A senior Navy officer who represented the U.S. in NATO military planning was fired Monday with no clear explanation from the Pentagon on why they were removed.
Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, a career Navy helicopter pilot, had been the U.S.’s top military representative to the NATO Military Committee.
A Pentagon spokesperson did not provide an explanation on Chatfield’s firing, saying officials “have anything to offer right now.” Chatfield’s relief was first reported by Reuters.
Chatfield graduated from Boston University in 1987 and trained as a Navy helicopter pilot, flying SH-3, CH-46D and MH-60S in her career, according to an online biography. She later commanded Helicopter Combat Support Squadron HC-5 and Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron HSC-25. She also commanded a joint provincial reconstruction team in Farah Province, Afghanistan, in 2008.
Her awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, and Bronze Star Medal.
String of firings
Chatfield’s removal comes amid a string of firings with political overtones of senior military officers and intelligence officials. Six senior officers were dismissed from intelligence positions last weekend by President Donald Trump, including Air Force Gen. Timothy D. Haugh, the head of both the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command. In February, two members of the joint chiefs of staff — Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti — were both fired without explanation.
Though no reason for Chatfield’s firing has been released, she was targeted last December by a right-wing political group, the American Accountability Foundation. The organization wrote a letter to Secretary of State Pete Hegseth in December urging him to fire 20 senior military officials, including Chatsworth. The AAF describes its work as “aggressive research and investigations to advance conservative messaging.”
Chatfield is at least the second senior officer on the AAF list to lose their job in an unexplained firing, along with Franchetti. At least one Air Force general on the list has announced his retirement for this July.
When the AAF released its list, former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told the Associated Press that such targeting by partisan groups would have “considerable, wide and deep consequences” inside the military as officers begin to fear for their careers.
“You will drive people out,” Hagel said. “It affects morale as widely and deeply as anything — it creates a negative dynamic that will trickle through an organization.”
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