Finding Your Spine
In a time when courage feels increasingly rare, Finding Your Spine challenges the status quo. Hosted by Dr. Chase Spears, this weekly podcast explores how Christians—and even secular conservatives—can stand firm in their values amid the pressures of cancel culture. With insightful commentary and bold conversations, Dr. Spears examines the tradeoff many make between conscience and comfort, reminding listeners that true freedom requires the spine to defend it. Tune in each week for thought-provoking discussions that inspire moral courage in an age of compromise.
Finding Your Spine
The Thirty Year Fight Against Anthrax Mandates and Illegal Orders
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Dr. Chase Spears welcomes retired Air Force Colonel Tom Rempfer, whose nearly 30-year battle against the unlawful anthrax vaccine mandate mirrors the recent fight against COVID shot coercion in the military. Tom shares how the program—declared illegal by federal courts in 2004 for using an unapproved, investigational product—led to punishments, discharges, and career setbacks for thousands of service members.
He details historical parallels: the vaccine's regulatory failures (no finalized FDA license since 1985), post-Gulf War concerns linking it to undiagnosed illnesses, the 2001 anthrax letter attacks (later tied to a Fort Detrick insider saving the failing program), and the creation of emergency use authorization as a lowered standard to bypass injunctions.
The conversation explores gaslighting, inverted accountability (whistleblowers punished, enablers promoted), and the urgent need for record corrections, back pay, and proactive reviews—patterns repeated in the COVID era. Tom urges the current administration to extend equitable remedies to anthrax veterans, emphasizing constitutional duty over blind compliance.
A powerful call to learn from history and never give in.
00:00:00 - Introduction
00:01:23 - Tom's Career and Advocacy
00:02:08 - What Keeps the Fight Going
00:03:13 - Gulf War Illness Connections
00:04:59 - Investigational Vaccine Status
00:06:16 - Regulatory Failures Pre-2003
00:07:15 - Emergency Use Authorization History
00:09:31 - Anthrax Letters and Cover-Up
00:11:22 - Parallels to COVID Mandates
00:13:21 - Inversion of Accountability
00:15:19 - Gulf War Exposures Revisited
00:17:16 - Nixon's 1969 Biodefense Memo
00:19:50 - White House Interventions
00:22:44 - Fort Detrick Insider Role
00:25:06 - Command Gaslighting Experiences
00:28:23 - Duty to Disobey Illegal Orders
00:32:14 - Current Remedies and Hope
00:34:15 - Equitable Treatment Needed
00:36:05 - 2018 Trump Directive Undermined
00:38:52 - Call for Anthrax Record Fixes
00:42:29 - Task Force Accountability
00:46:09 - Whistleblower Treatment Patterns
00:48:31 - Senate Report 197 Lessons
00:50:35 - Biodefense Strategy Failures
00:53:15 - Naval Postgraduate Recognition
00:55:04 - COVID Cover-Up Parallels
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