US Navy Drops Nine Officers From Promotion List, Including Women And Black Officers
US Navy drops nine officers from promotion list.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has removed nine officers from a military promotion list, including several women and minority candidates, in a move that has raised questions about adherence to Pentagon rules governing merit-based selections, according to a report by The New York Times.
The report said Hegseth excluded at least three women, two Black men, and four white men from the list of officers under consideration for one-star admiral promotions. Following the changes, the final 22-person slate reportedly contained no female officers, despite women making up around 21% of active-duty Navy personnel. Only two nonwhite officers were included, even though approximately 38% of the force identifies as racial minorities.
Defense officials cited in the report, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the removals as “highly unusual” and suggested they could conflict with established norms of an apolitical and merit-based military promotion system. They also said the intervention appeared to deviate from standard procedures used in reviewing senior officer advancement lists.
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Under Pentagon guidelines, the defense secretary is permitted to remove officers from promotion consideration only in cases involving moral, mental, physical, or professional concerns that could raise questions about their fitness for higher command responsibility. The report did not indicate that such specific concerns were formally cited for the removals in this case.
The reported changes have sparked concern within defense circles about the transparency and consistency of the promotion process, particularly at senior leadership levels where representation and institutional trust are closely scrutinized. The Pentagon has not publicly detailed the rationale behind the removals, and it remains unclear whether additional review processes will be conducted before final approval of the promotion slate.
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