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From Darkness Unto Light, 26 Sept. 2025 Update

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Hegseth orders rare, urgent meeting of hundreds of generals, admirals

The Pentagon has summoned military officials from around the world for a gathering in Virginia. Even top generals and their staffs don’t know the reason for the meeting.

Tara Copp, Dan Lamothe, Alex Horton, Ellen Nakashima and Noah Robertson, Washington Post, September 25, 2025

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/09/25/hegseth-generals-quantico-meeting/)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered hundreds of the U.S. military’s generals and admirals to gather on short notice — and without a stated reason — at a Marine Corps base in Virginia next week, sowing confusion and alarm after the Trump administration’s firing of numerous senior leaders this year.

The highly unusual directive was sent to virtually all of the military’s top commanders worldwide, according to more than a dozen people familiar with the matter. It was issued earlier this week, against the backdrop of a potential government shutdown, and as Hegseth’s overtly political moves have deepened a sense of distress among his opponents who fear that he is erasing the Defense Department’s status as a nonpartisan institution.

In a statement Thursday, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell affirmed that Hegseth “will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week,” but he offered no additional details. Parnell, a senior adviser to the defense secretary, voiced no security concerns about The Washington Post reporting on the meeting, scheduled for Tuesday in Quantico, Virginia.

It was not clear whether President Donald Trump will attend the meeting or if Hegseth had given the president advance notice of his plans. He told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday afternoon that he will go “if they want me.”

Despite the meeting’s size and secrecy, both Trump and Vice President JD Vance downplayed its significance, with Trump asking, “Why is that such a big deal?” Vance, appearing alongside Trump, said it is “not particularly unusual” that generals are speaking with Hegseth. “I think it’s odd that you guys have made it into such a big story,” he said.

There are about 800 generals and admirals spread across the United States and dozens of other countries and time zones. Hegseth’s order, people familiar with the matter said, 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. Typically, each of these officers oversees hundreds or thousands of rank-and-file troops.

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 order does not apply to top military officers who hold staff positions.

“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 order states, according to one person who saw a copy. O-7 through O-10 refers to the military’s classification for all generals and admirals.

Each commander typically travels with his senior enlisted adviser and a few lower-ranking military aides, meaning the total group of people traveling for the summit could seemingly exceed 1,000. It’s unclear how the military will house them or transport them.

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. Several said it raised security concerns.

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

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, at the Las Garzas presidential palace in Panama City in April. (Franco Brana/AFP/Getty Images)

Others expressed frustration that even many commanders stationed overseas will be required to attend Hegseth’s impromptu summit, with some questioning the wisdom in doing so.

“It will make the commands just diminished if something pops up,” a defense official said.

The Defense Department possesses and often uses highly secure videoconferencing technology that enables military officials, regardless of their location, to discuss sensitive matters with the White House, the Pentagon or both. Another person said ordering hundreds of military leaders to appear in the same location is “not how this is done.”

“You don’t call GOFOs leading their people and the global force into an auditorium outside D.C. and not tell them why/what the topic or agenda is,” this person added, using an abbreviation for general officer or flag officer.

“Are we taking every general and flag officer out of the Pacific right now?” one U.S. official said. “All of it is weird.”

On Capitol Hill, where Hegseth’s unorthodox stewardship of the Defense Department has rankled members of both political parties, lawmakers also appeared caught off guard. Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate and House Armed Services committees did not immediately comment on the development.

The orders come as Hegseth has unilaterally directed massive recent changes at the Pentagon — including directing that the number of general officers be reduced by 20 percent through a sweeping consolidation of top military commands, firing senior leaders without cause and a high-profile order to rebrand the Defense Department as the Department of War.

News of the order drove considerable confusion in the Pentagon on Thursday. By midday, military officials were reaching out to one another seeking a clearer consensus on who needs to be at Hegseth’s Quantico meeting and whether anyone knew why they had been ordered to Virginia. There was growing concern, too, that firings could occur.

Another official familiar with the matter said it did not seem possible that Hegseth would have called such a meeting to unveil a new defense strategy, examine the consolidation of commands or lecture commanders on military standards.

“You’re not pulling out everyone in the room to bring them over to say, ‘Stop painting your nails because we’re a war-fighting organization,’” this official said, adding that some had expressed worry that Hegseth’s meeting will collide with a government shutdown and potentially leave commanders, or at least some of their staff members, stranded without transportation back to their jobs.

The unusual travel order coincides with efforts by Hegseth to exert greater influence over who gets promoted to be a senior military officer, multiple officials told The Post. Even at the one- and two-star level, the secretary’s team is scrutinizing old relationships and what officials have said or posted on social media, as they determine whom to send forward for a higher rank or assignment.’

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