The Navy has relieved the commanding officer of its only command in South America, a statement released by the service announced Friday.
Capt. Abigail Yablonsky Marter, the commander of the Naval Medical Research Unit South, was relieved by Capt. Franca Jones, the commander of the Naval Medical Research Command, “due to a loss of confidence in her ability to command.”
According to its website, NAMRU South operates at the Peruvian Navy's “flagship hospital base” in Callao, Peru, as well as a naval clinic in Iquitos, “at the invitation of the Peruvian Navy to address shared health science research interests.”
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The command also runs a small laboratory located at Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras.
Marter is at least the sixth firing of a Navy commanding officer in 2024.
Navy officials have previously said the sea service relieved 15 commanding officers in 2023. There are currently around 1,600 commanding officers in the active-duty Navy across all communities.
The Navy's statement did not offer any more information about why Marter was removed from leadership, outside of the boilerplate “loss of confidence” remark.
A Navy official told Military.com that the relief was “performance related” and not tied to her conduct or behavior — terms the Navy typically uses to describe commanders being relieved for behavior such as drunk driving.
According to a…
