Biden admin taps woman admiral as first female to head the US Navy

The Biden Administration has chosen Admiral Lisa Franchetti to head the United States Navy. Franchetti will be the first woman to serve as a Pentagon service chief.  

The decision from President Joe Biden goes against recommendations from his own Pentagon chief. A statement from the White House on the nomination of Franchetti and other officers addressed why she was chosen. 

"Throughout her career, Admiral Franchetti has demonstrated extensive expertise in both the operational and policy arenas. She is the second woman ever to achieve the rank of four-star admiral in the United States Navy," the statement read.  

The appointment comes as Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has held up military nominations in the Senate in an attempt to hold a vote that may change abortion policy at the Pentagon. 

As of now, the policy gives assistance to women in obtaining an abortion if they want to get one by traveling across state lines. Tuberville wants to reverse the policy by putting it up for a vote.   

The statement from the Biden Administration on the nominations addressed this, saying, "What Senator Tuberville is doing is not only wrong—it is dangerous. In this moment of rapidly evolving security environments and intense competition, he is risking our ability to ensure that the United States Armed Forces remain the greatest fighting force in the history of the world." 

Tuberville responded to other concerns over military readiness earlier this week and said, "If I thought it was having just a small part of an effect on national security, I wouldn’t be doing this. I’m a military person." 

"We have fires all over the world. One of biggest fires is in this country within. We're turning into a woke military, we're turning into a military that's soft, that's dropped its regulations, its dropped its formulations to how we take recruits," Tuberville continued.  

Service members have been sounding the alarm that "woke" messaging coming from the military has been depriving it of new recruits. 

In a report from the US Air Force, Franchetti and other female leaders in the military discussed the benefits of military service. 

Franchetti said, that women bring needed skills that the military needs in order "to be the world's most formidable fighting force, ready to deter, fight and win whenever the nation needs."