Posted on 05/06/2025 9:42:54 AM PDT by Signalman
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Monday that the U.S. Military will soon be undergoing a massive reduction in the number of general officers across all branches.
In a video statement posted to social media, Hegseth announced the General and Flag Officer Reductions initiative, or as he calls it, the “Less Generals, More GI’s,” reform.
“It’s a historic one, and it’s in keeping with President Trump’s commitment to achieving peace through strength. We’re going to shift resources from bloated headquarters elements to our warfighters,” the Defense Secretary said.
Hegseth then provided a brief history lesson on the military’s historic command, noting that during World War II, the U.S. Military consisted of 12 million service members across all branches. “For that 12-million-man element, we had 17 four and five-star generals,” Hegseth explained.
Today, the U.S. Military consists of 2.1 million service members, with 44 four-star and flag officers. In the past, the ratio was one general for every 6,000 troops, while today, it is one general for every 1,400 service members.
“More generals and admirals does not equal more success,” the Defense Secretary continued. “Now this is not a slash and burn exercise meant to punish high-ranking officers. Nothing could be further from the truth. This has been a deliberative process, working with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with one goal, maximizing strategic readiness and operational effectiveness by making prudent reductions in the general and flag officer ranks.”
Hegseth further explained the reforms will be enacted under two phases, with the first consisting of a comprehensive review of the nation’s current service structure. In the second phase, the Department of Defense will conduct a strategic review of the unified command plan.
All in all, Hegseth described the plan as the most extensive review of U.S. Military structure since the Goldwater-Nichols Defense Reorganization Act of 1986. “That was a generational change in combat command structures, planning, training, geographic areas of responsibility, mission, and operational responsibilities,” Hegseth said.
Under phase one, the plan will result in a 20 percent reduction of four-star generals and flag officers for active duty elements, along with a 20 percent reduction of general and flag officers in the National Guard Bureau. Phase two will “produce a minimum of an additional 10 percent reduction of overall and general flag officers throughout the DoD in conjunction with a realignment of the Unified Command Plan,” Hegseth explained.
“It’s going to be done carefully, but it’s going to be done expeditiously. We confront a complex and evolving threat environment, we cannot afford to wait. We’ve got to be lean and mean, and in this case it means general officer reductions.”
Congress is currently tasked with setting the numbers of generals and officers allowed in the U.S. Military. The total number of active-duty general or flag officers is capped at 219 for the Army, 150 for the Navy, 171 for the Air Force, 64 for the Marine Corps and 21 for the Space Force.
Grammatically is should be “Fewer Generals...”
I expect most of this could be done by attrition: anybody with stars on his shoulders has been in long enough to retire. Such retirements could be encouraged ...
He is right. Too many people at the top. The herd needs to be thinned out.
And in the process, he’ll get rid of the woke, lesser qualified non-warfighting riff-raff
He’s a young whipper-snapper turning off all the old men. Kinda reminds me of Big Balls.
The enlisted ranks should be thinned out of all NCO’s with more than 20 years.
Historic! Massive! Maybe a reduction of 10 out of 44. Oh how breathtaking.
But the article must be using some DEI math. Look at the ratios mentioned for now and ww2. Use those numbers to calculate the ratios. Not even close.
Who is responsible for such garbage writing? But! It’s historic! Massive! Just click here and get a freeper to post it.
LOL that was my first reaction as well.
Has the esteemed and all-powerful Judge Boasberg given him the okay on this?
Politics has been at the forefront of promotions for a long while and we need to be careful to make sure its the more difficult elements which are encouraged to find a quiet existence elsewhere.
One of the problems with the Chinese military is that they have swarms of higher level officers almost all of which have their positions due to political placement with very few actually having any appropriate training or ability. This recently showed how fragile their military is despite the number of generals when they had to stop an exercise because the only two command officers that were capable of functioning within their roles were in custody and there were significant concerns related to friendly fire and possibly starting a war prematurely.
They only have a little puddle on their doorstep to worry about and no nearby land based army of any significance threatening them. Imagine what will happen if political appointees are involved in our complicated global operation.
It could be done that way, but there is a very limited time available to do meaningful reforms to the US Military before the next big conflict hits us.
I do not believe there is enough time left to get done all of what is needed. We may just barely squeak by if we are lucky.
This!
You don’t know very much about uniform wear and regulations.
Grammatically is should be “Fewer Generals...”
Thank you.
That is the only way they reached that high level—starting under Obama.
Finally.
Please enlighten me.
Incompetent General: “General Halftrack, reporting as ordered!”
Hegseth: “Close the door, please.”
[Door is closed]
Hegseth: “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Easy way is I have your request for retirement on my desk at 0500 tomorrow. It will be approved. We don’t even need to talk about the hard way ...”
Incompetent General: [1000 yd stare ...]
Hegseth: “Dismissed”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.