Day eleven since the Pentagon fired Stars and Stripes ombudsman Jacqueline Smith opens with a republication, not a response. The First Amendment Center reposted Smith's April 23 farewell column on April 29, carrying the headline — "The Pentagon is trying to silence me" — to a free-press audience well outside the military readership it was written for. [1] The paper's May 6 account of the Pulitzer week closing on Stars and Stripes Day 10 named the Pentagon's parallel silence on Mythos and the ombudsman firing as a single freezeout. Day 11 holds it.

The legislative track is moving without the executive. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is reportedly drafting protective legislation for the ombudsman position. The Warren-Blumenthal letter from April 8 and the Raskin letter from April 15 — signed by 38 House members — both warn Hegseth of "great alarm" over interference. [2][3] Neither has received a written reply. Smith was fired six days after Raskin's letter landed. Form 3434 was the response.

The mechanics of the firing remain the artifact. Smith was selected from 20 applicants in 2023, the first woman to hold the role, with a three-year term that would have expired at year-end anyway. The Pentagon could have waited. The decision to terminate her with a five-day notice instead — and to call the action "not grievable" — is what the republication keeps surfacing. The op-ed travels because the silence doesn't break. [4]

-- ANNA WEBER, Berlin