WorldNetDaily writer J.M. Phelps has been keeping up his anti-vaxxer attitudes in covering military affairs. He found another disgruntled military man to rant about vaccines for a July 3 article:
Over 100,000 living armed services members and veterans have been negatively impacted by illegally mandated anthrax vaccines and COVID-19 shots. Yet according to military sources, the efforts of President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to right those wrongs, though greatly appreciated, are falling drastically short due to bureaucratic obstruction.
WorldNetDaily spoke to Retired Air Force Col. Tom “Buzz” Rempfer, author of “Unyielding: Marathons Against Illegal Mandates” and advocate for service members and veterans subjected to illegal medical experimentation in the military.
Rempfer, whose book has been highly praised by everyone from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to COVID vaccine whistleblower doctors Peter McCullough and Harvey Risch, greatly appreciates the steps Trump and Hegseth have taken to help restore the careers of those affected by the Biden-era military’s 2021 COVID-19 shot mandate. “We’ve come so far,” he told WND, “watching the tide turn when Congress rescinded the mandate, when Trump signed the executive order [to reinstate troops], and when the Sec Def declared it was ‘unlawful as implemented.'”
However, lamented Rempfer, “The corrections process isn’t working, and it hasn’t worked for over 20 years. The only way to fix the problem is through pardons or amnesty, wherein you take the adjudication step away from the DoD deep state bureaucrats.”
Phelps didn’t mention that Kennedy, McCullough and Risch have all been caught spreading misinformation about COVID vaccines, so they’re hardly credible people to cite endorsing your book. Pehlps and Rempfer didn’t explain why soldiers must be allowed to disobey orders on a whim, nor did they offer any evidence to back up their claim that vaccine mandates are illegal.
The next day, Phelps gave a platform to a man who left the service over his refusal to obey an order:
A former Space Force officer’s objection to the military’s Biden-era COVID-19 vaccine mandate still haunts him over three years later.
WorldNetDaily spoke to Joshua Zermeno, a former officer who dedicated part of his career to space superiority, having served in the U.S. military for 13 years. In August 2021, Zermeno objected to then-Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s military COVID-19 shot mandate, questioning both its “efficacy and legality.” For this, he received two Letters of Reprimand (LORs) and a “Do Not Promote” recommendation that blocked his promotion to major. He was also banned from government buildings and required to work from home.
With his career collapsing in front of him, Zermeno attempted to voluntarily separate from the military in October 2021, but was told his separation was “not in the best interest of the Air Force and Space Force.” In the week following this statement, he said base leadership initiated Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) action against him. Despite the rescission of the COVID-19 shot mandate in January 2023, he was passed over for promotion a second time. Seven months later, he was forced to separate from the military entirely.
It turns out that Phelps’ article is essentially an ad for a book Zermeno self-published:
To counter the censorship, Zermeno published “DISOBEYING AN UNLAWFUL ORDER: A SPACE FORCE OFFICER’S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM” in June 2025. It was written “to preserve history of military’s COVID-19 shot mandate permanently,” he said, adding that his desire is for the book to reach current and future military leaders to “study, learn from, and prevent such mistakes from ever happening again.”
He told WND, “Current and future military leaders must understand the mandate’s impact on service members, families, force readiness, and national security to learn from these mistakes.”
Phelps allowed nobody to respond to the claims either Zermeno or Rempfer made.
Phelps returned with yet another disgruntled military man for a July 16 article:
One of the U.S. military’s most high-profile and respected whistleblowers, active-duty Navy Commander Robert A. Green, Jr., says his chain of command has informed him that he is, as of July 8, “under investigation for publicly calling out the unconstitutional and illegal actions by military leadership during the COVID-19 mandates.”
[…]For 4 years I have been using the same language and the same demand for accountability that I continue to use on this platform,” posted Green.
“My leadership does not like that I have used the words ‘domestic enemies of the Constitution’ to describe many of them for their actions during the mandates. But where were they when thousands of us notified them about the laws they were breaking?” He added: “There is a clear line drawn between service members who will defend the Constitution, and Admirals & Generals who violate constitutional rights with impunity.”
Unsurprisingly, Phelps found a disgruntled ex-military guy to defend Green:
Former service members are reacting strongly, clearly disturbed by the news. WorldNetDaily spoke to one such individual, Dr. Chase Spears, a retired U.S. Army public affairs officer. When Green published his book, “Defending the Constitution behind Enemy Lines,” in July 2023, Spears quickly took notice. Having been a writer himself while serving in the Army and knowing the challenges that come with a hostile chain of command, he admired Green’s “direct approach.”
“That guy has a spine like no one I’ve ever seen in the military in my lifetime,” Spears remembers thinking. As fate would have it, two years later, Spears was able to welcome Green to his podcast, “Finding Your Spine.”
[…]“Ever since the Trump administration came in and Secretary of Defense Hegseth took the helm at the Pentagon,” said Spears, “life hasn’t gotten easier for conservatives.” To the contrary, he said, “it has gotten harder because progressively minded officers who were raised under the Obama and Biden administration are insecure about the fact there’s a new sheriff in town and they’re clamping down even harder on those who hold a basic constitutional, traditional worldview.”
“From what I have seen, the arguments Commander Green shares are not partisan, nor in violation of the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) or Defense Department regulations against political expression by service members,” Spears pointed out. “He’s simply calling out where the admirals and other senior military commanders continue to violate the law, due process and the very Constitution which they swore to uphold and defend.”
We though military men obeying orders was “a basic constitutional, traditional worldview.” As in the other articles, Phelps offers no evidence that Green’s views are medically correct. Still, Phelps let Spears whine further:
“Many fellow military members may beat their chests with all this bravado about being a warrior and never leaving another comrade behind. So if this is true, it’s past time to really man up,” Spears told WND. “Hold true to your oaths now or sit down forever among those across history who did nothing when the moment called.”
“If you’re not willing to call fouls against clear legal and moral wrongs in your personal capacity, then what good are you?” Spears asked. “If I’m not assured that you believe in this idea of America and that your oath to defend it is worth more than the air you exhale it with, how can I trust you as a military leader?”
Yet no “clear legal and moral wrongs” have been identified, and Phelps censored any opposing view.