Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has summoned nearly every U.S. general and admiral to a Marine Corps base in Virginia next week — an extraordinary order issued with no stated purpose that has rattled the Pentagon’s senior ranks amid a wave of firings under the Trump administration.

The directive, confirmed by Pentagon officials and reported by The Washington Post, requires hundreds of general and flag officers worldwide — from combat zones in the Middle East to commands across the Pacific — to assemble next Tuesday at Quantico. The gathering will include top commanders and their senior enlisted advisers, but excludes staff officers.

Such a move is without precedent, according to more than a dozen officials and former officers interviewed by The Washington Post. Several raised alarm that stripping commanders from their posts at the same time could pose security risks. “You don’t call GOFOs leading the global force into an auditorium outside D.C. and not tell them why,” one said, using the acronym for general and flag officers. “All of it is weird.”

Hegseth’s spokesman, Sean Parnell, confirmed only that the secretary “will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week,” declining to provide an agenda.

The secrecy has fueled speculation that the meeting may foreshadow dramatic shifts in U.S. defense strategy. Officials noted the Trump administration is finalizing a new national defense strategy that elevates homeland defense above China, and some believe Hegseth may use the meeting to announce sweeping changes.

The order comes as Hegseth has aggressively reshaped the Pentagon, directing a 20 percent cut in general officer billets, rebranding the Defense Department as the Department of War, and firing senior leaders without explanation — including the chiefs of the Navy Reserve, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Naval Special Warfare.

The moves follow a broader purge of top brass since Trump returned to office, with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chief of naval operations, the Coast Guard commandant, and the Air Force vice chief among those forced out.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)