Apparently they have forgotten what weapons are for.
No, this is a case of the admirals telling the Senate what Bozo tells them to say. Clinton did the same thing.
Dick Nixon did that, and Congressman F. Eddie Hebert of Louisiana, chairman of House Armed Services, called Admiral Zumwalt back and told him to get along with 30,000 fewer staff officers. That's what happened when Nixon messed with House Democrats in 1972.
(Not that LBJ hadn't done the same thing -- but Lynt'n meant well -- <snort!!>)