Before the military imposed its 2021 COVID-19 shot requirement, Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 Brandon Budge had built an impeccable 18-year career flying Black Hawk helicopters. His trajectory changed dramatically when he refused the COVID shot on principle—a stance that now threatens to end his career.
In May, The Gateway Pundit wrote:
[CW3 Budge] was grounded for 18 months, unable to operate a Black Hawk. During this time, he was given a General Officer Memorandum of Reprimand (GOMOR), and as an act he considers reprisal, he was also forced to go through a Flying Evaluation Board. Though the FEB exonerated him of any wrongdoing, his command still issued a GOMOR which eventually resulted in a loss of promotion status through a Special Selections Review Board. ‘This entire debacle has cost my family nearly $40,000 in legal fees and nearly $40,000 in lost pay on top of all the emotional and psychological stress,’ he lamented.
According to a subsequent report, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George advised CW3 Budge to file with the Board for Correction of Military Records (BCMR), promising to resolve the situation. Despite this assurance and repeated appeals to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from journalist J.M. Phelps and other concerned advocates, CW3 Budge faces retirement on October 6, 2025—the direct result of his stance against what the Defense Secretary himself has characterized as experimental and unlawful.
Why are CW3 Budge and his advocates being ignored? Rumors are beginning to circulate that his previous behavior and warranted actions taken against the shot during the COVID era might be the hidden reason his two-decade military career now hangs in the balance.
“Even as they tried to destroy my livelihood and my family, I couldn’t afford to be fearful during this time,” CW3 Budge admitted to The Gateway Pundit. “I did all I could to stand against the mandate and now I’m being held accountable for those actions which are forcing me out of the Army,” he lamented. “All the while, those that implemented it illegally are not being held accountable.”
“Nobody can pass judgment on a situation like I’ve gone through until they’ve stood in my shoes,” he shared. “I was expected to put everything aside, including my own health and the health of my family, while they used coercive tactics and isolation to attempt to silence me and get me to abide by their unlawful rules.”
CW3 Budge can only recall “raising [his] voice” once in this process. “Did I disobey an unlawful order and push back? Yes,” he admitted. “For it, I’m called unbecoming and unprofessional, [but] they wanted me to stay silent and give in, [and] that’s not my nature when you’re coming after me and my family,” he said. “Where’s the same level of professionalism they expected from me in those who treated us like criminals?”
According to retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Darin Gaub, CW3 Budge is the one who was “nothing less than assaulted,” while his perpetrators walk scot-free. The Gateway Pundit also interviewed the former UH-60 Black Hawk pilot and Battalion Commander who has known CW3 Budge for several years.
CW3 Budge once served under Gaub’s command, a time that also included two combat tours. He described him as “a fighter” that can be “aggressive when he is determined to do what is right,” Gaub recalled. “But isn’t that the kind of person we want in our nation’s military—one that has the courage to do what it takes to stand against tyranny and unlawful orders?”
“At a time when Army Aviation is suffering from a severe loss of talent and experience as result of [the tyrannical enforcement of the] COVID-19 shot,” Gaub asserted, “Budge is the last person you should want to get rid of—an experienced Black Hawk maintenance test pilot with years of combat experience.” To the contrary, he argued, “You need to be bending over backwards to keep people like this, not bending over backwards to get rid of them as a result of his opposition to a mandate that has now been acknowledged as illegal.”
“You’ve taken Budge from a patriotic [warrant] officer serving in the military, trying to defend his nation, and turned him into a target of the chain of command, threatening his livelihood and his family,” Gaub shared. “On top of that, you went on a revenge trip, put him through boards to try to remove his flight wings, restricted his ability to travel, and attempted to keep him from his family—and now people are concerned about how he reacted?”
“[His command] backed him into a corner, and now you’re wondering why he responded negatively to you when you’re the one who attacked him,” Gaub said, noting “It definitely wasn’t the other way around as you were the one enforcing the jab against his lawful objections.”
“If you’re going to hold someone like Brandon Budge accountable for not reacting exactly like you wanted him to, particularly when you’re the ones coming after him with an illegal mandate, then what exactly did you expect the outcome to be?”
“Why would you hold him accountable for how an officer should act in this situation and not hold the people accountable who forced the illegal mandate on him?” Gaub questioned. In his opinion, “It is absolutely critical in this case and I’m sure in many others.”
“Brandon is just one example of a number of people who found themselves pushing back against their chain of command that was assaulting them with a potentially harmful or even deadly jab,” he offered. “That’s the greater issue here.”
Budge is one of tens of thousands of service members impacted by “the illegal mandate,” Gaub noted. “From what I’ve witnessed,” Gaub said, “I can’t think of a single person in that group of people who’s been properly addressed through the chain of command up to the Secretary of Defense.”
Can Defense Secretary Hegseth or Army Chief George intervene for Warrant Officer Budge while there’s still time? The answer may depend on whether enough Americans demand justice.
For those active on X, please consider supporting this campaign:
@SecDef Hegseth, if you truly believe the COVID shot was “unlawful as implemented,” surely you understand why ‘We the People’ are calling upon you to intervene for CW3 Brandon Budge. While his stance against the COVID shot requirement may have been expressed differently than… pic.twitter.com/PrsVCCCUhR
— J.M. Phelps (@JMPhelpsLC) August 28, 2025
The post The Clock Ticks Down on an Army Black Hawk Pilot’s Two Decades of Military Service as Defense Department Inaction Ends His Career appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.