Navy Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield, the US military representative to the NATO Military Committee, was relieved of her duties over the weekend following reports that she refused to hang portraits of President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at NATO headquarters.
She reportedly told military staff that they would wait out the Trump Administration, an indication of passive resistance to the commander in chief.
The dismissal was confirmed by the Pentagon on Tuesday.
Chatfield, 59, has had a 38-year career in the Navy. Born and raised in California, she graduated from Boston University in 1987 with a degree in International Relations and French, later earning a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a Doctorate in Education from the University of San Diego.
She was commissioned through the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps and qualified as a naval helicopter pilot, flying aircraft such as the Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight and Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk during deployments in the Pacific and Persian Gulf. She was commanding Helicopter Combat Support Squadron HC-5, a joint reconstruction team in Afghanistan (for which she earned a Bronze Star), and Joint Region Marianas.
In February 2023, she was promoted to vice admiral and assigned to the role at NATO, representing the US on the alliance’s 32-member military committee.
She has been a vocal advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion, notably stating in a 2015 Women’s Equality Day speech that “our diversity is our strength” and emphasizing the empowerment of women in the military.
According to posts on X, Chatfield refused to display official portraits of President Trump and Secretary Hegseth in her office at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
The conservative American Accountability Foundation had previously listed Chatfield among “woke” officers to be purged, citing her diversity-related comments as evidence of misplaced priorities.
Chatfield delivered a speech at a Women’s Equality Day event in 2015 where she bemoaned male dominance in Congress, where she claimed at the time, 80% of lawmakers in the House of Representatives were males.
“It seems a bit unequal what issues go forward,” she said. Chatfield also attended a Commander, Naval Air Forces DEI summit in 2022.
Sources said she held an “all hands” meeting and she told staff, “We will wait them out four years,” implying a strategy of passive resistance to the Trump administration’s policies. These details are unconfirmed by official Pentagon statements.
Sources familiar with the situation suggest that her refusal to hang the portraits—combined with her prior advocacy for diversity initiatives—made her a target of Defense Secretary Hegseth, who has vowed to eliminate “wokeness” from the military.
Chatfield’s ouster is the ninth firing of a senior military officer—and the fourth woman—since Trump’s return to office in January 2025. It follows the dismissals of figures like Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first female Chief of Naval Operations, and General Timothy Haugh of the National Security Agency, signaling an intensifying purge of leaders perceived as out of step with the administration’s agenda. With NATO allies already notified of her removal, the incident raises questions about U.S. credibility within the alliance at a time of heightened global security challenges.
As the Pentagon prepares to name Chatfield’s replacement, her dismissal underscores a deepening divide between military tradition and political pressures, leaving observers to wonder how far this reshaping of the armed forces will go—and at what cost to its unity and effectiveness.
>> …leaving observers to wonder how far this reshaping of the armed forces will go—and at what cost to its unity and effectiveness.
All I will say is, not far enough
A new TV show for Trump:
LGBTQ ……. You’re Fired!
😆
Thank god this trash is gone.
Purging officers just like Stalin did. Gulags for regular Americans are just around the corner.
Wait the officer refused a lawful order. How is that purging like stalin? Hold on, I thought trumpers were nazis not stalinists.
Must be a bot, no human being can be that stunningly stupid about “just like Stalin did”.
Ohhhhhhhhhh brother, this guy stinks!
You’d probably love it if that did happen just so you could say “see…told ya so.”
Reality is such a far away place for some people.
Sorry 86 but we’ve already been there… Forced vaccines, forced lockdowns, forced masking, forced distancing… thrown in jail and swatted for praying… Censored & lied to, “the border is secure!”, “the laptop is Russian disinformation”…
Now its our turn. Scoreboard!!
Game-Set-Match but thanks for playing.
Love it- You nailed it!
The Lockdowns ALL happened under TRUMP, and almost every governor ordered them, INCLUDING REPUBLICANS. Governments only enforced masking in their own buildings, just like they did during the Spanish flu of 1918. Most was done by private businesses. No one was thrown in jail for praying, and SWATTING is done by pranksters and is a crime. This kind of stupidity is why we are the laughing stock of the world right now.
Facts, science, standards and reason are absent in the hearts and minds of those who need convincing. Don’t waste your breath.
I’m sure “they” will come for you soon. /s You must have serious comprehension issues. She refused a direct order. Consult the UCMJ if this confuses you,
An X rumor that she refused to hang the portraits is not exactly trustworthy and does not align with most reports of why she was fired. And if you all are so worried about obeying orders, why do most MAGA support reinstating those who refused the COVID vaccine? Vaccines have been required for as long as we’ve had a military. This was not something radical or new.
1. They weren’t vaccines. They were mRNA gene therapies that hadn’t been studied, hadn’t been vetted, and nobody had any knowledge as to the potential side/after effects.
2. While it’s true the lockdowns started under Trump, they, and the vax mandates became totalitarian under Joe Biden.
3. Before offering the vaxxes to the public, the manufacturers landed a no-liability, get-out-of-jail-free status from the Biden admin.
4. When prominent researchers and doctors were being shouted down, having their medical certs taken or threatened unless they went along, or when anyone else questioned the narrative, most reasoning individuals took note and scrutinized what was going on to a greater degree.
5. What was questionable was how they military agreed to religious exemptions, then promptly denied every single request for a religious exemption, on orders from the Sec Def.
6. This was something radical and new, because the J@ck@sses in charge of the government at that time mandated military members get jabbed with a mRNA cocktail that had never been vetted, and by all accounts was an experimental drug.
7. Of course, the long-standing definition of an experimental drug was radically changed by the Biden administration in order to foist those jabs onto the American public.
8. Only willful ignorance explains why so many people ignored the way VAERS was being manipulated by the hospitals in order to make more $$ and while bowing to government pressure.
So, from the beginning, Covid-19 had a mortality rate of about 1.5% which is close to the number of people in the USA who died from it. The jabs didn’t keep people from getting it, masking didn’t keep people from getting it, Biden and his government didn’t keep people from getting it, nothing did. Now you have a surge in cancers, unusual pulmonary conditions, unusual nervous system disorders, etcetera among the people who were vaxxed. Other than the surge of really fit young male athletes dropping dead from heart attacks in practice and in competitions (That really started up in 2021/2022) and the problems that happened immediately such as blood clots, strokes, etcetera, the other problems take years to manifest. Even the swine flu vaccinations were quickly cancelled with only a tiny bit of the problems caused by the Covid-19 vaxxes. Anyone who willingly took those shots was played for a fool by an administration that had no use for you other than as a voter and source of taxes. You got played for a fool.
You nailed it
“…….Purging officers just like Stalin………..”
And Obama:
‘https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/197-military-officers-purged-by-obama/
Obama started purging flag officers for political reasons. If you don’t like this your side started it.
Read a little history will ya, please. The great purge under Stalin (BTW right before WWII) decimated the officer corps. There are estimates that put that number at 25% to 50%.
Relieving a few high ranking officers, who have made it clear that they think themselves smarter than their civilian leaders isn’t purging. It is re-establishing the chain of command and reminding the armed forces that voicing political opinions is not acceptable. The armed forces protect the country under the civilian command authority elected by the people!
She’s going to FEMA Region #7 in the morning everybody.
How about you do some research and take a look at how many flag officers Obama fired for not getting in line.
I think that there are tens of millions of dead people who would beg to differ.
😂😂😂
It’s clear you never served in the military! You don’t have free speech to berate your superiors, and you can’t pick and choose which orders to follow. Technically, she could be charged with mutiny or treason, which is punishable by death. Seems they’re being soft on her to me!
You must mean just like Obama did.
The Commandant of the Marines was purged by Obama because he refused to reduce the standards of Marine Corps Infantry Officer’s School in order that aspiring female infantry officers might be able to pass.
Good. You don’t “wait out” the CIC.
You follow orders or get gone.
I’m a retired regular army officer. There is no excuse for her actions or lack thereof. Definitely insubordination and disrespect of two individuals in her chain of command.
What an idiot!
Thank you sir.
Whatever happened to the idea of voicing objections BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, then presenting a united front when the decision is made. All are obligated to follow orders unless said orders are; “illegal, immoral, or unethical”! Never in my 22yrs of service would such blatant insubordination and subversion of the chain of command, be tolerated or even considered. I pray for the future of this country and the MEN and WOMEN who defend her!
100%. Full stop
Career Marine, Officer and enlisted. The insubordination of these people makes my blood boil. I retired almost 30 years ago, couldn’t even imagine this happening when I was in.
Well……bye.
It will go as far as the president wants it to as he is Comander in Chief of the military!
FA&FO
Another admiral in a long line of admirals, who thought that they were smarter than their bosses. Get her gone. She is clearly passed her shelf life.
I’ve head that this is common among the swamp. This is how rank and file government employees (non-elected) have so much power.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many more just like her and not all are women. Even a 2nd grader knows that if you’re in the military you follow orders or else.
You follow LEAGAL ORDERS. Need to make the distinction between that and illegal orders kind of like the mandatory Covid Jab which was an illegal order since it was under an EUA.
So was the Swine Flu “vaccine” in the 70’s. But we were ordered to accept it and followed orders. The rest is a lifetime of complications. There were no choices offered. Must have been a different military.
100% a proper firing…
If she will not follow basic directions…how is she to be trusted with the hard/tough stuff….
You are the weakest link…GOODBYE
Needs to be flogged with the Chain of Command
She doesn’t know how to follow orders; gotta go.
What a woke dimlibby idiot, good glad she is GONE!
Such an impressive resume. And yet, with all her education and skill set she is blind…….too bad for her.
You guys really believe this? That it’s because she didn’t hang pics? I guess if X reports it, it must be true.
Read! She wasn’t fired bc she refused to post photos. She was fired because she was blatantly insubordinate, subversive, and STUPID. Like Senator Kennedy of the great state of LA would say; no amount of duct tape will fix that kind of STUPID!
A nice portrait of President Trump is available in Colorado for DOGE uses. Pete’s photo may be found at any number of Hooter’s bathroom stalls for DOGE uses
I feel sorry for all THE CHILDREN who had to sit under a portrait of President Biden looking down on them like he was gonna sniff their hair or shower with them any second. Unless they were pre-conditioned by drag queen story hour.
Hanging out in the men’s room lately “frank”?
Maybe MRAK would like to buy the Trump portrait to hang in their newsroom.
What are you, five? Grow up and at least use some modicum of thought process in your trolls junior. Very lame and childish.
If all the trolls donated to MRAK they would perhaps afford to hang a Hunter Biden painting.
Better than the portrait of Hunter Biden smoking crack and fiddling with hookers hanging up in your marijuana den, Dog.
What government position did Hunter Biden ever hold? What cabinet department was he in charge of?
We are all just visitors in franks world!
When the military officers refuse to obey the orders of the President, they have no recourse but GET OUT!!.or be fired!!. She, belonging to the WOKE garbage, has definitely “lost her military berrings”..
Hard to present yourself as a military expert if you can’t spell “bearings”. I’m a military expert, I blame all my mistakes on autocorrect. Just a suggestion because “All the evidence in the world will never change the mind of an idiot.”
Glad she was removed for insubordination.
I know the VA on Muldoon had “pride” flags in the office but not pictures of President Trump. My husband called their attention to it and I guess they are now up!
A socially inept person would say: “Dam, she looks like the woman who does the “Mando” body oder commercial on TV.” Perhaps that’s why she was assigned to Europe, definitely time for her to go…..
A properly-educated person would spell things correctly.
A properly educated person would punctuate sentences correctly.
Hey Karen, dont forget to thank the Donald for your extended vacation.
“Born and raised in California”
That pretty much explains it all.
The evil of woke insanity has no place in a civilized society.
There are thousands of people in high federal office that firmly believe that THEY run the country, not the President, not Congress. In my experience, most of these folks come from the Northeast.
Underscores a.. divide between military tradition and biased extremist ideology.
Underscore a.. divide between military tradition and ideological insubordination.
Don’t let the door hit her on the way out of this military
I guess the concept of Chain of Command was somehow missed by the Admiral as well as whoever typed “an intensifying purge of leaders perceived as out of step with the administration’s agenda”
I guess the concept of Commander in Chief no longer applies. Silly me. I’ve worked for more than one boss with whom I disagreed with their approach. Once my position was respectfully presented and the final decision was made, I saluted smartly and carried out the lawful directives. As a boss once told me when I was bitching about a subordinate I was reminded Personality Conflict – you have the personality (boss) and they have the cconflict.
I really doubt that pictures had anything to do with it.
When I was in the Corps a stunt like she pulled could land an enlisted Marine or Sailor in the brig for 21 days bread and water. Insubordination and disobedience was never tolerated, as it will spread like the flu. The Vice Admiral should be heavily fined and demoted. Anything less is an insult to those who have served with honor.
You can take the girl out of California, but you can’t take California out of the girl.She torpedoed herself, sunk her career, and is now adrift.
She gonna git her a think tank job.
DEI = Finally being given the opportunity to prove oneself after years of being shut out and excluded.
Dont forget the most important DEI requirement “regardless of qualifications”.
DEI = Didn’t Earn It. Thus the reason for removal.
I don’t think flag officers, like an admiral for example, are shut out or excluded. That’s counter-intuitive and a very naive opinion. It’s a matter of loyalties. Trump is Commander In Chief. Cry all you want. Fact.
Her firing was a no brainer! In addition to insubordination she was just stupid. Did she really think what she did and what she said would go unnoticed. Her conduct guaranteed her dismissal.
The question is, how many others are part of this underground resistance? There is no place fo this kind of insubordination. Biden had his purge for military members who would not get the Covid vaccine or were part of conservative organizations. Rooting out these people seems to be a higher priority. And if they’re fired, they should lose their military pensions, just like what happened during the previous administration.
I agree. Her dismissal likely had little to do with pictures, but it’s bright and shiny and it’s what the MAGA base can really sink their rabid teeth into. The unsourced articles, of dubious journalistic integrity, relied entirely on squishy terms like “ allegedly “ and “reportedly” with trivial anecdotes crafted to impugn the reputation of a professional soldier with decades of service under multiple administrations. Distracting anecdotes expressly designed to elicit the same gutteral outrage as exhibited in the above comments and to obscure the broader machinations of his NATO agenda. Pictures? Ha! If you can’t be Woke, at least try to appear awake.
Pictures are a common item at headquarters once you get to flag rank. It is expected to find pictures including of the president and the head of the service involved. Pictures are equivalent to a ship having her hull number on the bow and name on the stern.
If you do not want to follow protocol you do not have to be flag officer.
The chain of command photos are in every HQ building regardless if there is a flag officer.
There is absolutely no excuse for members of the military to refuse to comply with lawful orders. They don’t get to choose what leaders they will obey or from whom they will withhold their loyalty. One thing they don’t have the courage to do: resign from the service if they dislike the Commander in Chief so much. Instead, they burrow in and undermine those around them with seditious behavior. Thankfully, this administration has no fear in removing these high ranking people regardless of their gender or race. The military is far better off.
Anyone check out the Anchorage VA? It might be interesting to find out why they too don’t have current pictures up as well.
As much as we kick this around making funny comments, the seriousness of command staff showing fealty to a particular political party vs the chain of command and, ultimately the CINC, illustrates the depths of the traitorous corruption systemic within our system of governance. This is far more serious than the southern border invasion or the economy. If we’re attached and military command loyalties lie elsewhere, we’re doomed.
She made her choice and now, doesn’t have to “wait it out”. This happens when you let your politics get in the way of duty.
The ones putting politics ahead of duty are Trump and Hegseth. Also, there’s no real reporting that she refused to follow orders other than a post on Twitter.
“With NATO allies already notified of her removal, the incident raises questions about U.S. credibility within the alliance at a time of heightened global security challenges.”
On the contrary, it signals to NATO our strength and resolve. This is particularly important given the war in Ukraine.
“As the Pentagon prepares to name Chatfield’s replacement, her dismissal underscores a deepening divide between military tradition and political pressures, leaving observers to wonder how far this reshaping of the armed forces will go—and at what cost to its unity and effectiveness.”
Again on the contrary, our military got to where it is due to strong political pressures driving non-military priorities within the military. There is no cost to unity and effectiveness in this move, quite the opposite will be seen. You will also see a dramatic increase in men and women joining the military, willing to sacrifice their lives under the command of leadership that shares their values in God and Country.
The question I have is did she leave up the pictures of Biden and Austin? That would be very strange.
Her actions could be construed as mutiny. How about it Senator Sullivan?
“Diversity is our strength?” Really?
Is that why the L.A. Lakers have short people, women, fat people, and handicapped people in their starting lineup?
People that stupid should not be in positions of leadership.