Lucky She Hasn’t Been Court-Martialled

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.