Another Misleading Washington Post Headline and Article: Hegseth removes first female superintendent in shake-up at Naval Academy - Actually He Moved VADM Davids to a More Prestigious and Important Position

 

Once again and in typical Washington Post/WaPo fashion, the WaPo is sensationalizing a headline to mislead readers into thinking the Trump Administrations is attempting to do something untoward, nefarious and discriminatory when in fact, once all the facts are revealed, nothing could be further from the truth. If the WaPo were to be accurate, this would have been a more honest Headline for this article:

Hegseth moves first woman Naval Academy superintendent to be first woman Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Operations, Plans & Strategy, the Navy Department’s third most important position.

Rather than this, the WaPo leads off the article making it sound like Defense Secretary Hegseth is shuffling Vice Admiral Yvette Davids off to oblivion instead of to a far more impactful, prestigious and influential position. Most Naval Officers would view this as a promotion with excellent potential for getting a Fourth Star. In her present position of what is in essence the “small college president,” VADM Davids would by law have to retire once her tenure was over. Several commenters counter with she will need a waiver now anyway so why didn’t Hegseth just wait until her Academy tour was completed in two years and appoint her to the DCNO position and get her the waiver then. It’s probably because that prestigious DCNO will NOT be open in two years, it’s open now.

Although an astute and Military knowledgeable WaPo reader might be able to deduce the truth from reading what is buried further down in the article, the WaPo does a very good job of hiding and obscuring it. As a result, article commenters are extremely critical of the move and have been misled into believing VADM Davids has been unceremoniously fired.

One other extremely relevant FACT the WaPo conveniently omitted from the article is that VADM Yvette David’s’ husband is RADM (Retired) Keith B. Davids, a Navy special warfare SEAL who commanded the Naval Special Warfare Command from 2022 to 2024 and the U.S. Special Operations Command South, United States Southern Command from 2020 to 2022. He was Trump’s White House Military Office Director during his first term and Trump even promoted him to Rear Admiral. He is still extremely close with Trump and reportedly on his short list to be recalled to active duty as the next Chief of Naval Operations.

Here is enough of the WaPo article to gleam the relevant information but I’ll include the link below to the actual article for those that wish to read it in its entirety.

 

Hegseth removes first female superintendent in shake-up at Naval Academy

Vice Adm. Yvette Davids has been nominated for another position in the Navy. Her expected replacement, Lt. Gen. Michael Borgschulte, would be the first Marine Corps officer to lead the institution.

By Dan Lamothe  Updated 18 July 2025

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will replace the first woman to lead the U.S. Naval Academy, defense officials said, with the Trump administration nominating a Marine Corps general to oversee the institution for the first time in its nearly 180-year history.

Vice Adm. Yvette Davids has led the Naval Academy since January 2024, and is about 18 months into serving in a job that typically rotates about every three to four years. Hegseth said Friday in a statement that President Donald Trump has selected Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Michael Borgschulte, who oversees personnel issues for his service as deputy commandant for Manpower and Reserve Affairs in Quantico, Virginia, to replace her.

The unexpected decision comes as Trump, with Hegseth in the lead, has purged the military of numerous top military leaders — including a disproportionate number of women — whom they have accused of focusing too heavily on diversity. Since taking office in January, they have ousted the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top admirals in the Coast Guard and the Navy, the No. 2 officer in the Air Force, and several top military lawyers.

But the replacement of Davids is different from those decisions because, rather than retire, she will instead be nominated to serve in another role as a three-star admiral, overseeing naval operations, plans, strategy and warfighting development as a deputy chief of naval operations, a defense official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the impending move. That decision, also listed in a Pentagon announcement Friday, is technically a lateral move, and she was competitively selected for it with Trump’s approval. If confirmed by the Senate, she will replace Vice Adm. Daniel Dwyer, who is expected to retire.

…. It was not immediately clear whether Davids voluntarily initiated her early departure from the prestigious Naval Academy posting…. Highlighting the unusual nature of the shake-up, the superintendent of a service academy, by law, typically must retire after serving in the position.

This is the jest of the article but for those that want to read the entire article, I’ll include the link to it here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/07/18/yvette-davids-naval-academy-hegseth/

The Old Colonel’s Washington Post Comment:

The ignorance of all things Military on display here by WaPo commenters is breathtaking. VADM Davids is getting promoted from the relatively insignificant job of “small college president” to being the DCNO Operations, Plans & Strategy (N3/N5) of the entire United States Navy, unquestionably the third most impactful, prestigious, important and influential Naval position in the Pentagon and often a stepping stone to a Fourth Star. Academy Sup is what is recognized as a “terminal swan song assignment.” Are the vast majority of WaPo commenters really this stupid?

For those commenters that complained that this has never happened to a Naval Academy Sup before, I would point out that never before has the Naval Academy Sup been the wife of a Navy Admiral who during Trump’s first term was his Director of the White House Military Office and who Biden shuffled out immediately to another job, than retired him on his way out of office in 2024. Her husband is close to Trump and this could be a payoff to him by getting her that Fourth Star.

The Senate confirmations:

2025-07-31 PN418 Marine Corps

Lt. Gen. Michael J. Borgschulte, to be Lieutenant General

2025-07-31 PN419 Navy

Vice Adm. Yvette M. Davids, to be Vice Admiral

The Old Colonel's Reaction and Comment to the Washington Post Article About the Trump Ukrainian Weapons Freeze - The Old Colonel Believes in Supporting the Fight to the Last Ukranian

 Opinion

Trump’s Ukraine weapons freeze is GOP coalition management

The U.S. can’t meet all its global commitments, and Trump is making political choices accordingly.

Jason Willick  4 July 2025

A few weeks ago, President Donald Trump devastated the anti-interventionists in his political base by not only condoning Israel’s assault on Iran but also ultimately joining with the U.S. Air Force. Traditional Republican advocates of muscular foreign policy exulted. But this week, Trump disappointed hawks by freezing shipments of key weapons to a different American ally, Ukraine, as it resists Russia’s invasion.

On their face, the two policies seem inconsistent. In fact, they are two sides of the same coin. The central challenge in American foreign policy today is that Washington’s defense commitments around the world exceed its military power. This is known as the “Lippmann gap,” for journalist Walter Lippmann, who popularized the concept in 1943.

The Lippmann gap pressures presidents to make trade-offs between competing foreign policy priorities. If they don’t, the gap will grow. For Trump, backing Israel to the hilt while leaving Ukraine more exposed has a clear — if brutal — political and strategic appeal.

The Pentagon might have frozen certain weapons shipments to Ukraine even if the Israel-Iran conflict hadn’t happened. But the proximity of the decisions underscores that conflicts in different regions can draw resources away from one another. The most precious commodity is air defense — the ability to shoot down incoming aircraft and missiles.

The Pentagon is reportedly halting the delivery of Patriot missiles to Ukraine, which relies on the U.S.-made weapons to defend its cities from Russian aerial attacks…..”

The Article goes on to explain the reason for making this tradeoff decision and you can read the WaPo article in its entirety at this link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/07/04/ukraine-weapons-freeze-trump-israel/

The Old Colonel strongly disagrees with the Trump decision to stop or even to cut back on weapons shipments to the Ukraine, especially after we’ve already made an almost 80 year and multi-Trillion dollar investment in neutering first the old Soviet Union and now Russia. Now that we’ve got our surrogate Ukraine seriously reducing Russia as a threat to us, it’s NOT the time to let up on them. Hence, when the Old Colonel read this WaPo article, he immediately posted this below comment in the article’s comment section. The WaPo did have the good sense to make it one of the featured comments for the article.

The Old Colonel’s Washington Post Comment:

From Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 to now the United States has allocated $182.8 Billion in emergency funding for the region but has actually only disbursed $83.4 Billion in funding and equipment, some of which Ukraine will have to repay with added interest. When you consider the US spent $8 to $9 Trillion (with a “T” that doesn’t account for inflation) countering Russia/USSR during the Cold War, then the modest $83.4 Billion we’ve provided the Ukraine so far is pocket change. For that mere $83.4 Billion we have reduced the Russians to a fifth rate military power if you don’t count Nucs and even needing help from North Korea. What’s not to like? Estimates are we may eventually spend maybe ~$200B and that’s still a bargain. Personally, I’m in favor of continuing the fight to the last Ukrainian and I’m even in favor of having them begin a fight with China and maybe Iran and North Korea to decimate them too.                                                                                                                       

All that said, I do believe that former CJCS GEN Milley pegged it right from the beginning that neither the Russians or Ukrainians are going to win this and the only resolution will be negotiated. Putin isn’t going to give in and lose face no matter what it takes and the Ukrainians have slowed them down but will never defeat Russia. I think in the end the Russians will keep Crimea and maybe a sliver of Eastern Ukraine. As for Crimea, it was really historically part of Mother Russia and the USSR put it under the Ukraine in about 1954 for ease of administration back when the Ukraine was as much a part of the USSR as California is part of the US so they will never give Crimea back.

Of emergency aid for Ukraine since 2022, Congress has allocated but NOT spent the following resources to the cause:

·         68% ($123.9 billion) to the Department of Defense (DOD)

·         22% ($39.9 billion) to the US Agency for International Development (USAID)

·         6% ($11.6 billion) to the State Department

·         4% ($7.4 billion) to other agencies including the International Development Finance Corporation, Department of Health and Human Services, Treasury, and Department of Energy