This Story is Still Unfolding: Trump Admin Blowing Up Boats and Killing People in the Caribbean. Silence in Washington.
Why Admiral Alvin Holsey’s Exit May Be the Loudest Story of the Year
This Story is Still Unfolding: The Trump Admin is Blowing Up Boats and Killing People in the Caribbean. Silence in Washington.
Why Admiral Alvin Holsey’s Exit May Be the Loudest Story of the Year
The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter #605: Friday, October 17th, 2025.
Author’s note: This story isn’t finished. As of tonight…the pieces are still shifting. The story first broke last night at around 10:00 pm.
A four-star Navy commander is bowing out in the middle of a secretive maritime strike campaign in the Caribbean.
Questions of legality…chain of command and internal resistance are bubbling to the surface. What we know now is just the prologue. Stay with me…the full story is unfolding as we speak.
You can learn a lot about a country by how it treats the people who still have a conscience.
A high-ranking admiral has just stepped down. No scandal…no resignation letter dripping with regret. Just… gone.
And yet, beneath the polished statements and polite applause…there’s something else moving in the water…something the press releases won’t say out loud.
Because this wasn’t a routine retirement. It was an exit…stage left…during a season of explosions no one can quite explain.
And when the person leaving command happens to be the same one who might have raised questions about the legality of those explosions… you pay attention.
The Departure Nobody Can Explain
In Washington, retirements are rarely mysterious. There’s usually a leak…a feud…or a scandal waiting to be written. But this one landed with the weight of silence.
Less than a year into his command…a respected admiral walked away from one of the most strategically sensitive posts in the hemisphere.
His office oversaw counter-narcotics operations across the Caribbean and Latin America…missions suddenly cloaked in secrecy…with strange aftershocks rippling through diplomatic and humanitarian channels alike.
The official story: gratitude for decades of service.
The unofficial reality: confusion…speculation…and a trail of whispers.
The timing wasn’t subtle. Just as reports of “defensive maritime engagements” began to surface…sinkings of unidentified vessels labeled narco-terrorist threats…the man in charge of the region quietly announced his retirement.
Nothing “routine” about that.
Because you don’t leave the bridge during a storm…unless you’re being ordered to sail through it blind.
The Caribbean War Nobody Authorized
For months, satellite images and fragmented reports have shown naval strikes across the Caribbean…small boats…alleged traffickers…all destroyed with precision munitions.
The official statements call them targeted interdictions.
The lawyers, if asked…might call them acts of war.
Under international law…force at sea is allowed only under clear justification…self-defense…treaty…or congressional authorization.
Yet these operations have been carried out in opaque waters: neither declared nor denied, neither public nor fully classified.
It’s a familiar formula: plausible deniability meets moral fog.
And when the smoke clears, the question that remains isn’t whether the explosions were “successful.”
It’s whether they were lawful.
Behind closed doors…military lawyers have debated the limits of “narco-terrorism” designations…the scope of command authority…and what happens when a foreign crew is blown apart without due process or proof.
If those debates reached the admiral’s desk…and the record suggests they did…it would have placed him squarely between duty and conscience.
And history has never been kind to officers who choose the latter.
The Voice That May Have Said “No”
People who knew the admiral describe him as exacting…loyal…and allergic to grandstanding.
The kind of officer who doesn’t posture in press briefings. The kind who simply does the job…until the job crosses a line.
Several insiders, speaking anonymously to major outlets, said he had begun asking difficult questions about recent missions:
Who approved the strikes?
What intelligence justified them?
Were civilian or foreign vessels among the targets?
Those questions didn’t play well upstairs.
Because when you start poking holes in a narrative built on speed…spectacle…and deniability…you threaten the illusion of control.
And illusion is what modern power sells best.
So, a man who’d served nearly four decades found himself in the impossible position every professional dreads: follow the script, or honor the oath.
His decision to leave may not have been rebellion. It may have been refusal…to wear the mask…to bless the theater…to trade clarity for compliance.
And that…apparently…is enough to end a career.
What We Know…and What We Don’t
Official records confirm the following:
The strikes happened.
Dozens died.
Survivors were detained.
Congress was not briefed in advance.
The admiral was relieved of operational oversight soon after voicing “concerns.”
Everything else remains classified, redacted, or “under review.”
There’s a reason these operations are being run under shifting chains of command: the less continuity…the less accountability.
Each reassignment blurs the paper trail…who gave the order…who fired the missile… who signed the after-action report.
Meanwhile…the administration projects strength while quietly eroding the chain of conscience that once made the U.S. military respected rather than feared.
It’s not the first time.
It never ends well.
The Pattern Beneath the Surface
Step back, and the dots connect themselves:
Sudden retirements of career officers with unblemished records.
Reassignments that dilute oversight.
Operations that stretch or sidestep established law.
Media silence…punctuated only by brief Pentagon statements.
Individually…each looks like an anomaly. Together…they form a pattern.
A government that treats dissent as disloyalty doesn’t need to shout tyranny. It just needs to whisper “classified.”
And the men and women who still believe in the rule of law…the ones who keep asking “by what authority?”…become expendable.
The Cost of Integrity
There’s an old Marine Corps line: You can delegate authority, but you can’t delegate responsibility.
When things go wrong…when civilians die…when borders blur…when the story collapses…the person who signed the order won’t be the one standing in front of the tribunal. It’ll be the commander who carried it out.
The admiral understood that.
He’d seen what happens when “just following orders” becomes the national religion. He’d seen the weight that silence puts on a conscience built to serve something larger than politics.
So he stepped off the stage.
And maybe…just maybe…that act of quiet defiance will outlast all the noise that tried to drown it.
The Real Battle
This isn’t a story about one man. It’s a story about what kind of military…and what kind of nation…we want to be.
Because the next time a missile arcs over the horizon…someone will have to sign for it. Someone will have to say “yes.”
And if every voice of integrity has already been forced to say “goodbye,” we won’t have a defense department. We’ll have a circus.
The tragedy is that while the crowd cheers the fireworks…a handful of professionals are standing in the shadows…wondering when duty stopped meaning honor.
The Questions That Still Need Asking
Who authorized the strikes…and under what law?
What safeguards were in place to confirm targets?
Were international waters violated?
Has Congress been briefed…or bypassed?
What role did dissent inside the chain of command play in recent personnel changes?
If the answers to those questions remain locked away, then democracy isn’t functioning…it’s performing.
And performances…like cover stories…eventually collapse under their own applause.
The Lesson Beneath the Waves
You don’t need to be in uniform to understand courage.
Courage isn’t always loud.
Sometimes it’s the quiet act of saying “enough.”
The admiral’s departure isn’t a scandal to be buried…it’s a warning flare for anyone still awake enough to see it.
Because when good people vanish from the bridge and nobody asks why…the ship’s already taking on water.
That’s it for today. I’ll be back tomorrow…with more.
-Jack
P.S. There’s always a cost to integrity. The price tag just isn’t printed where the cameras can see it.
Today’s a good day to become a paid subscriber.
Because every day you choose clarity over comfort is a good day for that.
Thanks for your update on this developing story. I can fully understand his reasoning as you can, don’t get caught with your pants down holding the bag. You and I both know these actions are illegal within maritime law and someone up the chain of command will pay and he will be a witness. Good for him and I applaud all good sailors who believe in the rule of law.
This is so bad, Jack, only Congress can decide War, Not the president. Yet, again, here we are,in Uncharted waters, absolutely No Good can come of this action. Thank you for writing this out so well, so even a moron could understand what's at stake. TGIF and will reStack ASAP 💯👍