Hegseth thwarted internal efforts to extend top Army general’s career

The Army’s commander of its forces in Europe and Africa is unexpectedly stepping down after just 18 months in the job

Gen Christopher Donahue, famously the last US soldier to leave Afghanistan in 2021, is stepping down from his Army post.

A hugely popular figure in Europe who has spent just 18 months in the job, Donahue is widely known as the last man out of Afghanistan and was seen as linked to the Biden administration, although he is generally admired by U.S. and NATO soldiers across ranks and political affiliations.

He is the latest in a line of nearly two dozen top military leaders to either retire or depart their jobs early under the leadership of the defense secretary Pete Hegseth, who has undertaken an effort to thin the ranks of the military’s top brass with the mantra “less generals, more GIs”.