Image: Wikimedia Commons (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Ashunteia Smith)
Despite efforts by President Trump and SecDef Hegseth to the restore the military following an unlawful COVID-19 shot mandate, service members are still getting booted for their objection.
On January 27, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order to reinstate service members who were separated from the military for objecting to the now-rescinded 2021 COVID-19 shot mandate. For the thousands who refused the shot and were booted from service, full pay and benefits are being offered. And on May 7, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth energized the military community, calling the mandate “unlawful as implemented” in a memo sent to Department of Defense leaders.
Despite the president’s Executive Order and Hegseth’s memo, service members who remain within the military are still being separated. Take, for example, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Brandon Budge. After 18 years of honorable service in the Army as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot, CW3 Budge objected to the so-called vaccine in 2021 due to concerns about his health and he was punished for it.
The Gateway Pundit spoke to the Army pilot who said, in late 2021, he was grounded for 18 months, unable to operate a Blackhawk. During this time, he was given a General Officer Memorandum of Reprimand (GOMOR), and as an act he considers reprisal, he was also forced to go through a Flying Evaluation Board. Though the FEB exonerated him of any wrongdoing, his command still issued a GOMOR which eventually resulted in a loss of promotion status through a Special Selections Review Board. “This entire debacle has cost my family nearly $40,000 in legal fees and nearly $40,000 in lost pay on top of all the emotional and psychological stress,” he lamented.
CW3 Budge was advised in March 2025 to make his plea to right the Army’s wrongs through the Board for Correction of Military Records (BCMR). His packet was filed on March 27, and on May 22, a letter was received stating that his application was denied.
A few days later, he posted a copy of the letter on X, which has garnered over 360,000 views to date.
Hey @DODResponse here’s what the ARMY BOARD OF CORRECTIONS DOES WITH OUR APPLICATIONS FOR RELIEF FOLLOWING THE COVID MESS.
My application was denied. I lost CW4, I was given a GOMOR, my family and I were put through hell. We were drug through the mud.
This is what four years… pic.twitter.com/YKMFo2SAPT
— Substitution (@Lucky7_BLB) May 28, 2025
The heartbreaking news comes after “[General Randy George, Chief of Staff of the Army,] promised me on a phone call that he would get it fixed,” according to CW3 Budge. If the shot mandate was truly “unlawful as implemented” and “an unfair, overbroad, and completely unnecessary burden,” the service member over 21 years questions whether the BCMR understands the intent of President Trump and SecDef Hegseth to right the wrongs committed against him and others like him. “I know others in exactly the same position I’m in and it sickens me,” he said.
CW3 Budge opposed the shot mandate for good reason. “I saw young guys having chest pains and that just didn’t sit well with me,” he explained. “On top of that, the shot being offered was experimental and I’m not a lab rat.” He admitted taking other vaccines while in service, but noted none of them were considered experimental like the COVID-19 shot that is now known to induce myocarditis, heart attacks, strokes, neurological maladies, and more.
After fighting for four arduous years to save his career, the BCMR became the “stop gap” that ultimately failed him. This Army chief warrant officer, who had the moral courage and fortitude to stand up against an unlawful mandate, is set to be separated from service on September 1. With a wife and seven children to provide for, he hopes President Trump or Defense Secretary Hegseth will quickly remedy his situation. The stress for each is near unbearable and families like the Budge family simply deserve better.
Attorney Davis Younts, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and former judge advocate general (JAG), has agreed to assist CW3 Budge with a request for reconsideration by the Board because he believes “this case is critical to the fight to restore service members who were impacted by the unlawful COVID mandate.”
“Although the details of every case are unique, there is little doubt that CW3 Budge and his family have suffered greatly because of the retaliation and reprisal that resulted from his stance against an unlawful and unethical order to receive and experimental vaccine,” Younts shared. “It is my hope that he finally sees some relief and that his case is the first of many where the Army does right by an excellent officer and a patriot.”
The post With a September 1 Date to be Separated From Service Over the COVID-19 Shot Mandate, an Army Pilot Makes a Desperate Plea to President Trump and SecDef Hegseth appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.