Oct. 4 (UPI) — Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Friday fired U.S. Navy Chief of Staff Jon Harrison after the Senate earlier in the week confirmed Hung Cao as the Navy’s undersecretary.
Harrison had no military experience prior to being nominated and confirmed as the Navy’s chief of staff and oversaw the War Department’s realignment of the U.S. Navy’s budgeting and policy wings, in addition to minimizing the influence of the Navy undersecretary, Politico reported.
“Jon Harrison will no longer serve as chief of staff to the Secretary of the Navy,” the Department of Defense told the New York Post in a statement. “We are grateful for his service to the department.”
Harrison worked with Navy Sec. John Phelan while implementing the administrative and leadership changes, which included changing those who were to assist Cao as the Navy’s new undersecretary.
The pair also sought to influence the hiring of Cao’s military aides to ensure the Naval secretary’s office made all final decisions, Politico reported.
Like Harrison, Phelan had no military experience prior to becoming the Navy secretary.
Harrison’s departure also occurred after Hegseth in May told the U.S. military to remove a fifth of its four-star generals and admirals.
Hegseth also had fired several high-ranking generals, two of whom were the only women to hold four-star rankings in the U.S. military, according to The Guardian.
Hegseth on Tuesday addressed a gathering of the military’s top-ranking generals and admirals in Quantico, Va.
During the meeting, he criticized the military’s adoption of what he called “woke” policies and aired his opposition to its former diversity and inclusion policies.