US Army acknowledges damage to Pentagon’s Eisenhower globe

The US Army has acknowledged that a 30-inch globe held at the Pentagon was damaged during an attempted move. The US Defence Department describes the object, known as the Eisenhower globe, as a replica and says it is being repaired.

The globe was already housed at the Pentagon when Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth requested it for his office, according to Washington Post sources whose account the Guardian relayed on October 22. Those sources placed the relocation attempt in February.

The Post’s sources said Hegseth’s aides chose to move the fragile globe themselves rather than wait for specialist movers. They lost control of it and dropped it onto its base, puncturing the shell near Antarctica, according to that account.

An Army spokesperson told the Post that the globe’s spherical portion had detached from the metal mounting that allows it to rotate. Photographs published by the Post showed fragments beneath the wooden frame and a hole in the globe’s underside, the Guardian reported.

The Guardian described the globe as reputedly used by Dwight D. Eisenhower, later the 34th US president, while planning the D-day landings as allied supreme commander. The Defence Department’s statement instead identified the damaged object as a replica of the Eisenhower globe.

The planned relocation was not completed, the Guardian reported. The Defence Department called the incident an accident, said no one was harmed and confirmed that the globe was being repaired.