Nancy Youssef, The Atlantic (“Hegseth Fires a Top General“):
Earlier this week, the Pentagon’s chief planner, Army Lieutenant General Brett Sylvia, was ousted from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. No explanation was given. This comes at an inopportune moment, given that President Trump may be planning to relaunch the war on Iran. Sylvia, the former commander of the 101st Airborne Division, becomes the latest in a long line of senior officers who have been shown the door since Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth arrived at the Pentagon almost two years ago.
No replacement for Sylvia was named, and it is unclear who will take over his responsibilities. In the past, the deputy or vice director of the relevant directorate of the Joint Chiefs of Staff would fill the role on a temporary basis until the president nominated a candidate for Senate confirmation. Sylvia is the second person to be pushed out of the job of director of the Directorate for Strategy, Plans, and Policy at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, known inside the military as the J5, in the past year. His predecessor, Army Lieutenant General Joseph McGee, was forced to retire. “Now is not the time when you’d want to lose the J5,” a former Joint Chiefs of Staff official said. “This person would serve as a critical link between the operational force, the department policy, and the White House.”
On any military staff, the -3 (Current Operations) and -5 (Future Operations/Plans) billets are the most important and prestigious, aside from the commander and deputy. Previous Joint Staff J5s have gone on to be vice chairman of the joint chiefs (Sandy Winnefeld), service chiefs (George Casey, David Allvin, and Lisa Franchetti), and combatant commanders (Barry McCaffrey, Wes Clark, John Abizaid, Charles Jacoby, Frank McKenzie, and Richard Clarke). The post is, shall we say, a big deal.
The purge of rising star officers is simply unprecedented. At his speech at Quantico last month, Hegseth explained it this way:
[T]he number-crunchers say we fired 10% of the generals and admirals across the force, and that number sounds about right. And I know, because I directed it — that we’ve also reduced the overall number of general officer slots by an additional 10%. So, yes, 20% reduction across the board. Now the media calls that a “purge.” I call it accountability and long overdue. And frankly, the bare minimum. As usual, what the media levels as an accusation, I wear as an accomplishment. You see, you can’t change a culture with the same people who enabled it. Personnel is policy — at every single level.
The thing is, there’s no indication the fired officers refused to carry out the administration’s policies. Or were even dragging their feet in implementing them. Those who were women or racial minorities were presumed to be “DEI hires.” Those who had close associations with disfavored officers, such as former Joint Chiefs Chairmen Mark Milley (appointed to that post by President Trump) or CQ Brown (appointed to his previous post as Air Force Chief of Staff by Trump) were presumed disloyal.
As Youssef notes, Sylvia’s ousting comes as the administration is planning to ramp the war in Iran back up after the midterm elections.
Sylvia is at least the fifth general pushed out or fired this year, each holding key positions within the military. Hegseth forced out General Randy George, chief of staff of the Army, at the height of the U.S. strike campaign in Iran, despite the Army’s role in restocking key munitions, which are now in short supply. That same month, Hegseth removed General David Hodne, the head of the Army’s Transformation and Training Command, and ousted Major General William Green Jr., the head of the Army Chaplain Corps. And in June, Army General Chris “C.D.” Donahue stepped down as the head of U.S. Army Forces in Europe and Africa amid disagreements with Hegseth. Donahue was widely seen as one of the Army’s rising stars—a Delta Force leader who was considered a top candidate for Army chief of staff or even chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In all, at least 26 admirals and generals have stepped down or been pushed out since Hegseth took control of the Pentagon less than two years ago.
The Pentagon has rarely provided rationales, leaving those still in place to guess about the causes. The reasons, according to officials, tend to fall into one or more of three categories: previous work on policies that Hegseth considers “woke,” such as promoting diversity; perceived closeness to a former general considered persona non grata by the current administration, such as former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley; and being suspected by Hegseth of leaking to the press. The message received through the ranks is that anyone viewed as insufficiently enthusiastic about Hegseth’s political views or priorities is at risk.
Again, this is unprecedented. Senior officers—three- and four-star generals and admirals—will have served for more than three decades. By definition, they will have served under many presidential administrations and sets of policy priorities. At least in modern times, there has never been an ideological or partisan purity test for continued service.
Since I’ve been paying close attention to these things, we have smoothly transitioned from Bush 41 to Clinton to Bush 43 to Obama to Trump 45 to Biden with continuity among the Joint Chiefs and Combatant Commanders. Occasionally, one of those officers will be relieved or asked to retire over policy disagreements or a sense that they’re not getting the job done. Less frequently, one will resign over policy disputes. But the norm is serving out the standard tour length. There have never been “Reagan generals” or “Clinton admirals,” just professional officers carrying out their oath to the Constitution.
Department of Defense officials told me that the rationale for firing Sylvia mirrored that of others pushed out before him: Hegseth lost confidence in him, and he did not get along with the top civilian in charge of policy, Elbridge Colby, the No. 3 leader at the Pentagon.
So, potentially, that’s a legitimate reason for relief or reassignment. The person in charge of long-range planning needs to be in sync with the person setting policy. But, frankly, absent rank insubordination, I would lean toward finding another billet for someone clearly being groomed for four-star rank.
Toward the very end of Youssef’s report, we get this:
Last year, the conservative activist Laura Loomer called in a social-media post for the Trump administration to fire Sylvia’s son Gavin, an employee of the Department of Homeland Security as a data analyst at FEMA, charging that he had posted an inflammatory message on Instagram shortly after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. In the post, Loomer referred to the general as well, saying: “His father is a Major General in the United States Army and currently serves at the Pentagon. He was nominated for a third star by Joe Biden.” Her screed also took aim at Gavin Sylvia’s brother and grandmother. “These people hate us,” she wrote. “They don’t belong near the levers of our National Power.” She ended the post by saying Hegseth “should also review the employment of Gavin’s father, MG Brett Sylvia.” Gavin Sylvia was placed on administrative leave, The Washington Post reported.
Which clears things up considerably.
