Air Force officials quietly fired the commander of the 727th Air Mobility Squadron at RAF Mildenhall Air Base in the United Kingdom earlier this year, Military.com has learned, marking another in a string of leadership removals since the beginning of the year.
Maj. Ligel Brown was relieved of command Jan. 25, but the leadership change was not publicized in a press release or previously covered by the media. Military.com learned of the removal through a social media post, and officials later disclosed some details.
Staff Sgt. Joshua Crossman, a spokesman for the 521st Air Mobility Operations Wing, the squadron's parent unit, told Military.com in an emailed statement that Brown was "relieved due to a loss of confidence in her ability to lead."
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The services rarely disclose specific reasons why commanders or military leaders are fired. Officials often cite the federal Privacy Act -- which protects military records -- or simply state that it was due to a "loss of trust and confidence" instead of providing additional details or revealing whether potential misconduct happened.
Crossman did disclose that there are no ongoing investigations related to Brown and that she is no longer assigned to the 727th Air Mobility Squadron.
"There are no pending or ongoing investigations related to Maj. Brown's time in command of the 727th Air Mobility Squadron," Crossman told Military.com on Thursday.
Maj. Scott Conrad, who was previously the 727th Air Mobility Squadron's director of operations, assumed command the same day Brown was relieved.
Brown could not be reached at phone numbers listed for her in public records.
She took command of the squadron in July 2023, according to a service biography provided by the Air Force. Prior to that, she was a student at Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, and the chief of global force management for U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa.
Brown joined the Air Force in 2004 and graduated from basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. Her first assignment was Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, where she was an F-15/F-16 aircraft maintenance analyst through 2009. She then commissioned as a logistics readiness officer through Officer Training School in 2010, according to her biography.
The revelation of Brown's removal comes amid a number of leadership shake-ups in the Air Force.
On Monday, Col. Danzel Albertsen, commander of the 49th Maintenance Group at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, was removed from his leadership role. And earlier this month, Air Force officials at Joint Base Charleston in South Carolina removed two commanders and reassigned one senior enlisted leader from a medical group at the base.
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