Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has taken the extraordinary step of personally intervening to block the advancement of four Army officers who were scheduled to be promoted to one-star general positions, NPR has confirmed.
The officers whose promotions were halted are Black and female service members who had successfully completed the standard promotion process. Such direct involvement by a Defense Secretary in individual promotion decisions represents a highly irregular departure from normal Pentagon procedures.
The four Army personnel had already progressed through the typical channels and were positioned to receive their brigadier general stars before Hegseth’s unprecedented intervention occurred.
This level of personal involvement by the nation’s top defense official in blocking specific military promotions is considered extremely uncommon in Pentagon operations.
