The former pasha of destroyers and aircraft carrier groups has been in command of the American Navy, the most powerful in the world, since November 2nd. At 59, she is also the first woman on the Bundeswehr General Staff.
4.6 million tons of steel, more than 330,000 sailors, 299 operational warships, including 11 huge nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, 4,000 aircraft… This is the armada of Admiral Lisa Franchetti. At age 59, she became the 33rd chief of naval operations and the first woman to serve as commander of the U.S. Navy, the largest fleet in the world – measured by tonnage, not number of ships, as the Chinese Navy has the American has now overtaken in this area.
Lisa Franchetti is also the first woman to join the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which brings together the senior commanders of the various armed forces of the United States.
On Thursday, November 2, the Senate voted to confirm this particularly symbolic appointment after several months of blockage due to legislative obstruction imposed by a single Republican senator, Tommy Tuberville. The elected official from Alabama, former American football coach, staunch Trumpist and conservative, has categorically refused to vote for the appointment of almost 400 military personnel to positions of responsibility since February last year. At issue is his opposition to the Pentagon’s abortion policy for military wives, which was recently relaxed to accommodate increasingly restrictive legislation in some American states.
Single blockade in the Senate
However, his lone blockade was met with disapproval from the vast majority of senators in his camp, as was the statement by the leader of the Republican majority in the Senate. Delaying the promotion of military leaders “is one of the most despicable and scandalous things I have ever seen in this House, as evidenced by the fact that no one has ever had the audacity and courage to do this,” Chuck Schumer said. Noting that these appointments have historically been subject to bipartisan compromise in the Senate.
On Thursday, the senator from Alabama finally gave in three votes: In addition to Admiral Lisa Franchetti, two other heavyweights were finally appointed to their posts, General David Allvin as Chief of Staff of the US Air Force and Lieutenant General Christopher Mahoney as Deputy Commander of the United States Marine Corps. The more than 400 soldiers still waiting include Admiral Samuel Paparo, who will take over as head of the US Indo-Pacific Command Vice Admiral James Kilby, who is to receive his “fourth star” as admiral and become “Vice Chief of Naval Operations”, i.e. deputy commander of the US Navy, is supposed to be in his place, Lisa Franchetti.
Also read: Alaska: US Navy deploys four destroyers in response to presence of 11 Russian and Chinese ships
Born in 1964, a surface officer since 1985 – five years after the first woman graduated from the Naval Academy – Lisa Franchetti spent much of her career aboard destroyers after spending her early years on support ships. In particular, she commanded the USS Ross, one of 73 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, and Destroyer Squadron 21, a squadron protecting the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis.
After receiving her “first star,” she commanded U.S. Naval Forces in South Korea and the Ninth and Fifteenth U.S. Carrier Strike Groups. She then served as deputy commander of American naval forces in Europe and then Africa. While in command of the U.S. Sixth Fleet operating in the Mediterranean, she de facto directed the launch of Tomahawk cruise missiles into Syria from Virginia-class nuclear submarines, a first in United States naval history. It was in 2018, under Donald Trump’s presidency, after the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad used sarin gas against civilians.
On September 2, 2022, Lisa Franchetti became the second woman to serve as vice chief of naval operations or deputy commander of the U.S. Navy. President Joe Biden had proposed her name to take the top spot on July 21, 2023, to replace Admiral Gilday, whose second she was until then. “First of all, a woman can do this; and second, the Navy as an organization has the right values: It puts the right person in the right place for the right reason,” responded Vice Admiral Nora W. Tyson, the first woman to command an aircraft carrier strike group.
Naval officer and mother
Admiral Franchetti, married and a mother, cares deeply about the issue of women’s involvement in the army. “I have my work space, my mother and wife space, and my mental and physical health space. When I was younger, I thought, “I can do this all at once!” But as I got older, I realized, “Okay, this week I’m going to focus on work because it’s going to be very busy.” “And Next week I’m going to take a day off and go to the zoo with my family. It’s really important to reconsider and reevaluate your priorities. You have to think about it every day,” she told Northwestern University magazine.
A strategy that appears to have worked, as the admiral is now at the helm of the navy of the world’s largest thalassocracy, the United States. The stakes for them are enormous: the U.S. Navy faces almost unimaginable competition given the rise in power of the PLAN, the Chinese navy that aims to match the American fleet.