Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday removed Gen. Randy George as Army chief of staff—another in more than a dozen firings of senior military leaders by Hegseth since he took office last year and the first during the Iran war. He asked George to step down and retire immediately. "We are grateful for his service," a senior Defense Department official told CBS News, "but it was time for a leadership change in the Army." Hegseth had overruled the Army earlier in the week with a post on his personal X account that canceled the suspension of helicopter pilots who had hovered over Kid Rock's home in Tennessee.
George became chief of staff, which is usually a four-year assignment, in September 2023 after being nominated by Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate, per the Hill. The career infantry officer is a West Point graduate who served in the first Gulf War, as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan. He worked closely as chief of staff with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, with whom Hegseth has clashed, CNN points out. Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the Army's vice chief of staff and a former military aide to Hegseth, will serve as acting chief of staff, the Pentagon announced.
A Pentagon spokesman said LaNeve is "a battle-tested leader with decades of operational experience and is completely trusted by Secretary Hegseth to carry out the vision of this administration without fault." Other senior officers Hegseth has dismissed include Joint Chiefs Chair CQ Brown, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Slife, and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Jeffrey Kruse.
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