The top legal counsel to the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the main military adviser to President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, is leaving the post nearly a year ahead of schedule. This marks the latest exit among senior military leaders and lawyers during the past 18 months.

Brig. Gen. Eric Widmar informed ProPublica that he weighed the choice carefully and chose to retire for personal reasons.

Earlier this year, my wife and I considered the pressures of this position, which have kept me living apart from my wife for the past two years and added strain for my family, Widmar said in an emailed statement. After thorough review, I concluded it was time to put my family first and turn to our next chapter together.

Widmar departure follows those of Gen. Chris C.D. Donahue, who leads Army forces in Europe and Africa, earlier this month about halfway through the usual term; Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George in April, roughly a year and a half short of the standard four-year term; and Admiral Alvin Holsey, who stepped down with two years left in his term late last year as head of Southern Command, which manages the disputed drone strikes on vessels in the Caribbean. His exit also comes after Hegseth dismissed top lawyers for the Army, Air Force and Navy last year.

A person in that position is a rising star, said one senior ranking former judge advocate, a military attorney, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal. He is certainly high-ranking in the legal community and well-thought-of and trusted. It is a pretty important job.

Military experts and current and former senior ranking military officials described Widmar early retirement from such a prominent post as a clear break from military tradition. They noted it is especially troubling amid a pattern of respected senior leaders departing under Hegseth with little explanation. Uniformed military leadership, especially legal advisers, typically stay in place across administrations to uphold the military commitment to nonpartisan professionalism.

That is centuries of high-priced talent that are being cashiered without any explanation for why their service was untenable, said Kori Schake, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based think tank. It creates a command climate in which people are hesitant to take initiative. And that is how countries lose wars.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Dan Caine, said in a statement that Widmar is deeply respected and admired by all and thanked him for his remarkable service. We will miss his legal counsel, incredible expertise and experience, and his understanding of our responsibility to always speak truth to power.

The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment from Hegseth.

Experts on military personnel matters as well as current and former senior ranking officers say the departures raise serious questions that Congress ought to be asking of all key leaders leaving in the current environment.

What is striking is how far Congress has let Hegseth go in shaping the force without demanding a clear explanation of what he is doing, said Peter Feaver, a professor of political science at Duke University who has long taught senior ranking officers the importance of not using retirement or resignation to stir public controversy.

A West Point graduate who advised operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Widmar departs after more than 28 years in the service. Before his most recent role, he was staff judge advocate for Central Command in support of U.S. interests across the Middle East and Asia.

The Senate confirmed Widmar as legal counsel to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2024. In an announcement at the time, the Army then-top lawyer, Lt. Gen. Joseph Berger III, praised his strategic vision and moral courage.

Berger has since been fired by Hegseth.

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