Avaccinated Army pilot, who was reprimanded after his initial hesitation to receive the COVID-19 shot, is still being denied promotion and could be separated from the military in September.
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Brandon Budge in the 7th Infantry Division’s 16th Combat Aviation Brigade, who has served in the military for over 20 years, may be forced out of the Army for adverse actions in his file that prevented him from receiving promotions.
The brigade to which he belongs was formed in battle in January 1968 and first activated at Marble Mountain, Danang in the northernmost part of South Vietnam. The unit uses the moniker “Raptors” and consists of approximately 2,500 soldiers, and is the largest Aviation Brigade in the Army.
Wants to continue his service
Budge is now asking the Army Board for Correction of Military Records to remove the adverse actions from his record so that he may receive his promotion and remain in the service.
While Budge never said he wouldn’t get the COVID vaccine, he was initially hesitant to receive it, asking questions about the lawfulness of the mandate, inquiring about religious accommodation requests, and hoping to wait until at least 90 days had passed since he contracted the virus before getting the shot, Budge’s attorney, R. Davis Younts, previously told Just the News in October 2022.
Budge came down with COVID in March 2021 and was supposed to deploy to South Korea that September. However, if he wasn’t vaccinated, he was told, he would have to be quarantined for two weeks. His wife was pregnant at the time with their seventh child, so he wanted to avoid quarantining so he wouldn’t miss the birth of their son.
The adverse actions affecting his continued service are centered on claims his records were falsified without his knowledge to show that he had received the COVID vaccine before he actually got the shot.
Towards the end of summer 2021, Budge went to a clinic for another matter, but the medic, thinking she was helping him, falsified his record without his knowledge to show that he received the COVID vaccine, Younts said. Budge got the shot soon after and learned that his records showed he had already received it.
Hellbound and Down 