Gen. Randy George answers questions Wednesday, July 12, 2023, during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to consider his nomination to be the next chief of staff of the Army. (Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George will step down and retire immediately, the Pentagon said Thursday.
“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 posted on X, using the Trump administration’s preferred name for the Department of Defense.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asked George to step down, a Pentagon official confirmed Thursday.
“Nothing further to provide at the moment,” said the official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Hegseth wants someone in the role who will implement President Donald Trump’s and Hegseth’s vision for the Army, according to CBS News, which first reported the news.
Two other generals were fired by Hegseth, a Pentagon official confirmed.
They are Gen. David Hodne, who became the head of the service’s Transformation and Training Command in October; and Maj. Gen. William Green Jr., the chief of Army chaplains.
The Army chief of staff typically serves a four-year term. George was nominated for the position by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate in 2023. The Senate approved George with a 96-1 vote.
He was expected to hold the position until fall 2027. A spokesman for George could not be reached for immediate comment.
George, 61, served as the Army’s vice chief of staff from 2022 to 2023 and also worked as the senior military assistant to former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. He has extensive combat experience, including service in the Gulf War, Iraq War and the war in Afghanistan.
He led a brigade of 4th Infantry Division soldiers in Afghanistan in 2009 and returned in 2017 to command the entire 4th Infantry Division. As a brigadier general in 2015, George helped spearhead the Army’s response to Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine by leading a new mission command overseeing soldiers on NATO’s eastern flank.
George graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1988 and commissioned as an infantry officer, according to his service bio.
With George’s ouster, Hegseth has nearly remade the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff, a panel of senior military officials that advise the president and the secretary. Gen. Eric M. Smith, commandant of the Marine Corps, and Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, head of the Space Force, are the only two remaining since Hegseth took office in January 2025.
The current vice chief of staff of the Army, Gen. Christopher LaNeve, was formerly Hegseth’s military aide. He previously served as the commanding general of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division from 2022 to 2023.
LaNeve replaced Gen. James Mingus, who held the vice chief posting for two years. He will likely be considered as George’s replacement.
It was not immediately clear why Hodne and Green were targeted, which was first reported by The Washington Post.
Hegseth last month announced the Pentagon is doing away with rank insignias for military chaplains, requiring them to instead display religious insignia as part of broader changes to the chaplain corps. Chaplains will still retain their ranks, but the change is meant to highlight the importance of the chaplain’s role as a religious leader.
Since Trump’s return to office in January, a slate of the most senior military officers has been removed or retired. Some of the firings include Air Force Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the chief of naval operations; Adm. Linda Fagan, the commandant of the Coast Guard; and Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Gen. David Allvin, the Air Force chief of staff, announced in August in a prepared statement from the service that he would retire. The statement from the Air Force did not provide a reason for the decision.
Allvin was informed that he would be asked to retire and Hegseth wanted to go in another direction, The Washington Post reported at the time. As a trade-off, the Pentagon would allow Allvin to announce the decision.
Adm. Alvin Holsey retired in December less than a year into his tenure as the head of U.S. Southern Command.
The ouster of George follows Hegseth’s Tuesday post on X lifting the suspension of the aircrew that flew by Kid Rock’s house in Nashville last weekend. After the Army announced the suspension of the aviators involved and an administrative review, Hegseth overruled the service.
“No punishment. No investigation. Carry on, patriots,” the secretary wrote.
Hegseth’s decision to ask George to exit wasn’t related to the helicopter incident, CBS News reported.
The firing comes as thousands of troops from the 82nd Airborne Division were ordered to begin deploying to the Middle East in support of combat operations against Iran.
