Another top leader at the U.S. Naval Academy has been removed, the latest change during a tumultuous few months for the Annapolis military college.

Capt. Gilbert Clark Jr., the commandant of midshipmen at the military academy, was “relieved from his duties” just six months after starting his role, the academy announced Monday.

Clark, a 1998 graduate of the academy, was dismissed by the academy’s new superintendent, Lt. Gen. Michael Borgschulte, due to “a loss of confidence in his ability to effectively lead the Brigade of Midshipmen.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth tapped Borgschulte, the first Marine to lead the academy, after reassigning Vice Adm. Yvette Davids to a Pentagon post this summer.

The role of the commandant is to oversee day-to-day operations at the military academy. It is akin to a dean of students or provost role at a civilian institution.

“Leadership positions require senior leaders to maintain the highest standards of responsibility as they play a key role in shaping good order and discipline,” said Ashley Hockycko, a spokesperson for the academy. “When an immediate superior loses confidence in an officer’s ability to effectively lead in a position of authority, it is their obligation to relieve the subordinate leader of their duties.”

Capt. Austin Jackson, a Navy SEAL and former troop commander for SEAL Team 6, will serve as interim commandant. He previously served as the deputy commandant under Clark.

Jackson graduated from the Naval Academy in 1999, meaning that he and Clark overlapped during their years in Annapolis.

Clark had most recently served as first commander of Naval Surface Group Southwest. Previously, after a number of assignments on warships including an aircraft carrier, he served as executive officer and then commanding officer of the destroyer The Sullivans, which was involved in supporting operations in Iraq and Syria.

The shake-up comes on the heels of on-campus tragedy and violence.

In October, Kyle Philbert James, a 20-year-old midshipman, died by suicide. And in September, an on-campus shooting left a midshipman and a Navy police officer injured.

The September shooting occurred during a chaotic response to a false report of an active shooter on campus.

A number of other leadership and policy changes have taken place at the Annapolis academy.

Davids, the first woman superintendent of the academy, was relieved of the role in August. She is one of several high-ranking women officers who have been fired or moved out of high-visibility jobs under Hegseth, a former Fox News host selected by President Donald Trump earlier this year to lead the Department of Defense.

Hegseth has questioned whether women should have combat roles and complained that the promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion by service academy leaders had left the military weak.

According to an internal memo obtained by The Baltimore Banner in February, faculty at the academy were told to avoid “divisive concepts” such as systemic racism and sexism. Trump also purged many members of the academy’s Board of Visitors, deeming them too “woke,” and replaced them.

In March, the academy announced that it was ending affirmative action in admissions despite previously winning a federal court case defending the practice.

The military college then made headlines in April for removing nearly 400 books on race and gender, including Maya Angelou’s memoir and a book about the Holocaust, from its Nimitz Library. After a public outcry, academy officials returned most of the books to circulation.

Banner reporter Alex Mann contributed to this story.

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