The Navy has been responsible for an avalanche of firings in 2025. The service relieved the chief of naval operations in February; the commanding officer of Navy Information Operations Command Colorado in April; the commanding officer of Navy Reserve Center Manchester, New Hampshire, in May; and the executive officer for the Program Executive Office for Unmanned and Small Combatants, also in May.
More recently, the service fired a Navy doctor after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced her firing over X, retweeting a post from a conservative account admonishing the doctor for her social media use. In September, the Navy fired the USS Santa Barbara commanding officer.
Hegseth fired the Navy chief of staff in a sudden shakeup Saturday. The ouster followed Hegseth’s firing of several top aides earlier this year, including senior advisor Dan Caldwell, deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll, the chief of staff to the deputy secretary of defense.