On Veterans Day, remember: weak generals aren’t the voice of all who served

It’s a bitter sight, this Veterans’ Day, to see puffed-up general officers pretend to speak for the hundreds of thousands of Americans under their command.

Amid all the platitudes and praise for the “brave men and women in uniform,” every single one of them was part of a politically motivated purge of our armed forces just a few years ago.

While a very small number of these flag officers quietly tried to shelter their subordinates from the politicized COVID mandates, not one stood publicly against the lawless persecution.

They destroyed the military careers of thousands of loyal servicemembers while the faceless military bureaucracy acted as their enforcers.

It still does, today, defying the express orders and policies of the President of the United States.

Despite all the weakness of character and moral corruption at the top, there is a bright spot. That bright spot is the humbling fact that many of the purged service personnel are eager to go back and serve.

We aren’t talking about a tiny handful of people.

The trust-the-government data and legacy media claim that “only” 8,600 servicemembers were involuntarily discharged for COVID non-compliance. That’s an immense number. But it’s fake. The real numbers are even higher. Defense [War] Manpower Databases show that over 100,000 servicemembers were purged from service due to unlawful, coercive COVID policies.

All those who were purged knew that if they stood up to unlawful policies and unlawful orders, they would pay the professional consequences of non-compliance. That’s what makes them heroic.

These purged veterans share the righteous burn that only those on the receiving end of injustice can know.

They feel a kinship with leaders like President Trump and many of his appointees who bore even harsher injustices. They hunger to continue service because their oath continues; it never stopped.

President Trump understood this well. He prioritized issuing his Servicemember COVID Reinstatement Executive Order, delaying it only so Secretary of War Pete Hegseth could receive Senate confirmation prior to its issuance. Another reason is that reinstatement of self-sacrificing servicemembers was supposed to help restore America’s trust in the armed forces.

And now for some shocking news.

Despite leadership emphasis by President Trump, Secretary Hegseth and Under Secretary Anthony Tata, the Department of War has reinstated fewer than ten servicemembers in over ten months.

Fewer than ten, out of many, many thousands.

The presidential appointees haven’t given up and neither have most affected veterans. During a September 3, 2025 listening session, many in the active duty and veteran community affected by unlawful COVID policies shared their concerns on reinstatement.

The message of that team was clear: set up a task force and hire affected servicemembers to work reinstatement and to ensure that nothing like the COVID mandates ever happens again. Recommendations for action appear at the end of this article.

While those top requests appear to be partially occurring, they are not happening at the necessary pace and scale to defeat the insubordinates’ “run out the clock” strategy through the end of the president’s term.

Timeliness and efficiency are important to an institution meant to fight and win wars – a fact that Secretary Hegseth emphasized in a November 7 speech to a group of defense industry leaders. Hegseth criticized the Pentagon’s acquisition system, saying “the adversary I’m talking about is much closer to home. It’s the Pentagon bureaucracy — not the people, but the process.”

Right now both the people and the processes are subverting the President and the Secretary of War and their intent to reinstate servicemembers separated over the COVID mandates.

During COVID, the military was highly organized in its pursuit of data on the strongly held religious beliefs of members seeking religious accommodations for the COVID vaccine. Once the military leadership possessed this data on religious beliefs, it executed an exceptionally brutal imposition of the vaccine mandate. It contorted policies to break laws and regulations to force compliance. These “leaders” weaponized government against servicemembers who fulfilled their duty to disobey unlawful orders. U.S. Navy Commander Rob Green, Jr. analyzed this point thoroughly in his excellent book, Defending the Constitution Behind Enemy Lines.

But now, today’s military leaders are making it incredibly difficult to deliver full and fitting remedy for restorative justice. They have built poison pills into the policies SECWAR approved. They have unnecessarily complicated and undermined his intent, turning what should have been done in 5 working days into a process barely starting after ten months. At the same time, they overzealously implement negative efficacy flu shots that reduce readiness.

Insubordinate leaders and others of weak character hide behind learned incompetence or feigned expertise to deliver malicious compliance. If the War Department can do a 5-day ship for a new recruit or direct hire tech executives to lieutenant colonel, it can reinstate veterans to service consistent with presidential orders, judicial injunctions, and congressional recission “as if” the unlawful orders had never been issued.

This army of internal saboteurs is why Undersecretary Tata – the second highest-ranking official in the Pentagon, appears to be hand-carrying reinstatement requests through the process, with X.com as a de facto staffing mechanism. He knows that the bureaucracy is insubordinate.

After 10 months of dealing with this systematic sabotage, Tata is exercising appropriate leadership over the situation by allocating resources and hiring trusted veterans to scale reinstatement.

Success requires their full empowerment. Reinstated veterans will run circles around the very bureaucrats who instituted the unlawful COVID policies and, bizarrely, have been in charge of reinstatement.

Most of these reinstatement-eligible veterans saw combat in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, but COVID presented their first opportunity to fulfill their Oath’s charge to “support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

Iraq and Afghanistan never assaulted our liberties and rights. But COVID policies were patently and blatantly unlawful orders as numerous court injunctions attested before Congress intervened to rescind the willful destruction of trust and readiness.

This Veterans’ Day let’s pray that President Trump and Secretary Hegseth empower and resource a Reinstatement and Review Task Force to reinstate the thousands of veterans who wish to return to service. The president can make their sacrifices worthwhile by putting them in a position to ensure that this abuse never happens again.

Reconciliation – and a new crop of top military leadership – can turn the present bitterness of Veterans’ Day into the sweetness remembered of serving one’s nation anew.

DoD COVID Reinstatement Recommendations

[From September 3, 2025 Listening Session]

BLUF: Servicemembers (SMs) affected by DoD’s unlawful COVID policies & pursuing reinstatement & remedy recommend issuing a new Reinstatement policy & establishing a Reinstatement Task Force, staffed by affected members, to ensure fulfillment of POTUS & SECDEF intent: to return to service & remedy as many affected SMs as possible.

BACKGROUND: President Donald Trump pledged reinstatement & remedy for SMs harmed by the DoD COVID Vaccine mandate throughout his campaign. On January 27, 2025, he signed the executive order “Reinstating Service Members Discharged Under the Military COVID-19 Vaccination Mandate” to reinstate affected SMs with full back pay. On April 23, 2025 Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stated, “we’re doing everything we can, as quickly as we can, to reinstate those affected by that [COVID] policy.” He said on X, “We want anyone impacted by that vaccine mandate back in the military.” “We’ll also facilitate appropriate remedies for SMs who have suffered additional career setbacks.”

Affected servicemembers include separated & still active members, numbering over ~100,000, who submitted for accommodation & exemption from COVID policies. Out of this pool, as of September 3, 2025, zero (0) SMs have been reinstated by the Trump Administration. A strategic reset with new policy & personnel will deliver on our Commander in Chief’s promises.

DoD COVID Vaccine Mandate Facts:

• Order was “unlawful as implemented” as recognized by SECDEF memo on May 9, 2025.
• Entire force under coercion, meaning no “voluntary” separations, all were “involuntary.”
• Officials who pushed this unlawful order still thrive (& undermine) within the ranks.
• Those who fulfilled duty to disobey unlawful orders suffered 1) irreparable harm via violation of rights 2) reparable harm via impacted careers & associated discipline efforts.
• The COVID shot injured & killed an unknown number of SMs to variable degrees, incurring substantial medical costs with significant degradation to readiness.
• Many separated SMs received general discharge & improper separation codes.
• Affected SMs had to return bonuses & school costs & incurred substantial legal costs.

Current DoD Reinstatement Guidance:

• was conceived by the institution that weaponized COVID policies, using pretext to purge.
• reenacts the COVID mandate by putting the medical function in charge, by requiring accession through MEPS. An accession process should not be used for reinstatement.
• puts unsuitable, unnecessary-for-reinstatement Board for Correction of Military/Naval Records (BCM/NRs) in front of the process creating bottleneck for thousands of cases.
• employs insulting distinction between “voluntary” & “involuntary” separation.
• sets offensive criteria for “solely refusing COVID vaccine” when DoD coerced all.
• introduces reinstatement service commitment requirement with no basis (PCS = 2 years).
• does not fulfill POTUS’s promise of full back pay.
o Civilian pay is deducted, yet NO PROMOTION & varied SERVICE CREDIT is granted for the 8600+ kicked out under DoD’s narrow definition of “voluntary”
• every level of staff may delay reinstatement via malicious compliance & lack of urgency.
• provides no remedy for SMs still in uniform & poor incentives for “involuntary” SMs.
• gives no remedy to vaccine injured, especially those medically separated for such injury.
• fails to incentivize the “voluntarily separated,” a misnomer, as all were coerced.
• fails to address principled reasons many SMs left (e.g. politicization, systemic violations of rights, weaponization of redress, no accountability, pattern of abuse via vaccination).

Meanwhile DOD rapidly developed, issued, & implemented policy that:

• immediately placed tech execs in service as O-5s.
• gave transgenders ability to voluntarily separate with 2x separation pay & TERA.
• under Biden admin, was able to reinstate nearly two dozen COVID affected SMs.

In summary, the current DoD guidance not only fails to achieve its stated purpose of reinstating members, but INVERTS the outcomes by destroying trust, undermining POTUS & SECDEF authority & respect, & demoralizing entire SM communities & heritages.

Recommendations

Immediate Action: P&R Issues updated COVID Reinstatement directive (NLT 2 wks) that:

• establishes Reinstatement Task Force to drive fulfillment of this reinstatement directive.
• directs each Service to appoint affected SMs at Secretary level as support staff.
• directs Services to contact every SM who submitted a religious accommodation & medical exemption or separated due to the mandate & invite them to return to service under the EO & SECDEF policy with “term sheet.” (good opportunity to relay apology)
• commits to SMs that DoD will issue a Prevention Directive to address root causes.
• ensures retroactive application of policy for any SM reinstated prior to implementation.
• expands “affected SMs” from “solely for refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine” to “primarily for COVID-related policies.”
• directs BCMR to provide relief, without application or contingency, that:
o elevates discharge characterization & returns bonus & school deductions and debts of all affected SMs.
• directs Services to immediately ISSUE ORDERS that REINSTATE members upon receipt of the “term sheet” that:
o removes service commitment requirement from reinstatement.
o removes medical requirement for reinstatement (reinstate, med board via PHA).
o provides TERA & retroactive Separation Pay to affected SMs as REINSTATED.
o waives backpay deductions for civilian pay & offers bonuses for critical skill sets.
o provides member job & location selection priorities & full PCS entitlements.

Long Term Actions: Reinstatement Task Force, under P&R, will:

• conduct After Action Review of COVID mandate.
• provide P&R a Prevention Directive for issuance to address root causes.
• administer & oversee reinstatement policy of CONTINUITY OF SERVICE for active & separated SMs. [TIG, TIS, DOR, met all gates (cmd, school, trng, & rank), reinstatement bonuses] [case by case review] [special promotion boards to Congress].