A Blue Angels pilot has been removed from duty after failing to meet US Navy squadron’s standards following the secretary of defense’s threats to reshape the military.
Major Scott Laux was removed from the Blue Angels for the rest of this season, according to the Chief of Naval Air Training public affairs office.
Laux, who performed during San Francisco Fleet Week just last month, served as the No. 6 opposing solo pilot.
‘Blue Angel #6 was removed from the team for failing to uphold the standards expected of members of the Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron and will not participate in the team’s remaining performance this season,’ CNATRA said in a statement to the Pensacola News Journal.
The exact circumstances surrounding the cause of Laux’s removal, officially marked on November 3, remain unclear.
His photo and biography have already been removed from the team’s current roster and he was notably absent from the squadron’s NAS Pensacola Homecoming Air Show over the weekend.
The Friday and Saturday show saw only five jets rather than the usual six, Fox News reported.
This year’s Blue Angels was Laux’s second time performing with the team after joining in 2024, serving as its narrator in 2025 before he assumed the opposing solo position.
Major Scott Laux was removed from the remaining Blue Angels performances for the rest of this season, according to the Chief of Naval Air Training public affairs office
The circumstances surrounding Laux’s removal, officially on November 3, remain unclear. This year’s Blue Angels was Laux’s second time performing with the team after joining in 2024
Laux, who performed during San Francisco Fleet Week just last month, served as the No. 6 opposing solo pilot. The US Navy Blue Angels seen performing on October 17 in Florida
Prior to his joining the team, Laux served with Marine fighter-attack squadrons at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
According to the Blue Angels, the Chantilly, Virginia, native had accrued more than 1,300 flight hours and 169 aircraft carrier arrested landings.
He had graduated from the US Naval Academy in 2012 with a degree in Chinese, earning his wings in 2015, his biography stated, according to Fox News.
Laux had flown F/A-18-Hornets with Marine Corps squadrons, had been deployed to Japan and was aboard the USS Nimitz supporting three operations during its 2020 deployment.
He went on to transition to the F-35C Lightning II, serving as an instructor pilot before joining the Blue Angels, the outlet reported.
Laux was awarded to Navy and Marine Corps Commendation medals as well as multiple unit awards.
Laux’s replacement as pilot number six in 2027 may be this year’s narrator, Lieutenant Commander Ronny Hafeza, according to the outlet.
It remains unclear if Laux’s removal was due to disciplinary action or other investigations.
Prior to his joining the team, Laux, seen right above, served with Marine fighter-attack squadrons at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego
Pete Hegseth announced that he intends to cut to the US military’s generals and admirals by 20 percent come January 1. ‘The ideological clowns are out. The patriotic cowboys are in, with testosterone testing on top,’ he told the crowd
The sudden and mysterious removal follows Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s threats last month to reshape the United States military.
In early October, Hegseth declared that the Pentagon is ‘no longer the woke department or the weak department.’
He had delivered the speech to active-duty officers at Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia.
‘Simple translation of that: No fatties, no tr***ies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals. Just warriors,’ Hegseth said.
He announced that he is intending to cut to the US military’s generals and admirals by 20 percent come January 1.
‘The ideological clowns are out. The patriotic cowboys are in, with testosterone testing on top,’ he told the crowd while doing so.
He had also been detailing his plans for military chaplains to focus more on God and less on therapeutic ‘self-help and self-care.’
‘Live your calling. Stand firm. Preach truth. Minister to the flock,’ he told chaplains in attendance, while revealing a new policy forcing them to no longer wear their rank on their uniform and instead be identified by religious insignias.
Hegseth’s 20 percent target for cutting general and flag officer positions is double the 10 percent reduction of generals and admirals he previously directed in a May 2025 memo, hence the criticism.
The cull would remove approximately 170 general and admiral officer slots.
