Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has asked Gen. Randy George, the Army Chief of Staff, to step down from the Joint Chiefs and take immediate retirement, a Pentagon official confirmed Thursday.
The Pentagon official said it was time for a leadership change in the Army. Mr. Hegseth reportedly wants someone in the position whose vision for the Army is more in line with the Trump administration.
“General Randy A. George will be retiring from his position as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army effective immediately. The Department of War is grateful for General George’s decades of service to our nation. We wish him well in his retirement,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.
Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the current vice chief of staff of the Army, will be acting Army chief of staff. He is a former commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division and was once Mr. Hegseth’s military aide.
The Army Chief of Staff typically serves a four-year term. President Biden nominated Gen. George for the position in 2023, so he would have been scheduled to step down in September 2027. The action comes in the midst of the joint U.S.-Israeli military attacks on Iran that began Feb. 28.
Mr. Hegseth has fired several high-ranking military officers since he came to the Pentagon after President Trump’s return to the White House. The list includes Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs; Admiral Lisa Franchetti, chief of Naval Operations; Admiral Linda Fagan, commandant of the Coast Guard, and Gen. David Allvin, the Air Force Chief of Staff, among others.
Mr. Hegseth has overseen what some have called a “historic restructuring” of the U.S. military’s top leadership, while others have characterized it as a purge. The strategy has focused on removing military leaders considered “ideologically incompatible” with the Trump administration or linked to the “woke” polices of the Biden administration.
Gen. George’s firing follows Mr. Hegseth’s decision to lift the suspension of an Army helicopter aircrew that hovered near singer and rapper Kid Rock’s home in Nashville last week. The Pentagon official said the termination wasn’t related to the unauthorized helicopter fly-by.
