government travel is normally prohibited, could begin. Travel could be allowed during a shutdown if deemed essential.

The meeting comes on the heels of several unusual and unexplained actions that Hegseth has taken involving military leaders.

In May, he ordered that the military cut 20 per cent of its four-star general officers, directed an additional 10 per cent cut from all general and flag officers across the force, and told the National Guard to shed 20 per cent of its top positions.

In February, Hegseth fired Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s top officer, and General James Slife, the Air Force’s second-highest officer, without explanation. He also relieved the military’s top lawyers.

Since then, Hegseth has fired other military leaders without saying why. Most recently it was a general who led a military intelligence agency whose initial assessment of US damage to Iranian nuclear sites in American strikes angered Trump.