Gen. James Mingus is currently vice chief of staff and has not publicly said he plans to step aside. He has been in the job less than two years, and it is typically a tenure that lasts at least three years.
Officials in the Army and Hegseth’s office would not offer any details on Mingus’ apparent ouster and the effort to promote LaNeve, who is now Hegseth’s top military aide.
Maj. Peter Sulzona, a spokesman for Mingus, told The Associated Press by email that he would not comment on pending nominations but that Mingus “will continue to execute the duties & responsibilities of his position, focusing on warfighting and the wellbeing of our Soldiers.”
Before taking up the vice chief post last year, Mingus was at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, starting in 2020 under then-Chairman Gen. Mark Milley. Milley, though appointed by Trump in his first term, would later anger the president and become a target for significant criticism in his second term.
About a month ago, Gen. Thomas Bussiere, head of the Air Force’s Global Strike Command, also suddenly announced his retirement, citing “personal and family reasons.” That came a little over a month after the head of the Air Force, Gen. David Alvin, also announced a surprise early retirement.
Those retirements come after a spate of unexplained firings in August that included Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, then the head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency; Vice Adm. Nancy Lacore, chief of the Navy Reserve; and Rear Adm. Milton Sands, a Navy SEAL officer who oversaw Naval Special Warfare Command.
Kruse’s agency produced an initial intelligence assessment of U.S. damage to Iranian nuclear sites that leaked to the press and contradicted claims from the Trump administration.
Early in the administration’s time in power, Trump also fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as the Navy’s top officer, the Air Force’s second-highest-ranking officer, and the top lawyers for three military service branches.