Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has dismissed Vice Adm. Nancy Lacore, chief of the Navy Reserve, and Rear Adm. Milton “Jamie” Sands III, commander of Naval Special Warfare Command, as part of a leadership shakeup initiated under President Donald Trump.
USNI News first reported the decision. Both officers had been in their respective positions for just over a year.
Lacore, a career helicopter pilot commissioned in 1990, became Navy Reserve chief in August 2024. Sands, a Navy SEAL who joined in 1992 and deployed to Afghanistan, took command of Naval Special Warfare the same month.
The Pentagon has not announced their replacements.
The firings came the same day Hegseth removed Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). A brief Defense Department statement said only that Kruse “will no longer serve as DIA Director.” The Washington Post reported he was dismissed over a “loss of confidence.”
Kruse’s removal followed months of White House criticism of a DIA assessment concluding U.S. airstrikes in June set Iran’s nuclear program back only a few months.
The dismissals are part of a growing reshuffle of top defense and intelligence leaders. Earlier this week, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin announced an early retirement.
Since February, the administration has removed several top military leaders, including Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr., Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, Air Force Vice Chief Gen. James Slife, the heads of U.S. Cyber Command and the Coast Guard, and senior lawyers from three service branches.
