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Lucky She Hasn’t Been Court-Martialled

Wikimedia Commons
From Fox News:
Navy Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield, the only woman on NATO’s military committee, was dismissed from the alliance over the weekend without explanation, according to multiple reports. She is one of only a handful of female Navy three-star officers and was the first woman to lead the Naval War College, a job she held until 2023.
Please note that members of the military and, in particular, commissioned officers can be relieved of duty by the Secretary of Defense and the Commander-in-Chief at any time. They don’t need to provide a reason or an extensive explanation of why they are doing so. And as much as this action may irritate them, they don’t need the permission of egomaniacal district court judges.
Despite speculation that Chatfield may have been relieved of duty because she was an ardent promoter of DEI in the military and articulated the baseless slogan that “Diversity is our strength,” or because she allegedly refused to put up portraits of the president or the Secretary of Defense in her office, it may be that she was relieved of duty because she allegedly expressed to subordinates at an “all-hands” meeting that “We will wait them out four years” — the “them” being a reference to President Trump and Secretary Hegseth.
Note that this is not merely a sentiment privately expressed to a fellow officer (and later possibly plausibly denied) over a few glasses of Scotch at an officers’ club or a residence, but a statement articulated in the officer’s official capacity and thus has the imprimatur of a command from a senior officer to subordinates to either a) either go through the motions of appearing to follow orders from the CIC and the SecDef; or b) actually be non-responsive to orders by the CIC and the SecDef – thus helping to create an environment of insubordination with regard to civilian control of the military.
From Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice:
ARTICLE 88. Contempt toward Officials
Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Transportation, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Territory, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
Yes, an argument may ensue that Chatfield’s words were not “contemptuous” in themselves or rise to the level of contempt, but it can also be argued that her words were meant to create an environment of contempt and disobedience for this administration’s civilian leadership of the military that, in this case, doesn’t appear to align with her own ideological worldview.
In relieving her of duty, the Department of Defense thanked Chatfield for her years of military service, and she should be thanked for the great bulk of it. Whether she should be thanked for all of it seems a bit too much to ask.
Published in General
What can you expect from an Admiral in charge of Vice?
I dunno, is it likely that she only started stuff like this over the last few years of her career?
What a foolish woman!
Trump has four years to root out decades of DEI entrenchment in the military. I wish him luck but this lady is probably right: They will just go to ground for a few years and wait him out.
Not a chance. She probably started out when they pushed to put women in combat in helicopters. Her bio says “38 year career” – she enlisted in 1986 and in 2019 -2023 was the “first female president of the Naval War College.” My unconscious bias screams affirmative action flyer and probably someone who messed up the Naval War College. Almost always an academic (paid for by the taxpayer) and probably an influencer from her college days. Her EdD (just like Dr Jill) doctoral advisor was Mary Woods Scherr whose “special interests included adult development, qualitative research, and spiritual practices …” Chatfield’s degree was not a technical degree (yes, I’m a snob) and akin to other DEI degrees in the news lately.
Just dump her and move on. I’m sure she was in that position because of her politics. By moving on I mean move on to dump her superior too.
Exactly. She was always DEI etc, it just wasn’t blindingly obvious before with BHO, FJB, etc.
Interesting. I was commissioned in 1982 (after enlisted service), and officer training had frequent, detailed instruction on civilian control of the military.
Other than Posobeic is there another source for her insubordinate remarks?
Of course not. That is how she climbed the promotion ladder.
From her picture, she seems very friendly. She and Claudine Gay have that in common. Boards of directors and the upper military brass seem to be placing the highest value on apparent friendliness.
I hope we soon get back to valuing competence over everything else.
Parnell is the Pentagon’s spokesman. This response to Congresswoman Crockett appears to support the allegations.
My hunch is that Vice Admiral Chatfield not only would not hang up the pictures, she probably couldn’t do the job.
As a Navy Vet I have endless skepticism about any female Admiral or senior officer for that matter. I know that there are a lot of competent female service people, but the modern system of promotion has little to do with with what Hegseth calls War Fighting which is what my service was about. The transliteration of DEI to “Did Not Earn It” is far too truthful. I served under a couple of presidents I didn’t care for, but as an officer I had taken an oath and politics had nothing to do with it. I am really looking forward to seeing Hegseth clean out the detritus that has accumulated throughout the various services at all levels during the last 25 or so years. I would consider this particular action a good start.
As for Jasmine Crockett, she is a moron. No more needs to be said about her.
And this is why, at least when I was in the Army, no officers spoke on or about politics.
Before Lyndon Johnson laid the foundation for DEI, one tended to presume that a black physician of female scientist must be especially capable because of additional barriers that had to be overcome. There were no tokens.
Today, it is almost impossible to muster a presumption that a female senior military officer was promoted solely on the basis of merit. That is unfair but realistic.
Individually, such promotions would be bad enough but the additional tendency to develop networks to protect and promote DEI policies and weaponize grievance politics is pernicious.
She was already on the hit list:
“Chatfield was also one of 20 military leaders featured in the letter that the American Accountability Foundation (AAF), a conservative watchdog group, sent to Hegseth in December. The organization argued that those mentioned in the 10-page letter were overly focused on DEI and other similar left-wing efforts and were, therefore, hampering the military’s readiness. ”
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5238924-top-nato-officer-trumps-latest-dei-firing-meet-5-ousted-top-brass/
https://nypost.com/2024/12/04/us-news/conservative-watchdog-compiles-list-of-woke-ideologues-in-military-for-pete-hegseth-to-purge/
the NY Post article lists some of the more egregious outbursts by the named individuals
When I was a junior NCO a bunch of us were publicly disparaging Bill Clinton over his scandalous behavior. We were attending a professional military education course (NCO Leadership School) at the time.
Our instructors soon informed us that we were in violation of the UCMJ, and so we shut up.
I would imagine that there are pictures of POTUS and the SecDef displayed at NATO HQ as a matter of custom no matter what the administration. Dumb move resistance fighter.
I know an ex-Strike Eagle driver and when he was active duty he was careful not to say anything bad about Bush or Obama. However, he was there for the change in focus from war fighting to diversity. The mission statement over the door in the ready room said more about diversity than it did about being an effective warrior. He wished he had taken a picture of it. It was that bad. This is a guy who flew over both sandboxes in the GWOT. He said to me as he was planning his exit, “the Air Force is for some people, but it’s not for me anymore.”
I guess she’ll be waiting longer than 4 years…
Will she get a “Less than Honorable Discharge” or full out “Dishonorable”?
I think if you get either of those, you dont get any benefits…
Can they do either of those without some kind of hearing/trial?
Unless the UCMJ has changed, a Bad Conduct or Dishonorable discharge requires a court martial. General and UOTHC (Under Other than Honorable Conditions) could be given administratively.
Another Article 88 candidate has just spoken up and was summarily fired. One Colonel Susannah Meyers said this after Vice-President Vance’s visit to Greenland:
Again, Colonel Meyers communicated this in her official capacity to her subordinates. The other thing she apparently does not presume to understand is the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
What flags? Was there a “rainbow” flag or something?
Maybe Denmark, Greenland, and NATO?
But maybe not a US flag? That might have been the issue.