Aug. 27 (UPI) — For whatever his strengths and weaknesses, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth may not be able to change the name of the Department of Defense to a more suitable, anti-DEI title, such as the Department of When Did We Win the Last War or the Department of Still Trying.

But he may be more successful in reminding the department’s senior officers of the fate of one Rear Adm. John Byng, late of the Royal Navy. Byng was executed by firing squad in March 1757 on the technical grounds of “failing to form a conterminous line” that in simple English meant “he failed to do his utmost” and lost the Battle of Minorca.

The Trump administration may not be literally shooting flag officers in public sight. But, Hegseth has certainly rendered the professional death sentence to some two dozen three- and four-star officers for reasons that have less to do with losing battles and more to do with committing the more serious crimes of — fill in the blank as nothing concrete has been provided as justification beyond allegations of DEI.

Of the first to go, was it no accident comrade that four were minorities or dare we say possible Diversity, Equity and Inclusion victims.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General C. Q. Brown, a highly regarded fighter pilot, was victim No. 1. H was the only the second African American to hold that office, and one wonders if Colin Powell had still been in office what his fate might have been.

The heads of the Navy, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti and Coast Guard Commandant Linda Fagan were next on the road to the Pentagon’s guillotine. Not far behind was the U.S. military representative to NATO, Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, dismissed because “a loss of confidence in her ability to lead” and not for cause.

Both the Air Force chief and vice chief of staff will be looking for work. And to make certain that this was not a vendetta against the operational side of the military, the heads and deputy heads of the National Security and Defense Intelligence agencies were given the equivalent of pink slips to end what had been by most considerations distinguished careers.

Numbers of other promotions, namely for command of the U.S. Seventh Fleet in Japan, were denied. In this case, the then-captain allowed a drag show on his aircraft carrier to be performed some eight or nine years earlier. Alice’s Red Queen would have ordered “off with his head.”

These serial dismissals have not been limited to senior military officials. Turnover in the Office of the Secretary of Defense has been reported as substantial. Not since Truman fired General of the Army Douglas MacArthur in 1951 for insubordination has there been any such reaction. However, wholesale firings of senior generals and admirals in peacetime and in wars since fought in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq have not occurred.

Gen. William Westmoreland, who presided over the Vietnam debacle, was promoted to Army Chief of Staff. Few were reprimanded even for war crimes and the My Lai massacre, for which the lowly Lt. William Calley was ultimately paroled.

Gen. Tommy Franks, who commanded in Afghanistan and Iraq, was allowed to retire with full honors just as both wars were badly failing. And poor, but highly regarded, Army Gen. Stanley McCrystal was forced to retire after an article ran in Rolling Stone disparaging then-Vice President Joe Biden.

Then there were the pardons that President Donald Trump granted to both soldiers convicted of war crimes and of the Jan 7 riots that seized the Capitol. Given Hegseth’s encounters with civil and criminal cases relating to misconduct and sexual assault — and which have been settled out of court — he would not seem the ideal role model for a military in which “duty, honor country” and “semper fidelis (always faithful)” are inherent to the services’ DNA.

Of course, at one time, the United States had a Senate and a House of Representatives in which ethical behavior counted, at least for some. While not always perfect, backbones were not always missing in action on Capitol Hill.

So who will grow a backbone and force the administration to explain why it is dismissing exceptionally large numbers of qualified senior officers for no apparent reason while promoting significant numbers of appointees not for competence and ability, but just to say yes or to say nothing?

The answer is bleak. After all, an enlightened commander-in-chief will not always be at the helm.

Harlan Ullman is UPI’s Arnaud de Borchgrave Distinguished Columnist, senior adviser at Washington’s Atlantic Council, chairman of a private company and principal author of the doctrine of shock and awe. His next book, co-written with Field Marshal The Lord David Richards, former U.K. chief of defense and due out next year, is Who Thinks Best Wins: Preventing Strategic Catastrophe. The writer can be reached on X @harlankullman.