Hegseth strikes nine officers, including all three women, from Navy one-star admiral promotion list

A Navy promotion board, convened under guidance from then-Navy Secretary John Phelan to "recommend for promotion the best qualified officers," selected 31 captains for promotion to one-star rear admiral. The full slate was approved by Phelan, Navy leadership, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine before reaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who struck nine officers — including all three women and two Black men — from the list. The Pentagon released the amended promotion list on May 22, 2026; Hegseth's role became public on June 1 through New York Times reporting, with ABC News and the Associated Press corroborating. The Pentagon has offered no rationale for any of the removals, and current and former Navy officials told reporters the struck officers appear to have been targeted for participation in diversity-related initiatives, in some cases years or decades earlier.

The removals mean the Navy will promote no women to one-star admiral this year, although women make up about one-quarter of Navy officers and nearly one-third of its midgrade ranks. Pentagon rules contemplate the defense secretary removing officers from a promotion list for mental, moral, or professional failings bearing on the new role; defense officials and outside analysts described an intervention without stated cause, made along race and gender lines, as far outside the norm for a promotion system designed to be merit-based and apolitical. "It's just not the norm," said Katherine Kuzminski of the Center for a New American Security, noting the decision was made by the secretary of defense rather than the Navy. ABC News separately reported that Hegseth pushed to promote his own senior military aide, Navy SEAL Capt. William Francis Jr., who did not meet the board's eligibility criteria.

The action fits a pattern of politicized intervention in the officer corps: Hegseth previously fired Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy's first female top officer, without explanation, fired two other female three-star admirals, removed four colonels — two Black men and two women — from the Army's brigadier-general list in March 2026, and has fired or sidelined 19 senior flag officers overall. Eight female Navy officers told the AP they now perceive a ceiling on their careers and fear retribution, describing a chilling effect that extends to male sailors wary of having followed lawful orders under previous administrations. Overriding a board-approved, chain-of-command-endorsed promotion slate along demographic lines, with no stated cause, is a politicization of the uniformed services with a discriminatory-policy dimension.