A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Army General Chris Donahue will shortly announce his retirement, according to two U.S. officials who were not authorized to speak publicly.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The news caught many by surprise. Donahue was a special forces soldier who now oversees U.S. Army operations across Europe and Africa. But he is perhaps best known as the last American soldier to depart Afghanistan in 2021 during the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces under the Biden administration.
MARTÍNEZ: Here with more is NPR's Quil Lawrence. So, Quil, who is General Chris Donahue?
QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: Yeah. He's a West Point graduate, combat-decorated veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan and Syria. He was a leader in Delta Force, which is an elite group even within special forces. He also commanded the 82nd Airborne. He ran the Army's Infantry School. In Europe, he's worked with Ukrainian military leaders.
He's very highly respected across the military. But he was only in this four-star Army job in Europe for a year and a half. And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did come into office saying that there are far too many flag officers in the military. He shrunk down the possible jobs that four-stars can go to. But Donahue would've seemed like a competitive candidate for any of those remaining jobs up to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
MARTÍNEZ: So do we know anything about the backstory behind the abrupt news of his retiring?
LAWRENCE: No one has any official explanation. If you follow military Twitter - and the Trump administration does seem to be concerned about what's said on social media - there are some trolls focusing on the fact that Donahue was in charge of trying to evacuate Kabul Airport. You may remember from five years ago this green-tinted night vision photo of a man walking up the ramp of an aircraft, the last man out of Afghanistan. And people are sort of pinning that whole debacle, that messy conclusion of 20 messy years of war - capped by the death of 13 U.S. troops and 170 Afghans in this suicide bombing at Abbey Gate - they're pinning that on Donahue.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. With that in mind, then, the Pentagon is now doing an investigation of what it calls a, quote, "disastrous and embarrassing withdrawal," and has promised accountability. So is Donahue to blame for any of that?
LAWRENCE: There's really no evidence that he was. He arrived in Kabul after the city had fallen to the Taliban. He wasn't in charge of Abbey Gate. He came to run the withdrawal and coordinated hundreds of flights that probably saved thousands of people's lives. And that photo of him being the last man out is widely seen as what right looks like in the military, the way a commander takes responsibility. You know, it was a general who was the last man to board the plane, not some unlucky private.
MARTÍNEZ: You know, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has had a few firings in his time as Secretary of Defense. Does this fall into that pattern?
LAWRENCE: Yes and no. Hegseth's been trimming the ranks, and as we've watched that play out, more than half of those cut have been female or Black officers. And Hegseth has been doing this highly unusual thing where he reaches way down into the promotion list to block people. And of course, he summarily fired CQ Brown, who was a Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as soon as Hegseth came in. But Donahue is a white man. And he seems to fit even the, you know, let's say, narrow vision of what Secretary Hegseth calls a war fighter.
This seems much more like back in April when Army chief of staff General Randy George was fired by Hegseth with no explanation. The rumors were that George was seen as an ally of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who had been outshining Hegseth a bit, and this was some sort of retaliation. That upset many in Congress from both parties. And now, at least, the Senate version of this year's defense bill will require written justification from the Pentagon before promotions can be delayed or withheld like this.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's NPR's Quil Lawrence. Quil, thank you.
LAWRENCE: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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