By J.M. Phelps | WorldNet Daily
Over 100,000 living armed services members and veterans have been negatively impacted by illegally mandated anthrax vaccines and COVID-19 shots.
Yet according to military sources, the efforts of President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to right those wrongs, though greatly appreciated, are falling drastically short due to bureaucratic obstruction.
WorldNetDaily spoke to Retired Air Force Col. Tom “Buzz” Rempfer, author of “Unyielding: Marathons Against Illegal Mandates” and advocate for service members and veterans subjected to illegal medical experimentation in the military.
Rempfer, whose book has been highly praised by everyone from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to COVID vaccine whistleblower doctors Peter McCollough and Harvey Risch, greatly appreciates the steps Trump and Hegseth have taken to help restore the careers of those affected by the Biden-era military’s 2021 COVID-19 shot mandate.
“We’ve come so far,” he told WND, “watching the tide turn when Congress rescinded the mandate, when Trump signed the executive order [to reinstate troops], and when the Sec Def declared it was ‘unlawful as implemented.'”
However, lamented Rempfer, “The corrections process isn’t working, and it hasn’t worked for over 20 years. The only way to fix the problem is through pardons or amnesty, wherein you take the adjudication step away from the DoD deep state bureaucrats.”
To that end, Rempfer pointed to the work of Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services, Inc., or STARRS, the MacArthur Society of West Point Graduates and the Calvert Task Group.
Members of each of these organizations sent a letter to President Trump on June 5 expressing their grave concerns about both the COVID-19 and earlier anthrax vaccination mandates.
The leadership of STARRS, MacArthur Society and Calvert Task Group sent the following letter to President Trump (@POTUS @realDonaldTrump) today:
Mr. President:
We are grateful for the precedent set by your unconditional pardon on May 28, 2025, of Lieutenant Mark Bashaw for… pic.twitter.com/A0TjrPhawA
— STARRS (@STARRSmission) June 2, 2025
“As STARRS suggests,” Rempfer told WND, “pardons or amnesty are the swiftest means to right the wrongs committed against services members who were affected by either of the mandates.”
He added, “The courts and the DoD have already admitted anthrax and COVID mandates were ‘illegal’ and ‘unlawful’ respectively, so government should be correcting records just as expeditiously as they kicked and coerced troops out of uniform.”
According to a recent Breitbart report, the Pentagon said, “Approximately 100 cases are currently under review [for reinstatement], with 13 servicemembers having already been welcomed back, while over 700 individuals who were ousted over their unvaccinated status have expressed interest in returning since President Donald Trump reclaimed the title of commander-in-chief in January.”
For this, DOD Rapid Response celebrated on X, posting the message “We are RIGHTING THE WRONGS of the previous Administration!”
Rempfer took to X shortly thereafter, referring to the numbers shared by the Defense Department as “paltry stats” while looping in the wrongs committed against service members with both the anthrax and COVID-era mandates.
He told WND, “Anthrax-era veterans had the same hope, but only three records were corrected, over 20 years, out of 37 courts-martials and thousands of less than fully honorable discharges and NJP’s” (non-judicial punishment).
For Rempfer, “It’s embarrassing, because at this rate, only a handful of anthrax-era and 100 or so COVID-era corrections will occur by the end of President Trump’s term – less than 0.1 percent.”
While over 8,000 service members were separated from the U.S. military over their objection to receiving the experimental COVID-19 shot, he estimates there are tens of thousands who left voluntarily, explaining, “the only reason service members voluntarily discharged is because they were coerced, taking the voluntary discharge over the punishment they would have faced if they remained in service.”
“There have been two periods of documented, illegal experimentation on our troops in the last 20 years, and for me, this means we haven’t learned any lessons,” Rempfer told WorldNetDaily.
“The Trump administration made an attempt to correct records in 2018 for those adversely affected by the anthrax vaccine, but there was zero outreach because they never even published the memo.”
In his opinion, “Trump was undermined, and he should be outraged at the sabotage of his attempts for civilian control of the military.”
For this reason, Rempfer implores President Trump and Defense Secretary Hegseth to “take the time to address, once and for all, the adverse actions taken against service members who were punished for objecting to the anthrax vaccine and COVID-19 shot.”
Because the anthrax vaccine and COVID-19 shot mandates were illegal, he said, “Troops shouldn’t have to apply for discharge upgrades or reinstatement.” Rather, if a service member was discharged because of his or her refusal, he argued “their discharges should be unilaterally, unconditionally and retroactively upgraded.”
For those affected by the anthrax vaccine, Rempfer pointed out that 10 USC 1178 requires the Defense Department to track all service members who refused and were punished, “but they didn’t comply with this 2001 law or the 2018 White House directive to correct anthrax records.”
“Now is the time for the president and secretary of Defense to exercise their authorities under 10 USC 1552 to upgrade records.”
Regarding President Trump’s executive order, Rempfer said it could be amended to “include voluntary discharges that included coercion.” He estimated that “the Boards for Correction of Military Records (BCMR) have probably received thousands of applications from other anthrax and COVID-era veterans whose discharge upgrade requests were denied.”
He emphasized, “Anthrax-era corrections are zero-cost administrative upgrades to fully honorable discharges.” In fact, he suggests Trump consider an executive order for anthrax-era discharge upgrades, as he did for those affected by the COVID-19 shot mandate.
“Laws are being ignored,” says the retired Air Force colonel. “No one complied with the law preventing a mandate of investigational drug products under 10 USC 1107 for the anthrax vaccine and 10 USC 1107a for the COVID shot.”
And on top of that, the lethargic BCMR process is undermining the president and Defense secretary, inhibiting their efforts to fully restore the nation’s military.
Rempfer emphasized that he believes President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth absolutely have the best interests of the U.S. military in mind, and he simply hopes they’ll hear his message and reinvigorate the appropriate actions for all service members and veterans adversely affected by anthrax and COVID-19 mandates.
“Pardons or amnesty are the only way out of this mess,” concluded Rempfer, “and there’s an army of veterans who are ready and able to help the president and Defense secretary remove the obstructions, fix the malfunctions and secure corrections for increased readiness and restoration of trust.”
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J.M. Phelps is a contributing writer for WND with a focus on threats to the U.S. military and national security. He also writes for the Epoch Times, American Family News and the Gateway Pundit. Follow him on X at @JMPhelpsLC. Read more of J.M. Phelps’s articles here.
First published on World Net Daily
I served in the Army as an infantryman, enlisted for 3 years. That was when the Anthrax shots started. I got hit with 5 of 6 of those scheduled for us at that time. I don’t know what happened the 6th batch but we didn’t get it. Then I discharged honorably. I saw one man say no to that shot at my overseas duty station. I don’t know what became of him. Last I saw of him he went from a line platoon to driving the LTC around. I’ve always admired him for his decision and later wished I had made the same one. Indeed, compared to anyone else in my unit, I was probably being voted on as most likely to do that. Funny thing is, that man was my battle buddy in basic! That would have been the more heroic timeline if we had both made the same decision though serving in different companies and barely ever even seeing each other at random during that tour.
Instead of that being just my mistake, my moral failure, which was highly based in ignorance as well so I have to give myself some reprieve, no, instead of that just being MY mistake, it turns out it is the chronic moral and ethical failure of our entire nation and our entire military! No arguments to the contrary will be entertained. YOU ARE WRONG if you don’t understand the wrongfulness of our military being used as guinea pigs (at best) and total rent tools for Israel on top of that!
I console myself with the knowledge that since that time I have learned enough about what is going on with the medical tyranny in the West for the last few hundred years to have been better equipped to make better decisions, and haven’t accepted a single damn shot for a single damn thing since then until now, over 25 years! That’s never going to change, and God help you if you have a problem with that, because after I leave a me-shaped hole in you, I’m taking a piece of Him as well.