Another senior Army seat opens early
The Army has removed Lt. Gen. Charles Costanza, commander of V Corps, from his post roughly two months before he was already set to leave. According to reporting cited in the source article, an Army spokesperson confirmed the removal, but the circumstances remain unclear. That is the usual Washington fog machine at work: a major personnel move happens, and the public gets a sentence that sounds like it was assembled by a committee allergic to nouns.
The replacement was already waiting
Costanza’s replacement is Maj. Gen. Thomas Feltey, who had already been Senate-confirmed for the leadership handoff scheduled for October. That means this was not a scramble to find a new commander from the nearest Pentagon hallway. The timing is still notable because Costanza was removed before the planned transition. The Army also told The Hill the matter was “referred to the appropriate authority in accordance with Army regulations,” which is precise enough to sound official and vague enough to answer almost nothing.
V Corps has a major Europe role
V Corps oversees U.S. Army forces and helps coordinate operations across Europe. It is partly based in Poland and has taken on a larger role since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including helping coordinate U.S. support for Kyiv and managing the American military presence along NATO’s front lines. The move also comes during a year when the Pentagon has reduced the U.S. military footprint in Europe, including canceling a planned deployment of the Army’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, from Fort Hood, Texas, to Poland.
Officials say this was not political
The removal lands amid a wider shake-up of senior military ranks under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, with reports saying more than two dozen high-ranking officers have been removed or sidelined, often without public explanation. Still, sources cited by ABC and The Hill said Costanza’s removal was not political and was not at Hegseth’s direction. The source article also notes that Gen. Chris Donahue resigned just over a month ago, and that Hegseth previously ousted Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, Army Chief of Chaplains Maj. Gen. William Green Jr., and Gen. David Hodne, head of Army Transformation and Training Command.
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