The Biden regime destroyed military careers over COVID shots.
One decorated officer paid the ultimate price for his courage.
And Pete Hegseth righted one awful decision against an Army officer who stood up to Biden.
Donald Trump promised during his campaign that he would reinstate every service member discharged for refusing the experimental COVID shots.
And unlike Biden’s endless broken promises, Trump delivered.
President Trump signed Executive Order 14184 directing Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to offer reinstatement with full back pay to all troops kicked out solely for declining the jab.¹
But the Pentagon bureaucracy had other plans.
Biden holdovers slow-walked reinstatements for patriots
Over 8,000 active duty, National Guard, and Reserve members were discharged between 2021 and 2023 under the illegal Biden mandate.²
These weren’t discipline problems or troublemakers — these were decorated veterans with spotless records who refused to be guinea pigs for an experimental shot.
First Lieutenant Mark Bashaw was one of them.
A devout Christian and Army Public Health Officer with 16 years of honorable service, Bashaw became one of the earliest whistleblowers warning military leadership and Congress that the COVID shots violated the law governing Emergency Use Authorization products.³
His reward for following the chain of command and protecting troops?
Major General Robert Edmonson court-martialed him in January 2022.
The judge found Bashaw guilty but imposed zero punishment, commending his 16 years of service and urging charges be dropped.⁴
But Biden’s generals didn’t care about justice.
They involuntarily discharged Bashaw in June 2023 after 573 days of retaliation — long after the mandate was rescinded.⁵
Fast forward to October 2025.
Trump’s executive order should have resolved Bashaw’s case months ago.
But Pentagon bureaucrats were dragging their feet, creating what insiders called "last mile" problems that kept patriots in limbo.
Under Secretary personally stepped in to end the bureaucratic games
That’s when Under Secretary of War Anthony J. Tata got involved.
Bashaw emailed Tata about several roadblocks preventing his reinstatement despite Trump’s direct order.
Tata immediately convened Army leaders and made clear any further delays were "unacceptable."⁶
Within days, the Army granted Bashaw full reinstatement.
He was retroactively promoted to Captain with a date of rank going back to December 13, 2021.
No break in service recorded.
Orders issued for him to report for active duty on November 1, 2025.⁷
"Full reinstatement granted," Bashaw posted on X. "Glory to God."
Those two words — "full reinstatement" — represented vindication after years of persecution.
The reinstatement came after Bashaw endured court-martial, threats of Leavenworth imprisonment, being banned from his workplace for 413 days, and countless other reprisals.
All for refusing to be experimented on with what he correctly identified as an illegally mandated EUA product.
Retired Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Sam Shoemate praised Tata’s intervention but noted the deeper problem.
"The problem is that it shouldn’t take the Undersecretary of the DOW to get that done," Shoemate wrote on X.⁸
He’s exactly right.
Trump ordered these reinstatements in January 2025.
It’s now October.
Why did it take a high-ranking Trump appointee personally intervening to force the Army’s hand?
Pentagon brass still protecting the regime that destroyed careers
The answer is simple — Biden holdovers still infecting the Pentagon don’t want these patriots back.
They’re the same people who enforced the illegal mandate in the first place.
The same generals who denied 24,814 out of 24,818 religious exemption requests.⁹
Only four religious exemptions granted out of nearly 25,000 requests.
That’s a 99.98% denial rate.
Anyone claiming that wasn’t coordinated discrimination is lying.
Bashaw filed formal complaints against Major General Edmonson under Articles 132 and 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice — retaliation against whistleblowers and failure to obey lawful orders.¹⁰
Those complaints are still pending.
"Commanders who knowingly violated the UCMJ by retaliating against service members who submitted protected communications must be held responsible," Bashaw told The Gateway Pundit.
Defense Secretary Hegseth and Under Secretary Tata are proving they’ll fight to restore warriors unjustly punished.
But the resistance from career bureaucrats shows how deep the rot goes.
Trump can issue all the executive orders he wants.
Unless he cleans house at the Pentagon and holds Biden’s generals accountable, patriots will keep hitting bureaucratic walls.
The good news is Tata just showed he’s willing to personally intervene when paper-pushers try blocking Trump’s agenda.
Every discharged service member watching Bashaw’s case just learned something important.
This administration will fight for them.
But they may need to make some noise to cut through the bureaucratic games.
¹ The White House, "Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Reinstates Service Members Discharged for Refusing the COVID Vaccine," January 27, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Jim Hoft, "Army Lieutenant Who Was Court-Martialed for Refusing COVID-19 Shot Granted Full Reinstatement," The Gateway Pundit, October 24, 2025.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ Under Secretary of War Anthony J. Tata, X post, October 23, 2025.
⁷ Mark Charles Bashaw, X post, October 24, 2025.
⁸ Sam Shoemate, X post, October 24, 2025.
⁹ The Center Square, "Military whistleblower report alleges COVID-19 vaccine illegally administered," August 26, 2022.
¹⁰ Jim Hoft, "Army Lieutenant Who Was Court-Martialed for Refusing COVID-19 Shot Granted Full Reinstatement," The Gateway Pundit, October 24, 2025.
