Military Officers Begin To Speak Out On Harm Done By Sen. Tuberville's Holds On Promotions

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., questions Navy Adm. Lisa Franchetti during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on her nomination for reappointment to the grade of admiral and to be Chief of Naval Operations, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. “We’re on the fringe of losing a generation of champions,” Air Force Gen. Mark Kelly, the head Air Combat Command, told reporters this week at a defense conference in Maryland. Kelly said he’s talking to his junior officers, many with families, and they are “people who will take a bullet for the nation, the Constitution.” But when it comes to dragging their family through this, “there’s a red line.” One of the unusual things about Tuberville’s holds is he’s punishing uniformed personnel who had nothing to do with creating the administration policy he’s against. “If whatever the civilian control has asked them to do, if that order, that rule that they’re following is against what you believe, then you’re going to say they’re political.” Tuberville announced the holds late last year after the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs that abortion limits should be left to the states, and the Biden administration’s civilian Pentagon head, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, responded by instituting a policy that Tuberville says violates federal law. Six months into Tuberville’s hold, 315 military officers are now affected, and the impact cuts deeper in some services.