Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and lawmakers in both parties on Thursday rallied around former Army chief of staff Gen. Randy George, who Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth abruptly forced to retire this month.
Driscoll, during a House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, told lawmakers he was on vacation with his family when he learned George was told to step down.
“When we drove back from North Carolina, I drove straight to Gen. George’s house,” Driscoll said in an exchange with Rep. Ed Case. “We walked right in, and we all gave him a hug. There is no person who has more respect for Gen. George and his 42 years of service, his Purple Heart, his wife Patty, their grandkids, their kids. I adore them, and he was an amazing, transformational leader. I, too, loved Gen. George.”
Hegseth hasn’t shared the rationale for George’s removal, or for removing Maj. Gen. William Green Jr., the Army’s top chaplain, and Gen. David Hodne, the head of Army Transformation and Training Command. George and Driscoll had reportedly clashed with Hegseth over the secretary’s decision to block the promotion of four Army officers to be one-star generals.
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Republican and Democratic lawmakers at the hearing praised George, who was replaced by Gen. Christopher LaNeve, promoted from Army vice chief of staff. Driscoll stopped short of mentioning or criticizing Hegseth.
“The civilian leadership, the design of our system is that they get to pick the leaders that they want, and we execute on those orders,” Driscoll said. “And what I can say about Gen. LaNeve, sitting beside me, is his family is — his kids are in [the military], serving now. He served 35 years. And my commitment to you is, as you get to know Gen. LaNeve, you will find him to be a patriotic American too, whose family is multigenerational service.”
House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole, among the lawmakers who praised George, called the former general “a great patriot” and “an outstanding general officer, outstanding chief of staff.” Cole, whose Oklahoma district is home to Fort Sill and its artillery school, had close interactions with George.
“I just want the record to reflect how much we regret, I personally regret at least, he’s no longer in active service,” Cole said. “He’s a real loss to us, in my opinion.”
Case, a Democrat, was more blunt, ripping into Driscoll, President Donald Trump and Hegseth for firing George “publicly, overtly, and I would even say, humiliatingly and cruelly, without any offer, apparently, of a graceful exit.
“You at least owe Congress, the public, and I think, most importantly, the soldiers, some explanation, which you did not do, and you consciously chose not to,” Case told Driscoll. “And in doing so, you created and compounded numerous issues, including morale, uncertainty and distrust.”
Rep. Steve Womack, a senior Republican appropriator, stopped short of criticizing Hegseth directly but said, “I, too, regret the fact of the conditions that he left the service, and I think our country will regret that circumstance.”
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