President Donald Trump fired the head of the Coast Guard before her term was up on his first day in office. The Coast Guard commandant, Admiral Linda L. Fagan, was the first female uniformed leader of a branch of the armed forces.
Fagan’s firing sent shockwaves through the Coast Guard. Former Commandant Admiral Thad Allen criticized the decision in a statement saying, “Her dismissal is not a matter of her performance. It is political performance. One that should cause great concern for current and future military leaders,” he said.
Master Chief Petty Officer Charles Bowen and Master Chief Vincent Patton, two other high ranking former Coast Guard officials, also spoke out in Fagan’s defense.
“Admiral Fagan’s firing is wrong. There is no other way to say it. She is an honorable officer who has given her entire life to the Coast Guard and this is the wrong way for the new administration to end her career,” they said in a statement. The two, who worked with Fagan during her 40-year career, said Fagan inherited the DHS’s cited problems, and she “positively impacted current effort” to improve the service.
It has been reported that Fagan learned she had been fired while waiting to take a photo with Trump at the Commander in Chief Ball on Inauguration Day.