According to The Hill, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has requested the resignation of the four-star Navy admiral in charge of U.S. military operations targeting boats in the Caribbean. The admiral had reportedly raised concerns about the ambiguous legality of these missions.

Adm. Alvin Holsey, who leads the U.S. Southern Command, is set to retire two years earlier than planned on December 12. This decision follows what The Wall Street Journal describes as “months of discord” between him and Hegseth.

Hegseth announced Holsey’s unexpected retirement on October 16, just a year into his role and in the midst of a significant new military campaign. This move was deemed extraordinary by both lawmakers and experts.

The tension between Holsey and Hegseth reportedly began earlier this year. During a secure video conference following Hegseth’s confirmation, the two discussed their differences, as shared by current and former Pentagon officials.

During the conversation, Hegseth is said to have told Holsey, “You’re either on the team or you’re not. When you get an order, you move out fast and don’t ask questions.”

Later in March, Hegseth ordered Holsey to develop military options to ensure the U.S. had full access to the Panama Canal after President Trump said he wanted to “reclaim” the strategic waterway, but the Pentagon chief felt Holsey didn’t move quickly enough on the plans, according to the Journal. 

Hegseth also was suspicious that Holsey may have leaked details about those options when such media reports surfaced, one former official told the outlet.

Then this past summer, when the U.S. military began striking boats off the coast of Venezuela that the administration claimed without evidence were carrying drugs bound for America, Holsey was reportedly concerned about the tenuous legal authority for the campaign.

Holsey objected that parts of the operations fell outside his direct control, as other military units under separate chains of command were also involved in the strikes, according to the Journal.

But even before Holsey’s concerns, Hegseth reportedly had lost confidence in him and was looking for his replacement. Tension came to a head with a “confrontation” between the two at the Pentagon in early October.

Multiple outlets reported at the time that Holsey and Hegseth were at odds over the U.S. mission in the Caribbean, but Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell at the time dismissed the stories as “fake news,” insisting there was “no hesitation or concerns about this mission.”

The saga comes as Hegseth has been accused of war crimes over his handling of the U.S. strikes, which began in September and killed more than 80 people in more than 20 attacks.

The Washington Post last week reported that the Pentagon chief gave a spoken directive to “kill everybody” ahead of the U.S. military’s Sept. 2 attack against an alleged drug-smuggling vessel in the Caribbean, an operation where 11 “narco-terrorists” were killed. 

Navy Adm. Frank Bradley, the commander who oversaw the strikes and ordered a follow-on attack to kill two survivors, on Thursday denied that Hegseth ordered his subordinates to “kill everybody” aboard the vessel.

Congress is looking into what the military’s reasoning was for ordering the second strike against the boat and what order Hegseth gave. Democrats also want the Trump administration to release the full video of the attack — which Trump has expressed an openness to — along with written directives and orders from the Pentagon chief. 

Holsey, a Navy helicopter pilot, had previously voiced support for stepping up interdiction of drug shipments and a stronger push to “dismantle the drug cartels,” according to testimony he gave during his Senate confirmation hearing in September 2024.

Holsey has not publicly said why he is stepping down.