Secretary Hegseth Announces Plan to Cut Top Generals by 20%
It will be interesting to see if these general officer cuts will have any impact on USFK:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday announced he has directed the Defense Department to cut at least 20% of its four-star generals and admirals, along with other reductions across the military. “We’re back with more [Defense Department] reforms, this one is general and flag officer reductions.
That’s the official title,” Hegseth said in a video posted on X. “My title is less generals, more GIs.” Hegseth, in a memorandum signed Monday, also called for cuts of at least 20% of general officers in the National Guard and at least 10% of its general and flag officers across the military, which could include one-stars or above. In Hegseth’s video message, he said the cuts would occur in two phases, the first being among the four-stars and the National Guard.
You can read more at the link.
How many US four-star generals in USFK?
There is just the USFK commander who is a four star. The 8th Army and 7th AF commanders are three stars. The Navy forces commander is a one star, the Marines have a two star. The deputy commanders for 8th Army and 7th AF are both one stars. Special Operations command Korea has a two star. 2ID has a two star and two deputies as one stars. So I am counting eleven general or flag officers in Korea off the top of my head. I might be missing one or two. That means there are at least 11 generals for 28,500 personnel in Korea. That is one general for every 2,590 servicemembers in Korea.
I hear 20, now let’s go 50 or better yet, 95
GI it is more G.O.s than that, you forgot the staff G.O.s.
USFK Chief of Staff – MG, J2 – BG; J3 – MG, J5 – MG, J4 – MG, CFC C9 – BG. All are dual or tri hatted for U/C/J duties but still starts looking like the Milky Way galaxy real quick.
lots of stars
Forgot one more, 19th ESC commander; a one star.
It would take about a 75% cut to get back to WW2 ratio of GO/FO to total number of active troops.
I remember there was a general in the Guard a while back in charge of a total of 6 C130s. The base had shrunk but they still had that flag officer spot. I know a one star whose position existed only so he could attend meetings his boss (2 star) couldn’t make.
@Flyingsword, with the positions you mentioned that brings the total to 18 FO/GOs in USFK. The math now works out to one FO/GO for every 1,583 servicemembers in South Korea. It looks to me that USFK is ripe for FO/GO reductions.