Army Blackhawk Pilot Faces Discharge After Refusing mRNA Shot — Despite Trump’s Reinstatement Order
His command made it clear: “Even if your wife is on her deathbed, you won’t be coming home” — unless he complied with the mRNA shot mandate.
This article originally appeared on Focal Points and was republished with permission.
Guest post by Nicolas Hulscher, MPH
After two decades of service, Chief Warrant Officer-3 Brandon Budge is being forced out of the Army for rejecting an experimental mRNA shot — even after President Trump’s Executive Order.
Chief Warrant Officer-3 Brandon Budge has served with distinction as a Blackhawk pilot for over 21 years, flying missions in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and across the globe. But now, he’s being forced out of the Army — not for misconduct, but for resisting a genetic injection mandate that has since been acknowledged as unlawful.
On January 27, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order to reinstate all service members who were discharged for refusing the 2021 COVID-19 mRNA shot mandate. The order promises full reinstatement with backpay and restored benefits. Just months later, on May 7, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declared the mandate “unlawful as implemented” in a formal memo to Department of Defense leadership:
But for Budge and many others, justice hasn’t come.
In our interview, Budge described how he was pressured relentlessly to take the mRNA injection — despite having natural immunity after recovering from COVID and deep concerns about the shot’s safety. When he refused, he was isolated, demoted, and threatened with career destruction.
Even when his wife faced a high-risk pregnancy and doctors warned of possible early delivery, Budge’s request to remain stateside was denied. His command made it clear: “Even if your wife is on her deathbed, you won’t be coming home” — unless he complied with the mRNA shot mandate.
Desperate to be allowed to see his wife in the event of a medical emergency, Budge took matters into his own hands. He obtained an FDA-labeled version of the shot off-post, hoping it would satisfy the requirement and protect his family. But his command retaliated anyway. His promotion to CW-4 was revoked — costing him nearly $1,000 a month — and he was grounded from flight duty for 18 months. A formal flying evaluation board ultimately cleared him of any wrongdoing, but the damage was already done.
Today, he and his wife have spent over $40,000 in legal fees trying to reverse the injustice. His appeal for backpay and promotion was recently denied. If nothing changes by September 1, he will be discharged.
The broader impact of the unlawful mandate is staggering: suicides among service members surged, careers were destroyed, families were torn apart. And across the country, the same fate befell law enforcement officers, firefighters, nurses, and countless others who refused to comply with experimental mandates now shown to have caused widespread harm.
Budge is advocating for the creation of an independent board dedicated solely to reviewing and reversing damage caused by the mandate, outside the slow and biased processes of the current military bureaucracy.
“I know that that every time you turn around it seems like it's a loss, but we have to keep pushing forward. It's the only way we right these wrongs and we make sure that they don't happen again.” - Brandon Budge
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Epidemiologist and Foundation Administrator, McCullough Foundation
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This is an outrage. Where is Hegseth? And the most alarming question, is aarmy command this fucking stupid? Mandating our soldiers and fellow citizens inject themselves with a bioweapon. They are too stupid for command or traitors.