US admiral at NATO fired in expanding national security purge

By Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali and Lili Bayer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield, who holds a senior position in NATO, has been fired as part of what appears to be an expanding national security purge of top officials by the Trump administration, three sources told Reuters on Monday.

The information was not immediately confirmed by the Pentagon. However, the sources told Reuters that allies had been notified that Chatfield had been removed from her job. 

Chatfield, the U.S. military representative to the NATO Military Committee, 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.

The firing, which was first reported by Reuters, is the latest to rock the Pentagon after Thursday's removal of General Timothy Haugh, the head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command. For the Navy, it follows the firing of its top officer, Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to become Chief of Naval Operations.

President Donald Trump's administration has taken a cool view of NATO, as well as European allies, since taking office in January.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used his first trip to NATO headquarters in February to warn Europe against treating the United States like a "sucker" by making it responsible for its defense.

It was unclear if any official reason was given for Chatfield's dismissal, or if it was related to any U.S. policy direction on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the "unjustified dismissal of Vice Admiral Chatfield is disgraceful" and criticized Republicans for not speaking out against the firing of senior military officials without explanation.

"The silence from my Republican colleagues is deeply troubling... I cannot fathom how anyone could stand silently by while the President causes great harm to our military and our nation," Reed said in a statement.

One source said the motive for Chatfield's removal may have been related to the Pentagon's crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. 

In a recent Harvard Magazine interview, Chatfield sounded eager for a time when the qualifications of women in the military would not be held in suspicion.  

The article cited one example when Chatfield, herself a helicopter pilot, led an MH-60S Sea Hawk expeditionary helicopter squadron in 2005-2006.

"A mid-grade sailor ... asked, 'Ma'am, can you fly one of those helicopters?' And I chuckled and said, ‘Yes, actually it’s a prerequisite for this job!'" she was quoted as saying, adding that at the time she had been wearing her wings that showed she was a naval aviator.

Hegseth has made the elimination of DEI initiatives a priority, arguing they are divisive. 

He has also ended observances of events such as Black History Month and Women’s History Month, issuing guidance to the U.S. military that "efforts to divide the force – to put one group ahead of another – erode camaraderie and threaten mission execution."

In recent weeks, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General C.Q. Brown, as well as other admirals, generals and security staff have also been dismissed.

Many current and former government officials have said they worry that any national security official could be suspected of disloyalty by Trump's inner circle because of perceived links to those who have fallen out of favor or for having served key roles in the Biden administration. 

Uniformed military officials are supposed to be loyal to the U.S. Constitution and independent of any party or political movement.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali in Washington and Lili Bayer in Brussels; Additional reporting by Andrew Gray in Brussels; Editing by Mark Porter, Matthew Lewis and Jamie Freed)