US Defense Secretary Removes Women, Black Officers From Navy Promotion List

Pete Hegseth, the U.S. Defense Secretary, has blocked the advancement of at least seven Navy officers who had already been vetted and approved by a panel of senior admirals. The intervention produced a promotion list of twenty-two officers nominated for rear admiral—a one-star rank—that bears little resemblance to the force they would help lead. Among those removed were at least two women, two Black men, and three white men. The resulting roster, made public in late May, contains no women at all, despite women making up roughly twenty-one percent of the active Navy. Only two officers who are not white appear on the new list, even though racial minorities comprise about thirty-eight percent of the Navy's active personnel.

The removals violate the stated rules governing military promotions. Pentagon regulations permit the Defense Secretary to exclude officers from advancement lists only when evidence emerges of moral, mental, physical, or professional deficiencies that would undermine their fitness for leadership. Hegseth has offered no public justification for removing these seven officers, and four current and former Defense Department officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that such interventions are highly unusual. Sean Parnell, the Pentagon's chief spokesman, declined to explain the removals, instead offering a generic statement that military promotions go to those who earn them and that the department does not consider skin color or gender in advancement decisions.

Hegseth's actions fit a broader pattern. Since taking office, he has fired or sidelined nearly thirty general officers as part of what he frames as a campaign to purge the Pentagon of leaders he deems "foolish," "reckless," or "woke." He has consistently refused to explain his decisions. Yet the pattern is unmistakable: nearly sixty percent of the general officers dismissed by Hegseth have been women or Black, according to Senator Jack Reed, who raised the issue during recent Senate testimony. Currently, women and racial minorities represent less than twenty percent of the generals and admirals across the U.S. military. Among those removed were Charles Q. Brown Jr., the second African American to lead the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to command the Navy.

Earlier this year, Hegseth also struck four colonels—two Black men and two women—from the Army's promotion list to one-star general, overriding the Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, who testified that all four officers had exemplary records with no disciplinary issues. The selection process itself is grueling: panels of admirals or generals review hundreds of files over meetings lasting up to two weeks, and only about five percent of eligible officers are promoted, making it one of the most competitive advancement processes in the military. The lists then move through review by each service secretary and the Defense Secretary, who under Pentagon rules can only exclude names under narrow circumstances.

Military officials say Hegseth's unpredictable interventions have created an atmosphere of anxiety and distrust among senior ranks. The uncertainty about what criteria actually govern advancement—and whether merit truly matters—has begun to affect retention. Jessica Ruttenber, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who flew tanker aircraft in Iraq and Afghanistan, noticed the absence of women on the Navy's one-star promotion list in late May. She did not initially know Hegseth had removed them, but the gap was stark enough to move her to write publicly about what she observed. "The military I left in 2021 looks very different from what we're seeing today," she wrote. "In some ways, it feels like years of hard-won progress are reversing in real time. And honestly, now I find myself wondering: would I want my own children to join a system like this?" Her question captures what military leaders fear most—that the message being sent to women and minority officers is that their advancement depends not on performance but on factors beyond their control.