Hegseth asks the Army’s top uniformed officer to step down while US wages war against Iran

 

Politics

Hegseth asks the Army’s top uniformed officer to step down while US wages war against Iran

 

By  KONSTANTIN TOROPIN

Updated 3:25 AM GMT+2, April 3, 2026

https://apnews.com/article/pentagon-hegseth-army-chief-iran-war-c6707d1d3a95ea5f679e0f9a5c5012e7

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ousted the Army’s top uniformed officer and two other generals, the Pentagon said Thursday without giving a reason for the departures while the United States is waging a war against Iran.

 

Gen. Randy George “will be retiring from his position as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army effective immediately,” said Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s top spokesman. George has held the post of Army chief of staff, which typically runs for four years, since August 2023 under the Biden administration.

 

The ouster, reported earlier by CBS News, is just the latest of more than a dozen firings of top generals and admirals by Hegseth since he took office last year. Like many of those other firings, Pentagon officials are not offering a reason for George’s departure, which comes nearly five weeks into U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran and with no clear timeline from President Donald Trump on when the war may end.

 

Hegseth also has ousted Army Gen. David Hodne and Army Maj. Gen. William Green, according to a Pentagon official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive leadership changes. A reason for their departures also was not given.

 

General who rose rapidly under Hegseth will fill in

Gen. Christopher LaNeve will be stepping in as acting Army chief of staff, the Pentagon official said. LaNeve was serving as Hegseth’s top military aide when Trump suddenly nominated him to be the Army’s vice chief of staff last October. It is a meteoric rise for an officer who was only a two-star general two years ago.

 

He would take over for George, who is a graduate of West Point Military Academy and an infantry officer who served in the first Gulf War as well as Iraq and Afghanistan. He also served as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s top military aide from 2021 to 2022 during the Biden administration before taking on top leadership roles in the Army.

 

George made it through the initial round of firings under the Trump administration in February 2025, when Hegseth removed top military leaders, including Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s top uniformed officer, and Gen. Jim Slife, the No. 2 leader at the Air Force. Trump also fired Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

 

Since then, more than a dozen other top military generals and admirals have either retired early or been removed from their posts.

 

Among those departures was George’s deputy, Gen. James Mingus, who was vice chief of staff of the Army for less than two years. LaNeve was nominated to that post after earlier being plucked from commanding the Eighth Army in South Korea after less than a year in the job to be Hegseth’s top military aide.

 

A spokesman for George could not be reached for comment.

 

Two other Army generals are fired

Of the other generals who were fired, Hodne had been head of the Army Transformation and Training Command, a unit that was only stood up in December as part of George’s effort to modernize the Army and amid Hegseth’s push to reduce the number of general officers in the military.

 

Green had been the Army’s chief of chaplains. Hegseth announced two major reforms to the military’s chaplain corps a little over a week ago.

 

In a video message last week, Hegseth said he wanted chaplains to focus more on God and less on therapeutic “self-help and self-care.” In recent years, the military has become increasingly dependent on chaplains to help address the growing numbers of troops in mental health distress. Hegseth also said chaplains would no longer wear their rank on their uniform but instead would be identified by religious insignia.

 

The changes come as Iran war grinds on

The leadership shakeup comes as Army paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne division are heading to the Middle East along with thousands of Marines and other assets. The Trump administration has avoided questions about whether or not the U.S. military will deploy ground troops against Iran.

 

In a prime-time address Wednesday about the war, Trump offered no end date for the conflict and few details on his strategy going forward but did forecast more military action.

 

“We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” Trump said of Iran, before adding that “we’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong.”

 

Hegseth echoed that sentiment after the speech, with a post on social media that simply read, “Back to the Stone Age.”

 

Iran’s mission to the United Nations said on X that Trump’s comment “reflects ignorance, not strength,” noting that Iran’s civilization spans over 7,000 years.

 

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This story has been corrected to show that Gen. Jim Slife’s name was misspelled Silfe.