Trump Administration Fires Army's Top Chaplain During Holy Week, Leaves Military Without Spiritual Leadership

The United States Army no longer has a Chief of Chaplains for the first time in more than 100 years, after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth abruptly fired Major General William Green Jr. last week during Holy Week.

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) called out the firing as part of a broader pattern of ideological purges within the military's spiritual leadership. "Major General Green served as an enlisted soldier before answering a higher call and becoming an ordained minister," DeLauro said in a statement. "He returned to the Army as a chaplain in 1994 and spent the next three decades as a source of spiritual strength, moral guidance, and quiet counsel for our troops and their families."

Green was fired without explanation and without cause, according to DeLauro. The timing -- during one of Christianity's holiest weeks -- underscores the administration's apparent disregard for the role chaplains play in providing moral counsel to service members.

The vacancy comes at a moment when that moral guidance may be most needed. As DeLauro noted, President Trump recently posted on Truth Social that "a whole civilization will die tonight," threatening mass civilian casualties and the destruction of millennia of history and culture. With no Chief of Chaplains in place, there is no senior military spiritual leader to speak to the ethical weight of such threats.

DeLauro argued the firing reveals the administration's true intent for military chaplains: ideological enforcers rather than independent voices of conscience. "This administration has made clear it views chaplains as instruments to further its ideology," she said. "They want loyalists."

She pointed to Hegseth's personal relationship with Douglas Wilson, a minister who advocates for a theocratic society that would strip women of rights and end religious freedom, as evidence of the administration's vision for military spiritual leadership.

The position of Chief of Chaplains oversees the spiritual welfare of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and their families. The role has existed in various forms since the Revolutionary War, with the modern position established in the early 20th century. Green's firing leaves that institutional knowledge and moral authority absent at a critical moment.

"At the moment of our greatest moral peril, President Trump and Secretary Hegseth are silencing our voices of conscience," DeLauro said. "That should alarm every American."

The Defense Department has not publicly explained the reason for Green's termination or announced plans to fill the vacancy. The move is part of a broader pattern of firings and forced resignations across the military under Hegseth's leadership, including the removal of multiple senior officers who have questioned administration policies or failed to demonstrate sufficient loyalty.