ANALYSIS.
Trump administration fires vice admiral Shoshana Chatfield, a senior NATO official
The Pentagon has so far not commented on the abrupt departure of the former Naval War College president and U.S. Navy pilot.
Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield (L), and Queen Mathilde of Belgium(R).
The Trump administration this week fired Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield, the U.S. military's representative to NATO and the only woman on that military council.
The Pentagon issued a statement Tuesday on the firing of the former Naval War College president and Navy pilot. Her departure is the latest of at least nine senior military leaders - and the fourth woman - to be removed from the Brussels Alliance since Donald Trump's return to the White House.
Defence Secretary dismisses military representative to NATO
Hegseth removed Chatfield "from his position as the US representative to the NATO military committee due to a loss of confidence in his ability to lead," Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.
The vice admiral was notified of her removal over the weekend, according to three officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to the media. These sources point to her departure being related to comments she made years ago supporting diversity within the forces.
">CC @PeteHegseth:
— American Accountability Foundation (@Theswampmonitor) December 9, 2024
Meet Navy Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield.
Here's a report on her priorities as a leader of the U.S. Navy. Is this someone who should be leading our men and women into battle?
"Just before the cake-cutting at the end of the Women's Equality Day observance,… pic.twitter.com/LuauIXtPZh
While there is no indication that the helicopter pilot objected to following administration orders, she did state at the Women's Equality Day celebration in 2015 that "our diversity is our strength," a phrase that the current secretary of defense publicly denounced in February as the "most absurd" in military history.
Upon taking over as president of the Naval War College in 2019, during Trump's first term, Chatfield also said he wanted his team members to respect each other for their differences and diversity.
She served in NATO since 2023, after becoming the first woman to lead the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. She will be replaced temporarily by Brig. Gen. Sean Flynn, an Army National Guard officer who was her NATO deputy, a person with knowledge of the matter according to The Washington Post.
Nor did Sean Parnell, a spokesman for Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, respond to a request for comment about the abrupt firing. The news was first reported by Reuters.
Shoshana Chatfield has been an important element of the American Accountability Foundation, which openly lobbied for Hegseth's nomination to be withdrawn before it was approved by the Senate last January.
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Other NATO Layoffs
Other officials fired since Trump's return to the White House include Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the Navy's highest-ranking officer; Admiral Linda Fagan, commandant of the Coast Guard; and Lt. Gen. Jennifer Short, senior military assistant to the secretary of defense.
Among the men ousted are Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Gen. James Slife, former vice chief of staff of the Air Force; Gen. Timothy Haugh, head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command; Lt. Gen. Joseph B. Berger III, the Army's top military lawyer; and Lt. Gen. Charles Plummer, the Air Force's top military lawyer.
Chatfield's firing comes just days after Trump ousted Haugh and his civilian deputy, Wendy Noble, last week.
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