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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s staff damaged a historic globe used by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower in World War II when they tried to move it to his office at his request, three U.S. officials confirmed to NBC News.
The incident occurred in February after Hegseth said he wanted the globe, mounted in a wooden frame, in his office, officials said.
The Washington Post first reported the incident on Thursday.
The globe was one of at least two that Eisenhower had, officials said, and it was especially notable because it had green pen or marker notations where Eisenhower marked areas in Europe during World War II.
The historic American artifact is cataloged and held by the US Army Center of Military History (CMH) but displayed at the Pentagon. The globe was kept in a senior Army office in the Pentagon, officials said.
Rather than wait for Army historians or CMH to move the globe, some employees of Hegseth’s office tried to do it themselves, lowering it, creating a hole in the bottom of it and damaging another area, officials said.
A Pentagon official acknowledged the incident but said the globe was a replica.
“An accident occurred while personnel were transporting a replica of the Eisenhower globe as part of its shift. Accidents happen, we are thankful that no one was injured, and the globe is being repaired,” said the Pentagon official.
NBC News verified from the three officials in a photo that it was not a replica, but the original globe used by Eisenhower.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a follow-up request for information about the globe.
Eisenhower was supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force during World War II, with ultimate responsibility for crucial decisions such as the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944.
He gave final approval for the landings, part of Operation Overlord, which led to the liberation of Western Europe and the end of Adolph Hitler in Nazi Germany.
Eisenhower was elected the 34th president in November 1952 and was sworn in the following January.
A company that moved a similar Eisenhower globe to Alabama in December 2022, Craters & Freighters, described what it took to safely transport the artifact when it was contracted by CMH.
This globe was 4 feet tall and had a diameter of about 40 inches, and the company said it created “precise packaging and box designs” to keep it safe.
