A San Diego admiral is one of seven rear admirals to have their promotions to two-star admirals nixed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in recent weeks, the New York Times reported.

Five of the seven admirals are women or people of color, the newspaper said.

Rear Adm. Amy Bauernschmidt made headlines in 2021 when she became the captain of the San Diego-based USS Abraham Lincoln — the first woman to command a nuclear aircraft carrier.

She was promoted from captain to rear admiral and is now the commander of the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group — the carrier captain's boss.

When she was the executive officer of the Lincoln in 2018 — another first for a woman — she said in an interview she didn't think a lot about her identity.

"Very few times in my life have I actually sat there and thought about the fact that I was a woman doing this because for the most part, I was just treated like a naval officer and an aviator," Bauernschmidt told her hometown Fox 6 News Milwaukee station. "And then somewhere in 5th or 6th place, 'oh, well she’s a woman.'"

Andrew Dyer /KPBS

Rear Adm. Amy Bauernschmidt, here as captain of the USS Abraham Lincoln, talks to media at Naval Air Station North Island before the ship leaves for deployment on Jan. 3, 2022.

Hegseth, a former Fox News host, has reportedly intervened in the promotions of about 40 senior military officers and fired two dozen more. More than half of them were women or black people, the Times reported.

Hegseth explained his decision-making in September when he summoned all the generals and admirals in the military to hear him speak in Quantico, Virginia.

"It's nearly impossible to change a culture with the same people who helped create or even benefited from that culture," Hegseth said. "An entire generation of generals and admirals were told that they must parrot the insane fallacy that, quote, 'our diversity is our strength.'"

Acting Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez told KPBS in a statement Wednesday that hints of racism or sexism at the Pentagon by the Times disrespects service members.

"The New York Times has a toxic obsession with race and identity," Valdez said in an email. "This failing outlet hallucinates racism and sexism where none exists, reducing our heroic service members to nothing more than checkboxes for race and gender. That kind of disrespect is shameful."

Since becoming Donald Trump's Defense Secretary, Hegseth has waged his own culture war in the Pentagon.

In January 2025, Hegseth ordered all military departments and components to cease recognizing or celebrating every cultural history or heritage month.

He re-instituted a ban on transgender people serving in the military and recently changed shaving regulations in a way that will disproportionately impact black people.

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