Leaders "followed the lawful orders of a previous administration." That was exactly what they were supposed to do. This sort of firing is indeed unprecedented. No, Marshal's retiring of many of the older Officers as we entered the Second World War was not the same thing. That was the military cleaning its own house for operational reasons, not FDR doing it for political reasons. After all, FDR certainly didn't fire Marshal. I assume that we will see a tit for tat when the democrats regain the executive branch.
It is obvious that the real driver is the rather novel political divide in the country, and the intolerance the base of both parties have for the other. A word of caution to the screaming partisans on both sides. Militaries have a difficult path to negotiate between those sorts of factions. In similar situations dating back to the collapse of the Roman Republic, armies have too often resolved the dilemma by simply seizing power.
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