US Commander quits: Gen. Chris Donahue, Commander of US Army Europe&Africa has submitted retirement papers.

[Swede]

After Stalin purged the military, the USSR was totally unprepared for Operation Barbarossa.

Crucial people are leaving 😩😩😩😩👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

— @nancabell.bsky.social 2026-06-24T02:14:59.370Z

[underpants]

1. "Hard ass" as we said in the Army. Seriously hard core.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Donahue_(general)

[applegrove]

2. Only 57 years old.

[vapor2]

3. Many good men fired or quit due to a guy who cites Pulp Fiction

and said he would quit drinking if nominated.

[UpInArms]

4. These buffoons

will make certain the USA will not have anything to be proud of when they are done.

[eppur_se_muova]

5. Gresham's Law for military talent ?

Bad talent drives out good.

It has often struck our notice that the course our city runs
Is the same towards men and money. She has true and worthy sons:
She has good and ancient silver, she has good and recent gold.
These are coins untouched with alloys; everywhere their fame is told;
Not all Hellas holds their equal, not all Barbary far and near.
Gold or silver, each well minted, tested each and ringing clear.
Yet, we never use them! Others always pass from hand to hand.
Sorry brass just struck last week and branded with a wretched brand.
So with men we know for upright, blameless lives and noble names.
Trained in music and palaestra, freemen's choirs and freemen's games,
These we spurn for men of brass...

Aristophanes, TheFrogs (ca. 405 BC)

[Deuxcents]

6. Our country's treasures of leaders with character to keep us safe and secure leaving their posts is dangerous

I hope they form a community of some kind to stay abreast of what’s going on because we may need them

[Dan]

7. That is an interesting comment....

If a situation occurs where we might need the real leaders (who have been forced out, resigned or retired) then this nation will be in a world of hurt. I don't want to imagine a situation where this might be necessary. Because if for some reason an event like that occurs then it would probably be result of treason within.

[Deuxcents]

9. I'm thinking if things got really bad, we'd need people who know what to do..organize, what needs to be done and where

Instead of scared people running around not knowing what to do, they’d have a better chance of survival. These leaders have spent many years and their experience would be valuable to turn fears and chaos into a positive outcome. This wouldn’t happen overnight so that why I hope they would use their resources and discretion

[AverageOldGuy]

8. Good article in The Atlantic

This may be behind a paywall.

https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/2026/06/army-general-pentagon-hegseth/687675/

General Chris “C. D.” Donahue was the last U.S. soldier to leave Afghanistan during the chaotic 2021 withdrawal. As the head of Army forces in Europe and Africa, he has helped bolster Ukraine in its fight to repel the Russian invasion. Now Donahue has become the latest casualty in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s purge of the military’s senior ranks.

Donahue’s abrupt departure, after just 18 months in his role, is another sign of the upheaval. He was widely seen as one of the Army’s rising stars—a legendary Delta Force leader who was considered a top candidate for Army chief of staff or even chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—having distinguished himself in wars of the past two decades. But Hegseth has sought to oust anyone who doesn’t fit his idea of a military leader, including those involved in the calamitous American exit from Kabul under President Biden—no matter how well they performed there. Donahue is expected to announce as soon as tomorrow that he will be relinquishing his post later this summer, two people familiar with the matter told us.

A career Ranger and Special Operations commander, Donahue served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, climbing through the ranks during two decades of counterterrorism wars. As the U.S. military shifted its focus from hunting terrorist networks to preparing for conflicts against technologically sophisticated adversaries, Donahue did as well. In recent years, he took on a top role in Europe as the Pentagon adapted lessons from Ukraine and other modern battlefields. His departure continues the exit of a generation of combat-tested leaders at a time when Hegseth is reshaping the military’s senior ranks under a banner of “less generals, more GIs.”

. . . . .

I retired from the Army in April 1995 after 28 years, one tour in Vietnam. Hegseth is not fit to carry Donahue's jock strap. I'll just leave it at that.

[LudwigPastorius]

10. And, another member of the brass who would say no to an illegal order is gone.

[GenThePerservering]

11. Hegseth, purging anyone who makes him feel small

and has accomplished what he couldn't do...especially the women.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

12. MaddowBlog-Army general abruptly steps down as Hegseth's Pentagon purge intensifies

Gen. Chris Donahue was described as “the latest casualty” in the defense secretary’s “purge of the military’s senior ranks.”

As Gen. Chris Donahue, commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, joins the ranks of leaders involuntarily exiting the military, Pete Hegseth’s purge deserves to be seen as a genuine scandal.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-06-24T13:05:47.412Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/army-general-steps-down-hegseth-pentagon-purge

In the years that followed, the general took on other high-profile duties, becoming the head of Army forces in Europe and Africa. He was also widely seen as the next chief of staff of the Army. This week, however, Donahue’s career became notable for a very different reason. The Hill reported:

Gen. Chris Donahue, commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, submitted his paperwork to retire after a little over a year in his position, a Pentagon official told The Hill.

The Pentagon official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal military deliberations.

An Army spokesperson soon after confirmed Donahue’s departure in an official statement, thanking the general “for his leadership of U.S. Army Europe and Africa.”

While military leaders retire with some regularity, there’s reason to believe that Donahue’s decision — announced after just 18 months in his position — was not altogether voluntary. CBS News, citing multiple sources, reported that the general exited the military after a lengthy and decorated career because he had “earned the ire of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.”....

In fact, the New York Times reported in November that Hegseth had fired or sidelined dozens of officials “with little explanation,” creating “an atmosphere of anxiety and mistrust” within the department. Politico published a similar report the month before, noting that the secretary’s firings have “injected a fresh wave of fear into the Pentagon over the cost of speaking up and who might be next.”

Early last year, five former defense secretaries, including retired Gen. Jim Mattis, Donald Trump’s first defense secretary, condemned the pattern of firings as “reckless.” In a joint letter, addressed to Congress, they asked the House and Senate to hold “immediate hearings to assess the national security implications” of the dismissals.

Hegseth and the administration appear to have ignored those concerns; the purge is still going on; and GOP leaders on Capitol Hill have scheduled no such hearings.

Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, who served as a Marine officer in Iraq and now serves on the House Armed Services Committee, spoke to Politico about Hegseth’s purges, which the congressman described as politically motivated.

“That’s a recipe not just for a politicized military, but an authoritarian military,” Moulton said. “That’s the way militaries work in Russia and China and North Korea.”....

For his part, Hegseth recently defended the pattern during congressional testimony, telling lawmakers who asked about his personnel purge, “Under Barack Obama, 197 general officers were removed. So this is not something specific to this administration.”

We learned soon after that the statistic the secretary cited was entirely made up and had no basis in fact.