The unexplained removal of the first female head of the U.S. Naval Academy last week is the latest in a string of top military women who have either been fired or redelegated to largely invisible roles under the Trump administration.

The ousting of Vice Adm. Yvette Davids from her post as the first female superintendent of the academy in Annapolis, Md., makes her one of at least five senior female service members who have been moved out of their roles since January.

That trend, coupled with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s well-documented antipathy toward women in combat roles prior to becoming Pentagon chief, could have a chilling effect on women enlisting in the armed forces, experts say.

“It’s hard not to come to the conclusion that it's going to weaken our military force by undermining the role of women who have become, I believe, an intrinsic part of our military capability,” said Leon Panetta, a former defense secretary in the Obama administration.

Panetta, who in 2013 announced that all combat roles would soon be open to women — a shift that eventually came in 2015 — told The Hill that the Trump administration’s removal of female leaders from the ranks, often without explanation, will have impacts on morale for female service members.

“Just to remove commanders from their positions without cause sends a clear signal that this is not about merit, it’s not about performance, it’s about the fact that they’re women. It’s the only conclusion you can come to,” he said.

Davids was not outright fired, instead moved to deputy chief of naval operations, a senior position but largely out of the public eye. But the shift was only after she had led the academy for 18 months rather than the typical three- or four-year tenure of the school’s superintendent.

Nora Bensahel, a professor of civil-military relations at Johns Hopkins University, said the fact that she was removed from the Naval Academy ”really sends a message from the Pentagon that they do not think that a woman is qualified to be in charge of educating and training the next generation of fighters.”

“This sends a terrible message to the women who are currently serving in the U.S. military, or young women and girls........

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