Generals and admirals scrambling to make plans to attend Hegseth's unusual meeting

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his senior staff had been discussing for months the unusual meeting they have planned for next week.

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his senior staff had been discussing for months the unusual meeting they have planned for next week that hundreds of senior officers will be required to attend, officials familiar with the planning said. But the plans and timing were only finalized in recent days, leaving top generals and admirals scrambling to find aircraft and make other last-minute plans to attend.

The meeting is considered highly unusual for its size and timing, and for the fact that Hegseth has ordered his entire senior officer corps to Washington on short notice and without telling them the meeting’s purpose, and it has raised alarms within the military and on Capitol Hill as a result.

The brief messages senior officers received about the meeting in recent days were short on information, especially for a military that likes to plan deliberately, said one officer who received the notice.

“There were no details in there, no amplifying information,” the officer said.

The mysterious meeting’s actual purpose is an opportunity for Hegseth to highlight what he sees as Pentagon accomplishments under his leadership and then discuss the way forward for the U.S. military, according to one official who knew of the plans.