Two former U.S. military officers have accused Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of firing them for questioning his orders, according to a report.
The officers, who spoke to MS NOW anonymously for fear of reprisals from the Pentagon, said Hegseth had effectively forced them to retire early after interpreting their raising issues about his directives as insubordination.
The secretary “is intimidated by people who have real warfighting background and don’t just talk about the warrior ethos,” one of the officers claimed. “I think he just can’t stand people around who will call him on his bulls***.”
They argued that if Hegseth were serious about encouraging “warfighters,” as he has frequently claimed, he would not have removed Gen. Christopher Donahue, the top Army commander for Europe and Africa, from his post.
Hegseth has yet to comment on the report but a spokesperson for the Pentagon denied the claims, branding them “completely false”.
Donahue is a widely respected former leader of Delta Force who was also the last U.S. soldier to leave Afghanistan in summer 2021, a withdrawal the secretary has disparaged as “chaotic,” “disastrous” and a “humiliating retreat.”
He is just one of nearly three dozen officers and admirals fired or sidelined since the former Fox News host took charge of the Department of Defense early last year, also blocking the promotion of 40 senior colonels or Navy captains who had been selected for flag rank.
Other prominent names he has sent to the exit include Navy Secretary John Phelan, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield, the military’s representative to NATO.
Critics have noted that the secretary’s targets have often been women, people of color, judge advocate generals and officers associated with events – like the Afghanistan withdrawal – that Hegseth considers mishandled.
The officials interview further suggested that the secretary was more interested in consolidating power than reforming standards, citing his tone-setting speech at Marine Corps Base Quantico in September.
“What he was trying to do was establish primacy over the armed forces in a public way,” the officer said. “‘We can get the most senior people in the military to do exactly what we’re going to tell them to do.’”
The officers also said they had spoken to active-duty troops who were conflicted about staying in the service under Hegseth’s leadership.
“For many of us, part of it is a sense of loyalty to the organization that is bigger than these clowns,” one said. “We know that in the organization, there are still good people trying to do good things and we don’t want to say things that might hurt them.”
Responding, Acting Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez told The Independent: “Not a single general officer or flag officer has been fired raising concerns about any issue. That charge is completely false. If they believe what they’re saying to be true, then they should put their names on their statements on the record.”
The officers who spoke to MS NOW said they preferred to go unnamed because they feared the Pentagon could go after their pensions and because they believed it was not their place to play politics or insert themselves into public debate.
Two fired officers have spoken out publicly about Hegseth’s “Pentagon purge” – Nancy Lacore, who is running for Congress as a Democrat in South Carolina, and Charles Q Brown, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who recently wrote an op-ed in Foreign Affairs on the military’s relationship with democracy.
Hegseth endured a torrid time on Capitol Hill Tuesday as he was grilled by lawmakers from the Senate Appropriations Committee on the Iran war while making the case for receiving $67 billion in additional funding to pursue a conflict that has already cost $37.5 billion.
Called a “failure” and accused of “gross negligence” by the senators, the secretary was also heckled by protesters, who told him he had “blood on his hands.”
During a previous appearance on Capitol Hill before the Senate Armed Forces Committee in late April, Hegseth was asked about his reason for firing Gen. George by Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Jack Reed.
He thanked George for his service but told Reed he could not discuss his reasoning for the dismissal as it was customary not to out of respect for the general’s record.
He did say that he had been tasked by President Donald Trump with “challenging the culture” of his department, which it was hard to do with members of the “old guard” in place.
Asked about his purge of women and people of color, Hegseth denied that prejudice played a part and insisted: “The only metric is merit.”
