Promotions for female generals were delayed

Officials feared Trump administration would not approve women candidates for the jobs

WASHINGTON >> Last fall, the Pentagon’s most senior leaders agreed that two top generals should be promoted to elite, four-star commands.

For then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the tricky part was that both of the accomplished officers were women. In 2020 America under President Donald

Trump, the two Pentagon leaders feared that any candidates other than white men for jobs mostly held by white men might run into turmoil once their nominations got to the White House.

Esper and Milley worried that if they even raised their names — Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost of the Air Force and Lt. Gen. Laura J. Richardson of the Army — the Trump White House would replace them with their own candidates before leaving office.

So the Pentagon officials held back their recommendations until after the November elections, betting that if Joe Biden won, he and his aides would be more supportive of the Pentagon picks than Trump, who had feuded with Esper and has a history of disparaging women.

They stuck to the plan even after Trump fired Esper six days after the election.

“They were chosen because they were the best officers for the jobs, and I didn’t want their promotions derailed because someone in the Trump White House saw that I recommended them or thought DOD was playing politics,” Esper said in an interview, referring to the Department of Defense.

In the next few weeks, Esper’s successor, Lloyd Austin, and Milley are expected to send the delayed recommendations to the White House, where officials are expected to endorse the nominations and formally submit them to the Senate for approval.

The story of the two officers’ unusual path to promotion — Van Ovost to head Transportation Command, which oversees the military’s global transportation network; and Richardson to head Southern Command, which oversees military activities in Latin America — underscores the unorthodox steps that senior officials took to shield the Defense Department during the final weeks of the Trump administration.

“They were chosen because they were the best officers for the jobs, and I didn’t want their promotions derailed because someone in the Trump White House saw that I recommended them or thought DOD (Department of Defense) was playing politics.”

— Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper