Army Reserve Major and former Maine National Guardsman Michael Gary lost his position in the Guard and faced multiple investigations after he filed for a preemptive religious exemption in December 2020 from the COVID vaccine mandate issued for the armed forces nine months later, in August 2021.
Gary, a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) expert with 27 years of military experience, faced investigations, accusations of political extremism, and economic hardship after he conscientiously refused to take the experimental mRNA treatment.
