Image: Wikimedia Commons (U.S. Space Force photo by Joshua Conti)
Retaliation for refusing the once-mandated COVID-19 shot no longer has a place in today’s U.S. military. Careers were destroyed, and here’s one of the most egregious examples.
Joshua Zermeno enlisted in the Air Force in 2010. After a few years of serving as a B-52 strategic bomber mechanic, a previously earned mechanical engineering degree provided the opportunity to apply to Officer Training School (OTS).
After OTS, Zermeno was commissioned in the Air Force as a second lieutenant and began Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT). Finishing number two in his class, in 2015, he was then assigned to fly the RC-135, a reconnaissance aircraft.
In 2018, he was given the opportunity to transition career paths once again. He began working with rockets, assisting the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), SpaceX, and other space-related entities.
In 2021, he was selected as one of the first officers to be commissioned into The United States Space Force, and his oversight on space lift operations continued to expand.
“Everything seemed to be going well,” Zermeno told The Gateway Pundit. “That is, until the [shot] mandate came down from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin [in August 2021].” He took objection to the now-rescinded mandate for “personal reasons,” and “that didn’t go well with the base commander,” he shared.
Within three weeks, he received a Letter of Reprimand (LOR). A few weeks after receiving the LOR, he received “a do not promote” guidance from his base commander.
“I was passed over for promotion to Major,” he explained. “Things just started spiraling out of control, and I received a second LOR.”
Without a religious exemption or religious waiver for the shot, Zermeno was essentially forced to apply to “voluntarily separate” using an administrative discharge process created specifically for service members refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.
To his surprise, “The Air Force decided it wasn’t in their best interest to separate me.” Rather, he was “kicked out” of government buildings and was assigned to remote, menial jobs.
Shockingly, after being denied voluntary separation, Zermeno was threatened with Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) punishment. “I was going to be put up against a discharge board in January [2023],” he explained.
But at the final hour, former Defense Secretary Austin rescinded the mandate on January 10, considering it “an unfair, overbroad, and completely unnecessary burden on our service members.”
“I was in the clear. This is over,” thought Zermeno. “But about a month later, I received a second ‘do not promote,’ for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine” he said.
“I was passed over [for promotion] and forced to involuntarily separate months after the COVID mandates were rescinded” he added, pointing out that “when they separated me, they labeled it for a failure to promote.”
Despite his harrowing experience, Zermeno still expresses interest in reinstatement.
“When I saw the Executive 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 immediately started reaching out to my previous base and no one knew what was going on.”
Zermeno then reached out to the Department of the Air Force, which is responsible for United States Space Force members. He was told “they have no guidance at all, and are waiting on guidance from the Department of Defense.”
Week after week, he continues to be told “they have no guidance on how to logistically make it happen.”
Will President Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, or Air Force Secretary Gary Ashworth intervene? A former Air Force Captain who served honorably awaits the answer.
The post Former U.S. Space Force Officer Wants to Serve His Country Again, But Who’s Going to Extend a Helping Hand? President Trump, Defense Secretary Hegseth, or Air Force Secretary Ashworth? appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.