US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered senior Pentagon leadership to cut the number of four-star generals and admirals by at least 20% across the military, according to a memo signed by Hegseth obtained by CNN. As of 2023, there were 37 four-star generals and admirals across the entire military. Retired Major General James “Spider” Marks weighs in. #CNN #News
If you enjoyed this article, then please REPOST or SHARE with others; encourage them to follow AFNN. If you’d like to become a citizen contributor for AFNN, contact us at managingeditor@afnn.us Help keep us ad-free by donating here.
Substack: American Free News Network Substack
Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@AFNN_USA
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/afnnusa
Telegram: https://t.me/joinchat/2_-GAzcXmIRjODNh
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AfnnUsa
GETTR: https://gettr.com/user/AFNN_USA
CloutHub: @AFNN_USA
20% is a good start, but not enough. The Pentagon, the world’s second largest self-licking ice cream cone after Congress, should be cut in half. This would have a positive effect on readiness, not the doom and gloom that you will hear from politicians.
If it was me, the four-star rank would only be available ex-officio while assigned to certain billets – get into one and get the fourth star, but the only way you keep it is if you retire out of that post. Continue to serve and your rank and pay go back to three-star.
The retained would be:
*JCS Chair
*Service Chiefs plus CG Commandant (1 each Army, Navy, Marines, AF, SF, CG)
*the seven regional Unified Combatant Commands
*TRANSCOM, SOCOM, STRATCOM and Cyber Command
Leaving eighteen four-star billets, roughly half of present. Every other post would be reduced to three-star, or lower – the general principle would be to devolve each billet to the lowest rank of competence for it.
Add to my prior, each general officer gets his own assigned personal jet. The more such billets we can downsize, the more of those aircraft we can either free up for more useful roles or demilitarize and sell – after all, even a USED Gulfstream can bring as much s $40mil (for Mark Cuban’s bought on eBay) in 1990s dollars.