Marine Corps Base Quantico turned into the stage for an extraordinary spectacle on Tuesday. More than 800 US generals, admirals, and senior officers, summoned at short notice from posts as far-flung as Europe, the Middle East, and South Korea, filed into a hall under tight security.

For veterans of military bureaucracy, the scale was unheard of. NATO’s military chair, Italian admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, told Associated Press: “In my 49 years of service, I’ve never seen that before.”

The secrecy surrounding the event had stoked speculation for days. The reveal came when Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth took the podium: he wanted nothing less than to remake the Department of Defense's identity and culture.

“Welcome to the War Department”

Hegseth opened with a declaration that jolted the

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