In the years following former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s now-rescinded COVID-19 shot mandate, affected service members continue to face an uphill battle. It’s a struggle marred by unlawfulness, false labels, and deceit.
The Gateway Pundit spoke to Michael Gary, a former Maine Army National Guard (MEARNG) Active Guard Reserve (AGR) officer who has nearly 27 years in the Army. Achieving the rank of major while in service, Gary also racked up 16 years as a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) response expert.
According to Gary, “The Maine Army National Guard is welcoming back what they call voluntarily separated personnel.”
For example, the voluntarily separated would include the tens of thousands of service members who resigned or retired early rather than taking the COVID-19 shot.
But what about those who were forced out?
“[MEARNG] is not validating that there were involuntarily separated personnel,” claimed Gary. Like him, thousands of service members stood firmly against the shot while remaining in service, but nonetheless, they were forced to leave.
Investigating the matter, Mark Bashaw reached out to MEARNG’s Public Affairs office on February 14 to learn more.
Bashaw, a whistleblower, was booted from the Army for fulfilling his health official duties regarding the harm of the EUA products.
Today, he is the host of the Freedom Fighter 1776 podcast and blog. In an email reviewed by The Gateway Pundit, Bashaw specifically asked the following:
- Will unvaccinated soldiers be reinstated, specifically Major Michael Gary and the 27 other reprimanded soldiers from the Maine Army National Guard during the COVID-19 mandate period?
- If reinstatement is not an option, is there an alternative plan to address unvaccinated soldiers who choose not to return?
- Given the CIA’s revised understanding that COVID-19 originated from a gain-of-function lab leak, is the National Guard concerned about the dismissal of highly trained CBRN WMD Hazmat responders, such as Major Michael Gary?
- Following the recent Harkins v. U.S. ruling on January 23, 2025, does the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps acknowledge that the chain of command violated informed consent laws? Additionally, will JAG take action to overturn the unlawful punishments imposed on service members during the mandate period?
To date, Bashaw has not received an appropriate response outside of the comment that the office is “waiting on guidance.”
By avoiding these questions, Gary questions whether MEARNG is ignoring President Donald Trump’s executive order to reinstate service members discharged under the military’s COVID-19 shot mandate.
Why is this important? In 2021, Gary was the “senior unvaccinated soldier” of the Maine Army National Guard. He argued that the COVID-19 shot was not only “dangerous” but also “a bioweapon because of its modified mRNA spike protein.”
Despite being a CBRN expert, his claims were met with opposition by his command. He was called a “conspiracy theorist” and was investigated as “a domestic extremist” for privately sharing his views about the shot with other members of the Maine Army National Guard.
In the end, he was forced out of the military by way of “unfounded allegations” in a 15-6 investigation.
Gary provided his trial defense lawyer’s exoneration recommendation to the MEARNG chain of command. Click here to review.
And according to him, “[MEARNG] is denying that people like him even exist.” What’s more, he said, the state-based military force is “doubling down that there are no involuntarily separated service members.”
Interestingly, for all Army National Guard (ARNG) soldiers on Title 10 active duty who refused the vax, Gary discovered there was guidance that directed the chain of command to use “the JNC code” on a service member’s DD-214. The JNC code is military separation code represents an involuntary discharge for unacceptable conduct.
A PPOM is a Personnel Policy Operational Memorandum that the National Guard uses to communicate personnel guidance or directives down the chain of command, Gary explained.
“I was fired solely because of the shot, as evidenced by the guidance and the code they used on my DD-214,” argued Gary.
“Yet, [the Maine Army National Guard] maintains my removal wasn’t due to the experimental shot,” Gary pointed out.
For him, this contradicts the fact “they were getting rid of all of us for not following the unlawful order of getting the shot, specifying a code and a narrative to get rid of us across the board.”
In light of being dubbed a “domestic extremist” by his command, can Gary rejoin the MEARNG after being ousted for nothing more than refusing an unlawful COVID-19 shot?
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