Hegseth Fires 4-Star Donahue Over 2021 Kabul Withdrawal as Army Leadership Purge Deepens
Updated
Updated · Rolling Stone · Jun 25
Hegseth Fires 4-Star Donahue Over 2021 Kabul Withdrawal as Army Leadership Purge Deepens
3 articles · Updated · Rolling Stone · Jun 25
Summary
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removed Gen. Chris Donahue on Tuesday from his post as the Army’s top commander in Europe, accelerating what had been described a day earlier as an early retirement.
May 2025 marked Hegseth’s launch of a new Afghanistan-withdrawal probe, and Pentagon watchers say Donahue’s role leading the Kabul evacuation likely made him a target despite multiple earlier investigations.
2021 made Donahue a public symbol of the withdrawal: he led extraction efforts at Kabul airport and became known as the last U.S. soldier to board the final C-17 out of Afghanistan.
6 senior Army officers at the three- and four-star level have now exited early in the past 18 months under Hegseth, fueling concerns about politicized removals and strain on military morale.