Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday asked the Army’s top general to step down from his role and retire immediately, marking the Trump administration’s ouster of top military officials and creating a major vacancy at the Pentagon amid the largest US conflict in the Middle East in two decades.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George spent nearly three of his four years in the post, which began during the Biden administration. The Pentagon, which confirmed the shooting, did not say why. The high-ranking general had served as a senior military aide to former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, so he was not seen as a Hegseth loyalist.
“General Randy A. George will retire as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army, effective immediately,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said. said in an X post on Thursday afternoon. “The War Department is grateful for General George’s decades of service to our country,” Parnell said. A post on X on Thursday afternoon said. “We wish him all the best in his retirement.”
George, who commanded the Army’s 4th Infantry Division and I Corps in Afghanistan, forged a close partnership with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, partly over his desire to transform the service into a lean, tech-savvy force that was eager to learn from the effective use of inexpensive drones in the Ukraine war.
George could not immediately be reached for comment. CBS News First reported him Kicks off.
The general, who commanded the Army’s 4th Infantry Division and I Corps in Afghanistan, forged a close partnership with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, partly over his desire to transform the service into a lean, tech-savvy force that was eager to learn from the effective use of cheap drones in the Ukraine war.
George is the latest in a line of more than a dozen top military officials who have been removed by Hegseth, including former Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. C.Q. Brown, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti and Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Schlief.
The Pentagon said Hegseth’s former military colleague, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Christopher Laneway, would serve in an acting role.
