Retaliation for refusing the once-mandated COVID-19 shot now not has a spot in right this moment’s U.S. navy. Careers have been destroyed, and right here’s one of the egregious examples.
Joshua Zermeno enlisted within the Air Power in 2010. After just a few years of serving as a B-52 strategic bomber mechanic, a beforehand earned mechanical engineering diploma offered the chance to use to Officer Coaching Faculty (OTS).
After OTS, Zermeno was commissioned within the Air Power as a second lieutenant and commenced Undergraduate Pilot Coaching (UPT). Ending quantity two in his class, in 2015, he was then assigned to fly the RC-135, a reconnaissance plane.
In 2018, he was given the chance to transition profession paths as soon as once more. He started working with rockets, helping the Nationwide Aeronautics and Area Administration (NASA), SpaceX, and different space-related entities.
In 2021, he was chosen as one of many first officers to be commissioned into The USA Area Power, and his oversight on area elevate operations continued to develop.
“All the things appeared to be going properly,” Zermeno advised The Gateway Pundit. “That’s, till the [shot] mandate got here down from Secretary of Protection Lloyd Austin [in August 2021].” He took objection to the now-rescinded mandate for “private causes,” and “that didn’t go properly with the bottom commander,” he shared.
Inside three weeks, he acquired a Letter of Reprimand (LOR). Just a few weeks after receiving the LOR, he acquired “a don’t promote” steerage from his base commander.
“I used to be handed over for promotion to Main,” he defined. “Issues simply began spiraling uncontrolled, and I acquired a second LOR.”
And not using a non secular exemption or non secular waiver for the shot, Zermeno was basically pressured to use to “voluntarily separate” utilizing an administrative discharge course of created particularly for service members refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.
To his shock, “The Air Power determined it wasn’t of their greatest curiosity to separate me.” Slightly, he was “kicked out” of presidency buildings and was assigned to distant, menial jobs.
Shockingly, after being denied voluntary separation, Zermeno was threatened with Uniform Code of Army Justice (UCMJ) punishment. “I used to be going to be put up in opposition to a discharge board in January [2023],” he defined.
However on the closing hour, former Protection Secretary Austin rescinded the mandate on January 10, contemplating it “an unfair, overbroad, and utterly pointless burden on our service members.”
“I used to be within the clear. That is over,” thought Zermeno. “However a couple of month later, I acquired a second ‘don’t promote,’ for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine” he stated.
“I used to be handed over [for promotion] and compelled to involuntarily separate months after the COVID mandates have been rescinded” he added, mentioning that “after they separated me, they labeled it for a failure to advertise.”
Regardless of his harrowing expertise, Zermeno nonetheless expresses curiosity in reinstatement.
“After I noticed the Government Order by President Trump to [‘make reinstatement available to all members of the military (active and reserve) who were discharged solely for refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and who request to be reinstated’], I instantly began reaching out to my earlier base and nobody knew what was happening.”
Zermeno then reached out to the Division of the Air Power, which is accountable for United States Area Power members. He was advised “they haven’t any steerage in any respect, and are ready on steerage from the Division of Protection.”
Week after week, he continues to be advised “they haven’t any steerage on how one can logistically make it occur.”
Will President Trump, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth, or Air Power Secretary Gary Ashworth intervene? A former Air Power Captain who served honorably awaits the reply.
