Lisa Franchetti, Chief of Naval Staff

Date of dismissal: 21 February 2025. Franchetti was the number one woman in the U.S. Navy, the first woman to lead a military service within the Department of Defence, and the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff in that role. Behind her was a long career as a surface officer, with commands in all major naval theatres and almost twenty years of operational experience at sea. Her ouster came in the same package that engulfed Brown: formally, the Pentagon asked for new appointments to the top Navy post, but in fact it was a net removal of an apex and symbolic figure.