In your example of the merger of two companies, the single CEO position that remains after the merger still has all of, and perhaps more of, the responsibilities of the original CEO position. You wouldn't put a less experienced VP into that position. In military terms, the Four Star position that remains after the merger of commands is still a Four Star position and needs to be filled by a Four Star, not a Three Star. Hegseth instead decided to degrade the position of "Commanding General of U.S. Army Europe and Africa", so he could replace Donahue with a Three Star syncophant. There have not been any changes to that role, which would justify its downgrade. However, there is a political reason, as you read from the article . . .
"The effort is reportedly part of Hegseth's broader plan to sideline and purge senior officials within the Pentagon. The abrupt departures and reassignments among senior Pentagon leaders under Hegseth has developed a pattern critics describe as an effort to clear out officials seen as insufficiently loyal."
Also, Hegseth has been moving the military towards an all white male authority structure, as he has been firing and blocking the promotions of well qualified women and minority officers.
Hegseth, a former Major in the National Guard, terminated Four Star General Chris Donahue, 56, a decorated officer who commanded the Army's elite Delta Force and amassed two decades of combat experience and who has long been seen inside the Army as one of its top leaders and a potential future chief of staff.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-s-top-general-walks-out-of-pentagon-as-hegseth-moves-to-gut-his-command-in-sweeping-purge/ar-AA26riJ2
by senselessly gutting important parts of our government.
"An influenza outbreak at a Texas Air Force training base is drawing attention to a military vaccination policy that stood for more than seven decades before being overturned this spring and partially reinstated just weeks later."
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"Hundreds of trainees at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland have been infected in an outbreak that emerged shortly after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ended the military's longstanding flu vaccine requirement, making annual influenza vaccinations voluntary for service members. Military officials later approved exceptions allowing the Air Force and other services to again require flu shots for trainees and other groups."
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http://www.newsweek.com/how-a-military-vaccine-reversal-was-followed-by-a-major-flu-outbreak-12149793
bother to read the entire article? "A 4-star general cannot remain on staff unless there is a position open that requires that rank." If there is no command position open, "retirement is often the only option available" because going from a 4-star to 3-star general strips him of the prestige and retirement benefits later on of retiring as a 4-start general. It can diminish future employment opportunities.
It's similar to when two companies merge and they end up with two CEO's, two CFO's and many duplicates in other management positions. If the junior person in each case is less then retirement age, they give him a golden parachute to leave. If he is old enough to retire, he receives his retirement pay commensurate with the position he held before the merger, taking a demotion to a lesser position is the worst option because working as a subordinate to a guy who used to be your equal looks bad for a lot of reasons.
In your example of the merger of two companies, the single CEO position that remains after the merger still has all of, and perhaps more of, the responsibilities of the original CEO position. You wouldn't put a less experienced VP into that position. In military terms, the Four Star position that remains after the merger of commands is still a Four Star position and needs to be filled by a Four Star, not a Three Star. Hegseth instead decided to degrade the position of "Commanding General of U.S. Army Europe and Africa", so he could replace Donahue with a Three Star syncophant. There have not been any changes to that role, which would justify its downgrade. However, there is a political reason, as you read from the article . . .
"The effort is reportedly part of Hegseth's broader plan to sideline and purge senior officials within the Pentagon. The abrupt departures and reassignments among senior Pentagon leaders under Hegseth has developed a pattern critics describe as an effort to clear out officials seen as insufficiently loyal."
Also, Hegseth has been moving the military towards an all white male authority structure, as he has been firing and blocking the promotions of well qualified women and minority officers.
in the military? The strength (based on number of troops) determines the rank for the person in command for any military unit and that strength can be in flux as missions change or shift to other parts of the world. A company commander is generally a Captain, a Battalion commander a Major or Lt. Colonel (depending on the strength) and a Brigade Commander a Full Colonel. Divisions are commanded by one-to-three start Generals, again, depending on the strength. 4-stars are reserved for Commanders of "Armies" with multiple Divisions, and General Staff positions. Using your argument, a merger of two Divisions that created a 4-star command position must be backed up by the STRENGTH of those divisions. If the troops underlying the strength are moved to other units in other divisions, it can result in a command being downgraded from 4 to 3 stars. It's the size of the force underlying the command that supports the rank, not the number of divisions alone.
Generally, a base commander is a one or two star General, but there are small bases across the US that have a Colonel as commander because there are only hundreds, not thousands, of troops posted there.
For example, a Brigadier General is names as such because he's supposed to command a BRIGADE. See how that works?
were in place before the Civil War, when there were only one-, two- and 3-star generals and combat units were not nearly as large as they are now. There were no Divisions back then, which now typically contain 10-15000 men each, organized into three Brigades. Grant often entered battles with over 50,000 men, which is considered an Army.
Patton's Third Army had 42 Divisions but many were way below full strength from casualties already occurring as Divisions were reorganized out of the remnants of the Normandy Invasion.
In peacetime, very few Brigades are anywhere near full strength, so they were often commanded by full Colonels for the last 180 years. I will agree that ORIGINALLY, long before the two world wars, the rank of Brigadier General was established to lead a Brigade of 3-5000 men. However, in modern times, this is not the case. If it was the year 1850, this would have been a nice "Gotchya." Lol