Put Me In, Coach

Coach Tommy Tuberville Blocks Military Promotions

Since February 2023 there have been almost zero promotions of Generals or Admirals in the U.S. military, resulting in nearly 400 unfilled positions at its senior most echelon. Coach Tommy Tuberville is the proximate cause of this emergency, but the rest of the Republican Senate is complicit in the crisis. Furthermore, the root cause of this debacle is an increasingly radical,hyper-partisan Republican party prepared to sacrifice national security and defense to curry favor with the MAGA base. Again, this harms our national security and defense, dedicated public servant military leaders’ careers, and their families’ well-being. Tuberville’s politicization of military promotions will have long-term effects on retaining and recruiting the best and brightest for military/public service. This is a two-part Stack; my darling wife Rachel wrote on this same issue, such is the outrage we share about this.

Historically, the Department of Defense puts forth lists of merit-based promotions, the White House approves them, and then sends them to the Senate for confirmation. The Senate typically confirms the promotions lists through an expeditious voice vote process. Military promotions are noncontroversial and rarely merit Senate hearings, debates, or floor votes. Exceptions to this process have been the confirmations of heads of the Services (Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, etc.) and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The current obstruction of hundreds of military promotions is entirely unprecedented and demonstrates an egregious act of political maliciousness.

Senator Tommy Tuberville has been blocking the military promotion process because he disagrees with the Department of Defense policy allowing for the reimbursement of travel expenses for service members and their family members who live in states that have eliminated women’s right to choose what happens to their bodies and have to travel in order to get that care.This is a consequence of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and the Department of Defense’s commitment to not compromise on its obligation to take care of service members and families who happen to live in regressive states.

Tuberville’s obstruction has resulted in no promotions for nearly 400 officers. That is about half of all the Generals and Admirals. Generals and Admirals are senior officers with more than 20 years of military service. They are the best of the best, the most experienced, and they are retirement eligible. We must retain these top performers in critical leadership roles in order to defend the nation, but if we mistreat them many will retire and go where their skills are valued. The tens of thousands of other officers are also well-aware that military promotions have been politicized and are currently evaluating whether they want to stay in service if merit is no longer the determining factor in whether you advance through the military. Who would want to stay in an institution where the whims of one ill-informed, callous, and unqualified person advancing an extreme agenda can derail your career and ability to take care of your family?

Tuberville’s obstruction and the inability to fill the most critical positions has taken on increasing urgency over the past nine months due to the numbers of Generals and Admirals affected, the long-term effects of the politicization, and—most urgently—the global security environment. Just in the context of the Israel-Hamas war and crisis in the Middle East, dozens of senior leadership positions are unfilled to the requirements established by the Department of Defense. In most cases, senior officers are working two or more jobs to cope with the leadership crisis. This is unsustainable because a single role at this level often means 12-16 hour days 6+ days a week. This past week the newly appointed Commandant of the Marine Corps, GEN Eric Smith, suffered a heart attack. He has been filling his role and the role of the Assistant Commandant for many months. There can be little doubt that breakneck pace and stress caused by Tuberville’s promotion hold contributed to General Smith’s health crisis. The Deputy Secretary of Defense, Kathleen Hicks, said as much when speaking after the unfortunate event, “We’ve said many times in the last six months that the hold is unnecessary, unprecedented and unsafe, and that it’s bad for our military and bad for our military families, and it’s bad for our country. We have seen tragic effects of that stress, but we’ve also seen stress at the individual human level.”

Finally, this week we’ve seen multiple Senators loudly denounce Tuberville over his hold following months of silence. Lindsey Graham spoke fervently on the Senate floor, “No matter whether you believe it or not, Senator Tuberville, this is doing great damage to our military. I don’t say that lightly.” So far Tuberville has stubbornly resisted lifting his hold.  It will take additional public criticism of Tuberville by his fellow Senators, as well as by you the public connecting with your Senators, telling them that you want to end the politicization of military promotions, and by extension this crisis. At VoteVets, we have been orchestrating a publicity campaign to ensure the public understands the damage caused by this radical hold, including planting signs on Capitol Hill with the faces of each officer being denied promotion and producing advertisements such as this one

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Why It Matters: The ongoing wars in Ukraine and Israel, along with threats from Iran and China, necessitate a military ready to defend our nation. Tuberville’s hold undermines readiness, effectiveness, and morale. Our country vitally needs these military promotions, and these military officers have earned the right to advance without partisan political interference.