Hegseth Fires Navy’s Top Officer
Hegseth Fires the Navy’s Top Officer Adm. Lisa Franchetti has spent about half of her 40-year naval career at sea, commanding a destroyer, two carrier strike groups and the U.S. Sixth Fleet. On Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced he was firing Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman officer to ascend to the Navy’s job at the top, chief of naval operations, and would be in search of her successor.
It was announced in a statement emailed to reporters on Friday night, just after President Trump said he wa
s dismissing Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In his statement, Mr. Hegseth said he would also move to replace Gen. James C. Slife, the Air Force’s vice chief of staff, along with the top uniformed lawyers in the Army, Navy and Air Force. “We are placing new leaders who will turn the military’s focus back to its primary task, under President Trump, of deterring, fighting and winning wars,” he continued. Admiral Franchetti was commissioned in 1985 through the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program at Northwestern University, just seven years after the Navy lifted a ban on women serving aboard ships at sea, according to her official biography.
She was a surface warfare officer at
a time when women who entered the fleet in that capacity were still generally restricted from serving on ships other than auxiliaries — noncombat vessels used to deliver supplies, fuel, ammunition or specialized gear to repair submarines. The ban on female service on warships was lifted in 1993, creating the opportunity for officers like Admiral Franchetti to compete directly against men.
Women were barred from submarines, however, until 2010. She served about half of her 40-year career at sea, eventually commanding the destroyer U.S.S. Ross, and subsequently a destroyer squadron, two aircraft carrier strike groups, all naval forces in Korea and the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea. Both Admiral Franchetti and General Slife “have had distinguished careers,” Mr. Hegseth said, adding “We thank them for their service and dedication to our country.”
