WASHINGTON – U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, the only woman on NATO's military committee, was fired over the weekend by the Trump administration, U.S. officials said Monday.
Although no reason was given, officials said it was apparently tied to comments she has made that supported diversity in the force.
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According to the officials, Chatfield got a call from Adm. Christopher Grady, the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and was told the administration wanted to go in a different direction with the job.
The officials said they believe the decision was made last week by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, but it was unclear whether he received any direction from President Donald Trump. Three U.S. officials spoke about the firing on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
Chatfield is the third top female officer to be fired since Trump took office. Hegseth announced in February that he was firing the chief of naval operations, Adm. Lisa Franchetti. And Trump fired Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan just a day after he was sworn in.
Trump and Hegseth have been vocal in their insistence that so-called woke policies are dead. There has been a vigorous campaign to remove leaders who promoted diversity, equity and inclusion, and to erase DEI programs and online content.
Chatfield was on a list of senior military officers targeted as “woke” by the conservative American Accountability Foundation, which sent a letter to Hegseth saying that “purging the woke from the military is imperative.”
Chatfield, a Navy helicopter pilot who also commanded a joint reconstruction team in Afghanistan, had been serving as one of the 32 representatives on NATO's military committee. The panel is the primary source of military advice to the North Atlantic Council and NATO's Nuclear Planning Group, according to NATO. It serves as the link between the political decision-makers and NATO's military structure..
Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, said he was “deeply disturbed” by the firing.
“Trump’s relentless attacks on our alliances and his careless dismissal of decorated military officials make us less safe and weaken our position across the world," Warner said in a post on X.
The campaign to erase DEI programs and online content has been met with questions from lawmakers, local leaders and citizens angered by the removal of military heroes and historic mentions from Defense Department websites and social media pages.
The accountability foundation complained in the letter to Hegseth that those responsible for DEI policies "must be dismissed,” adding that military leaders should be focused on cultivating lethality, not on fostering diversity, equity and inclusion in the ranks.
The letter said Chatfield posted supportive comments on LinkedIn about a diversity summit and gave a speech in 2015 at Women's Equality Day. The group quoted her as saying that investing in empowering women can unlock human potential.
And they also said she was quoted as saying, “our diversity is our strength” — a phrase that Hegseth has repeatedly condemned.
A native of Garden Grove, California, Chatfield graduated from Boston University and received her master's degree from Harvard University and a doctorate from the University of San Diego.
She deployed to the Pacific and the Persian Gulf as a pilot. She later served as the senior military assistant to the supreme allied commander Europe. She was awarded a Bronze Star.