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Retirement of Randy George is latest high-profile dismissal since the US defence secretary took office last January.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Pete Hegseth, the United States defence secretary, has asked Army Chief of Staff General Randy A George to step down with immediate effect, amid the US and Israel\u2019s war on Iran.<\/p>\n In a statement posted on X late on Thursday, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said George \u201cwill be retiring from his position\u201d, but he did not give any reasons for the abrupt decision during wartime.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n He added that the defence department was \u201cgrateful for General George\u2019s decades of service to our nation\u201d.<\/p>\n George\u2019s firing, first reported by US broadcaster CBS, is only the latest in a string of high-profile dismissals in the US armed forces since Hegseth took office last January.<\/p>\n CBS quoted a source as saying Hegseth made the move because he wants someone in the post who will implement his and President Donald Trump\u2019s vision for the army.<\/p>\n The general, 61, was first appointed to the position in 2023 under former US President Joe Biden. He was deployed in multiple postings outside the US, including in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As chief of staff, he is credited with attempting to remove redundancies in the army and integrate new technologies like cheap missile interceptor drones and artificial intelligence-powered targeting systems.<\/p>\n In a report, The New York Times said the removal was related to clashes between George and Hegseth over the latter\u2019s decision to single out and block the promotion of four army officers on a list of 29 personnel.<\/p>\n Most of the officers on the list are white men, while two blocked by Hegseth are Black, and the other two are women, the Times reported, citing unnamed military officials.<\/p>\n Hegseth\u2019s decision led senior military officers to question whether racial or gender bias was at play. However, when George asked the defence secretary for a meeting to discuss the matter two weeks ago, Hegseth refused to meet, reports said.<\/p>\n Rumours about George\u2019s possible firing swirled for weeks before Hegseth informed him during a phone call at about 4pm local time on Thursday, the Times reported.<\/p>\n The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the body of the most senior uniformed military leaders, paid the outgoing chief a tribute in a statement on social media.<\/p>\n \u201cSince 1988, General George and his family have consistently answered the nation\u2019s call with honor and dedication,\u201d the statement read. \u201cWe are profoundly thankful to General George and his wife, Patty, for their many years of sacrifice and devotion to those who serve. As they graduate from this distinguished chapter of service and look toward the future, we wish them both continued happiness and success in all that lies ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n Hegseth fired two other senior officials on Thursday, according to the Times and military publication Stars and Stripes: General David M Hodne, the head of the Army\u2019s Transformation and Training Command, a unit concerned with modernising the army, and Major General William Green Jr, the army\u2019s chief of chaplains, also appointed since 2023. The Pentagon has not confirmed their removal.<\/p>\n Army chaplains usually provide spiritual care, moral guidance and confidential counselling to soldiers and their families, regardless of religious background.<\/p>\n The US and Israeli officials have, since the start of the Iran war, suggested that the conflict is a religious undertaking.<\/p>\n A US army watchdog, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), said in March it received emailed complaints that US service members were told by senior commanders the war with Iran is meant to \u201ccause Armageddon\u201d, or the biblical \u201cend times\u201d.<\/p>\n In October, the former army vice chief of staff, General James J Mingus, retired a year earlier than expected. No reasons were given.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Retirement of Randy George is latest high-profile dismissal since the US defence secretary took office last January. Pete Hegseth, the United States defence secretary, has asked Army Chief of Staff General Randy A George to step down with immediate effect, amid the US and Israel\u2019s war on Iran. In a statement posted on X late […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
Two other officials dismissed<\/h2>\n
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