There was a sentiment in the Army during my career that was often heard among officers about how responsibility works for those selected to be unit commanders, the senior figure in every military unit upon whom all authority and responsibility ultimately falls. It went like this:
"You can only blame the last guy for so long. Once you’ve commanded it for 90 days, the unit’s issues are fully your problems."
We’re at the end of 2025, now over 11 months since President Trump took the reins at the White House and Pete Hegseth took over at the Department of War. Both publicly expressed concern over how COVID policy was weaponized by former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to force over 8,000 constitutionally-minded patriots from the force, and to encourage tens of thousands more — like myself — to conclude our military careers earlier than planned. Both of these men pledged to make those wrongs right.
We have since seen the publication of a presidential executive order to bring back those unlawfully persecuted and kicked out of the military via illegal COVID dictates, as well as Secretary of War memorandums published in February and April along the same theme. Fast forward to September, and a group of veterans made experts in the military’s COVID sins briefed Undersecretary of War for Personnel & Readiness Mr. Anthony Tata on the reality that Pentagon staff are actively subverting and slow-rolling COVID amends directives to the point that little has changed in the building since the Biden era.
I heard you loud & clear. Thank you for your passion, candor & continued advocacy. Know that the session this morning wasn’t a check-the-box exercise. Listening leads to action & there will be next steps. https://t.co/m3xILuvPoy
— Under Secretary of War Anthony J. Tata (@USW_PR_HONTata) September 3, 2025
SEE ALSO: A General Dilemma the War Department Must Remedy
Army Officer Court-Martialed Over COVID Rules by Vindman Brother Finally Reinstated on Active Duty
So, where do things stand now?
Confirmed reinstatement numbers are hard to come by. A Google AI review of open source reporting this week estimates the number of COVID-terminated troops now reinstated at roughly 100. The War Department essentially farmed the mission out to the individual service branches to set up their own reinstatement task forces. The Army’s is the one most highlighting its existence, thanks primarily to the team director’s use of social media. It’s a small and mighty crew of tireless patriots.
Yet as a Colonel-led directorate in a building run by four-star generals, senior executive service civilians, and political appointees, every substantive effort is destined to be an uphill fight rather than a downhill directive. The so-called reinstatement program has frequently proven a crucible every bit — if not more — intense than what new recruits go through in order to enter military service. The alleged "full back pay" is likewise a fictional notion, deducting income earned for the period that COVID-punished troops worked as civilians. Neither are those reinstated granted promotion to rejoin their peer groups.
In addition, many of those who requested accommodations to avoid the shot — and remained in military service — were kept out of the jobs required for promotion, and will be forced to end their careers earlier than planned. The reinstatement process functions to discourage patriots from putting themselves and their families through it all again. For those willing to endure the grind to rejoin the military ranks, it has proven slow and painful.
That brings us to the story of how Biden administration actions are still pushing troops out the door in this age of supposed "reinstatement" at the Department of War. U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Chris Sage did not join the public chorus of condemnation over illegal COVID policies in years past, but fought for his troops nonetheless. In 2021, he commanded an air wing at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base (MSAB) in Jordan and quickly learned that airmen testing positive for COVID were being detained in tents, surrounded by barbed wire. This is the treatment of criminals, not American citizens. Sage ordered the barbed wire removed, visited personally with the airmen, and had them relocated to VIP quarters for recovery. This was a stark departure from the prevailing attitude across the military, in which those showing symptoms were stripped of dignity and cast out from among their units and colleagues as if they were lepers in Old Testament times.
For asking basic questions that challenged the Faucian narrative and showing basic human compassion — a trait the military claims to value on paper and in speeches — Sage faced a manufactured investigation. That investigation was used as an excuse for him to be removed from the list of officers to be promoted to the rank of Maj. Gen., via an order signed by presidential autopen in 2024. He appealed to the board for military corrections, which found in his favor.
That would usually be the end of the story. But Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs Richard L. Anderson took the extraordinarily unusual step of overruling the board, undermining the process that troops and veterans are told to trust. This means that barring further action to overturn Anderson’s decision, Brig. Gen. Sage will be forced into retirement tomorrow for applying common sense to COVID policy as a wing commander in 2021. War Department leadership is aware, but has not acted to right this latest COVID injustice. It’s the end of 2025 and COVID continues to have a much higher kill rate for military careers than for those living among the ranks.
Not only has there been no meaningful, prioritized action to bring the COVID-punished troops back in, but there has been no accountability for those standing in the way of getting the job done. Conservatives incorrectly think that the military is fixed because recruiting has surged since Trump’s second inauguration. But the institution’s honor remains as broken today as during the worst moments of the Biden era. It seems the mindset in the Pentagon is that recruiting numbers are high under the new administration, and new recruits don’t come with the baggage of career leaders who were abruptly discarded after years of wartime sacrifice.
It should not take drastic action to motivate subordinates to do the right thing. As noted in Sun Tzu’s Art of War, “King Fu Ch’ai said: ‘When you see the correct course, act; do not wait for orders.’” The Department of Defense swiveled on a dime in 2020 to criminalize common sense, yet we're to believe that it needs the equivalent of the space between Earth and the moon to turn things around in 2025? This is especially ironic given that models of cultural change are taught to all mid-career military officers across the service component command staff courses. Usually, unit "leaders" who don’t follow directives from higher are relieved of command. That was enforced aggressively during the Biden administration. Senior officers were told to get on board with the progressive social agenda or retire.
Apparently, on matters of personnel, obedience to lawful orders from the civilian chain of command is not the tradition anymore. Malevolent compliance and outright disobedience are accepted. The worst lawbreakers in uniform and civilian executive ranks continue to be protected and promoted by the Hegseth War Department. Meanwhile, the most proven patriots continue getting the shaft. Say what you will about the Left, at least they know what power is and are willing to use it. Orders are only as good as the people willing to carry them out. The Trump/Hegseth Pentagon remains voluntarily in dire straits on that account.
It’s still the Christmas season, and time remains for a Christmas miracle. In the absence of leadership that enforces law on the remaining lawless command and staff architectures across the Pentagon, that’s what it will take to get the military to stop treating its patriots as enemies. Pray saints, or at least make more noise than the administration can ignore. Our military members and veterans who stood for constitutionalism and the rule of law deserve better than the lip service sent their way over the last year.
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Additional Stories of Military Members Persecuted through unlawful Department of Defense COVID policies are told on the following episodes of the Finding Your Spine podcast.
-Capt. Mark Bashaw [He Was Pardoned by the President after Standing Up for Liberty]
-Former Army Maj. Brendan Regan [No Compromise]
-Former Canadian Armed Forces Capt. Brian Isted [Canadian Soldier Advocates for Change]
-Former Air Force Capt. Daniel Knick [Forced Out of the Air Force]
-Chief Warrant Officer 4 Brandon Budge [Bureaucrat Betrayal in the Military]
-Air Force Maj. Brendan ‘Skip’ Schilperoort [Persecution in the Air Force]
-Air Force Col. Brandi King [Faith Based Objections to Unjust Decrees]
-Air Force Lt. Col. (Ret.) Davis Younts [A Legal Defense for Our Service Men]
-Former Army Capt. John Frankman [Green Beret’s Defiance of Covid Mandates]
-Army Maj. Grant Smith [Moral Courage in the Army]
-Navy Commander Robert Green [Defending Freedom: A Navy Commander’s Fight against Military Overreach]
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