Memorial Day Meaning And Tone

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Welcome to the Wild Brothers Show. Today is a special day for lots of reasons, but it's Memorial Day. And it as much as sometimes the instinct might be to say um happy Memorial Day, that's that's not quite the tone for Memorial Day. We might say happy Veterans Day. Veterans Day is when we honor and celebrate the men and women that have served our nation and are now out of the military, whether they medically retired or put in a career, whatever that looks like, we appreciate those that have served our nation and we honor them on Veterans Day. Memorial Day is a day that we pause and remember those that paid the ultimate sacrifice so that we could enjoy our freedoms. And every Memorial Day, we have a veteran or an active duty member on to tell part of their story and to walk us through some of that. Well, my name is Tim Barton, and my dad, David Barton, is on with us. And today we are joined by special guest, Colonel Kevin Borin. And Colonel, I just want to say we are so excited to have you with us today. Thanks for taking time.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Thank you for having me, Tim. Thank you, David. I am so honored to be here with you. Praise the Lord.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

Well, uh, Colonel, I first met you, I think, at a homeschool uh convention. Uh, was it Montana? I don't remember where we were. Uh Denver, Colorado. Uh perfect. So uh I was speaking at a homeschool convention, uh, and we got to talking just a little bit afterwards, and I didn't know your story at all. I I I I have two brothers in the military. I have lots of friends in the military, lots of of friends that were former military, retired and veterans. And uh I I know some of them that had to navigate a lot of the COVID stuff with the military. And you begin to tell me part of your story, uh, blew me away, but really to see what God has done in the restoration process uh is incredible. So, Colonel, will you walk us through? And I would love to hear some of your background because you've been in the military quite a few years. You've made quite a career out of this. Uh, you are now in the Pentagon. Will you walk us through some of your entrance into the military and then what happened during COVID and maybe where you are now?

A Foster Family Childhood Shaped By Faith

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Absolutely. Be honored to share that, Tim. So I grew up in a loving Christian home to my mother and father and my brothers, and I'm the youngest of 44 boys, and I didn't stutter. I'm the youngest. I have 41 foster brothers, one adopted brother, and one biological brother, but that's a story for another time. So I grew up uh that it was not all at the same time. Uh my parents would take care of six foster boys at a time, plus me and my biological brother. But I'm the youngest of that crew, and so I had quite a fun upbringing in a in a home uh to a pastor. My dad was a music pastor for his entire life before he went home to be with the Lord uh a few years ago. So I grew up in this amazing home. And when I was in junior high, my biological brother, who's two years older than me, he was very much into the military, really wanted to be a Marine. He was in the junior ROTC program at the high school, and I was in junior high, and he thought he would convince me to go to the Civil Air Patrol uh meeting, which that's an auxiliary of the Air Force. And so he said, Hey, Kevin, I think you should come to this. And he was trying to convince me. And of course, the movie Rambo was a really big thing in 1987, 88 time frame. So uh he said, Kevin, if you come with me, they're gonna give you a Rambo knife and you get to kill rabbits. Now, um, I don't have any particular disdain for rabbits, but I thought, hey, I'd love to have a Rambo knife. So I I joined him at this Civil Air Patrol meeting. And wouldn't you know, I end up spending an entire career in the military. My brother does not. I've never gotten a Rambo knife and I've never killed a rabbit. Um, but uh anyway, he was a great salesman, and I went to that meeting and ended up joining Civil Air Patrol, rose through the ranks, became the squadron commander by the time I was a senior in high school. And uh all my buddies, my closest buddies, were going off to West Point Military Academy, and a couple others going to the Air Force Academy. And so they were a year ahead of me. They kept writing me these letters about how hard it was, how difficult life was, which only inspired me to want to go even more. So

Civil Air Patrol To West Point

SPEAKER_00 4:25

I ended up entering the United States Military Academy at West Point, and uh I joined the Army July 19th of 1992 uh in the West Point Prep School as a E2 private, and then was accepted to West Point in 1993 and graduated from the Academy in 1997, commissioned as a field artillery officer and spent the next 25 years in the United States Army until I was uh kicked out of the Army under the Biden administration

Refusing The COVID Shot Fallout

SPEAKER_00 4:55

for refusing to take the experimental COVID shot. And I had some very significant medical concerns with it based on a prior adverse reaction I had had to a flu shot for which I have a permanent medical exemption, but the army denied my request for medical exemption and effectively gave me the options of killing myself or getting fired. So uh I chose to trust the Lord with all of this, and I was uh kicked out of the army in 2022 and then for three years uh we trusted God with that, and the Lord uh ushered us into a filmmaking career where I was uh started a nonprofit ministry called Set Shepherds, and I served as a set chaplain and as a co-producer for some feature films and some short films. And then, as only the Lord Can Do, he installed um President Trump in 2024 into the presidency, and he had run on uh reinstating those service members who were kicked out under the Biden administration for the unlawful COVID mandates. And uh they called me up and asked if I'd be willing to come back into service. And I said, I would do that if we can have a task force, and I will lead the task force because I was the senior army officer that was kicked out for the COVID shot on active duty. So I came in in October 1st of 2025. Secretary Pete Heggseth, the Secretary of War, swore me in personally and charged me with leading the task force that I have named the COVID Reinstatement and Reconciliation Task Force. And we have the great honorable mission of righting the wrongs of the past and bringing people back into the army who were unlawfully separated for their principled refusal to the COVID shot. There were people with medical concerns, people with religious concerns, and people with the with legal concerns because it was an unlawful mandate. And so wherever they fell on that uh spectrum, we want to invite them back in, and then we are now restoring them to service with no break in service and with back pay and with all the benefits that would have accrued in addition uh in accordance with those that reinstatement and that no break in service. So it is the honor of my life, the best job that I've ever

Called Back To Serve Again

SPEAKER_00 7:10

had in uniform, and I am thrilled to see how God writes stories that we could never write.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Colonel,

How Many Were Forced Out

SPEAKER_01 7:16

I think this is one of the big under-reported stories uh since the election, and we hear so little about it. How how many folks are we talking about that were thrown out for refusing to take that unlawful vaccine?

SPEAKER_00 7:30

So we don't know the exact numbers, but we know that there are tens of thousands, and we are in a we are currently in a effort right now to recontact all of the known over eight, almost 9,000 that we know of that were kicked out uh across all the services and all the components, the active duty, the National Guard, and the Reserve, and then Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Space Force. So as we look across there, we know of uh nearly 9,000, but we know there are tens of thousands. And we're basing that off of the fact that if you look pre-mandate, pre-pre-COVID mandate and post-COVID mandate at the end strength, the end strength dropped about 100,000. And that's not a normal attrition for uh, you know, for the military's attrition, because we have so many that were hiring each month while also people are leaving, you know, they're ending their time in service or they're uh retiring. But we had a drop in 100,000 in the end strength. So we we know that we we actually believe there's upwards of a hundred thousand that were kicked out. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

So, Colonel, in the midst of the process of you having uh been removed for not taking, as you mentioned, this experimental vaccine, uh, which they're that not to digress too much in this, but it's the the the levels of irony that we were believing some of the narrative coming down that hey guys, this is like long-term safe, no side effects. And and anybody with any logic is like, well, how do you know this is safe long term if this is a brand new vaccine? And and there's never been a long-term study done because it hasn't been out long enough for a long-term study, not to digress. Like it was so dumb on all these things as they're promoting the safety, you get fired. At at what point when President Trump is running, did you think, or was there a a hopeful thought of, hey, maybe my military career might uh resume, or was it once you got a call, and then what was it like getting a call? Were you skeptical? Uh, did they have to talk you into it, or were you kind of pumped and waiting for this moment?

Informed Consent And Unlawful Mandates

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Well, I remember uh to your to your first point, Tim, yes, this this experimental vaccine, just to be really clear, it there's never been an FDA approved version of the shot, even as we sit here today in 2026. There are only emergency use authorized versions of the shot, which cannot by law be mandated on anyone. Uh, we are required to give, under medical ethics and law, what's called informed consent. And informed consent is simply the process by which an individual voluntarily agrees to a medical treatment or participation in research after being fully informed of the risks, the benefits, the alternatives, and the implications. And we never gave that informed consent like we do on everything else uh to our folks, and then that's and that's actually unlawful, which is why this was an unlawfully implemented vaccine mandate uh in our military. And and of course it it broadly applies to other areas too, but I'm just talking specifically in the military. So, yes, when I when I was kicked out, uh we we genuinely just had to trust God in this. I mean, I had no plan. I was I was preparing to be a brigade commander in the United States Army, which is one of the most amazing honors. Uh, very few people get that opportunity, and I was a month away from taking brigade command. And my entire career, uh, you know, adult, my entire adult life spent in uniform was just ripped out from under me uh because I wouldn't uh participate in an experimental shot that my doctors literally said would kill me. They took blue the they took blood tests and found that I had five life-threatening medical contraindications to this COVID shot, and the army still denied my request for medical exemption, which is why I said my options were to kill myself or get fired. And I just asked the leadership of the army, like, shouldn't there be a third option here? I kind of feel like, you know, you're most one of your most experienced recruiters in the entire United States Army, and we're in the worst recruiting crisis in the history of the 50-year all-volunteer force, and you're kicking out one of your most experienced recruiters because I won't take a shot that my doctor said will kill me. So it just it it was mind-blowing. But uh to your to your second question, so as I'm out of the army and I'm trusting the Lord and we're making these faith-based films, and I just had an incredible, uh incredible gift from the Lord to work on those movies with my family. Then I hear President Trump on the campaign trail, and he's talking about how he wants to reinstate with full back pay and benefits all of those individuals who were kicked out of our military unlawfully. And so when I started hearing this, of course, all my buddies, I got a lot of people sending me text messages, giving me calls, and blowing up my phone saying, Hey, did you hear what the what the uh what President Trump is saying on a campaign trail? And I said, Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it. Um, not that I didn't believe him, but I just didn't know that uh one, would he actually get elected? And then two, uh, would he actually have an administration willing to carry out his directive? And so when they called me and asked me if I'd be willing to come back in, I said, Well, make me an offer and then we'll pray about it as a family and we'll trust the Lord just as we always have. So when they made me the offer, they said, Well, if you come in in a civilian capacity, here are some job options that you could work in the Department of War, or if you come back in uniform, then we'll talk about what that would look like. And they asked me what I wanted to do. And I said, Well, I think we're gonna need a task force to actually right these wrongs, and I would be humbled and I would be honored to lead that task force. And they said, Done. So here I am.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

So that it was your idea then to create this task force that now is is helping bring some level of restoration, and as you mentioned, reconciliation, what a beautiful word for that, uh, to service members that arguably were unlawfully, certainly unethically removed.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

This was your idea? So there's a group of us. Uh, we call so the Secretary of War refers to us as warriors of conscience. And there's a group of warriors of conscience who, for the last several years, have been talking about what we might do to try to right these wrongs. And of course, before President Trump got re-elected, we, you know, we had other court cases that were being pursued. Uh, I'm not a part of any of those court cases, but there are a lot of the members of the community, the warrior of conscience community that are a part of that. Uh, I never participated in any of those lawsuits. I was just moving on with my life and going to do the filmmaking industry. And that was based off of a lot of prayer that our family had done, just saying, Lord, we we want to just trust you with this and go wherever you're leading. And so God uh directed us into the Christian faith-based film industry, and we have really enjoyed getting to participate in that. But um, you know, a lot of the members of my warrior of conscience community went back and said, Hey, you know, this is a this task force is gonna be something that's needed once we saw that President Trump had been re-elected.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

Yeah, absolutely incredible.

Break And Bringing WallBuilders To You

SPEAKER_02 14:24

All right, we need to take a quick break. Uh, we are talking with Colonel Kevin Borin, uh, giving us some of his background details, and we're gonna get into talking about Memorial Day here on the other side of the break. Hang on, we'll be right back on the Wall Builder Show. Hey, this is Tim Barton with Wall Builders. And as you've had the opportunity to listen to Wall Builders Live, you've probably heard the wealth of information about our nation, about our spiritual heritage, about the religious liberties, about all the things that makes America exceptional. And you might be thinking, as incredible as this information is, I wish there was a way that I could get one of the wall builders guys to come to my area and share with my group, whether it be a church, whether it be a Christian school or public school or some political event or activity. If you're interested in having a wall builder speaker come to your area, you can get on our website at www.wallbuilders.com and there's a tab for scheduling. And if you'll click on that tab, you'll notice there's a list of information from speakers' bios to events that are already going on, and there's a section where you can request an event to bring this information about who we are, where we came from, our religious liberties and freedoms. Go to the wall builders website and bring a speaker to your area. Welcome back to the Wall Builder Show. This is Tim Barton with my dad, David Barton. We are talking to Colonel Kevin Bourne. He has been giving part of his story and his testimony of God's goodness and faithfulness in his life. Uh, if you haven't heard the first section, man, when the podcast drops, go back, listen to it. Absolutely incredible. Um, Dad, I know that you have several questions uh that you want to dive into. So let me hand it over to you real

Reconciliation, Identity, And Prayer

SPEAKER_02 16:06

quick.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Colonel, with uh I mean, this isn't we're now looking years since this COVID stuff. All this started, all this fiasco. What kind of response do you get and how how many people want to come back in? I'm sure their life is disrupted in some way because they've already moved on, made adjustments. But I mean, they're in the military because they loved it and they wanted to serve. What kind of, I guess, what kind of response you see and how many coming back in? And what are some stories that that you can relate on on some of those who are uh again being reconciled to the military? I love that term.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Yeah, well, actually, you know what, let me start with that last part, David, about the term reconciliation. So when we reach out to these warriors of conscience and we invite them to consider coming back in uniform, we want to actually give them informed consent. We want to explain to them what they would be offered if they come back in. You know, if is there a specific specialty they want? Is there a duty station location that they want to be stationed at based off of, you know, maybe family considerations, where they live, where they are right now? And then we want to look at how we can properly get them reinstated into uniformed service so they can continue back into their career. But for many of them, they have moved on. Like you said, they've moved on with their life, they've already started businesses, they've gone on to other things. And so we want to reconcile them by having their records corrected, having their discharge upgraded to an honorable discharge to make sure that they can get the veterans' affairs benefits that they're entitled to based off of their faithful, honorable service that they rendered to the nation. But one thing I tell them whenever I talk to them on the phone at the end, I say, listen, we can we can bring you back in uniform, we can get your rank restored, we can get your career restored. But here's the thing the most important reconciliation you can ever have is to be reconciled to God. And I believe that's through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And I get an opportunity to share with each one of these warriors how I have found true healing and true hope in this process. Because as great as it is for me to be back in uniform, leading a task force and doing a righteous work, I will tell you where I have found actual healing and hope is in my personal relationship with Jesus Christ, because that is really where my identity is. My identity is not as an officer in the United States Army. My identity is in Christ. And one of the things that a lot of these warriors understand is as soon as that career was ripped away from them and they were kicked out, a lot of them had an identity crisis, and I'm one of them. I had to figure out like who am I really? Because I'm no longer Colonel Kevin Boren. Now I'm Kevin Borin. And God took me on my own journey for about six months to really wrestling with that question and seeing that I am in Christ and nothing has changed because I'm still a soldier in the Lord's army, even though I was not a soldier in the United States Army. And I want them to know that same hope. So I share that part with them because I really want them to understand that we can put a bunch of rank on you and a bunch of awards and a, you know, we can restore a lot of things, but that's not actually going to bring you true joy and satisfaction. That's only found in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And then I offer to pray with every single one of these warriors, and they all they've all asked me to pray with them. And there's a lot of emotion in that, as many of them are really receiving healing for the first time. And the way I describe it, it's as if the Lord takes my words and transforms them into a supernatural salve that heals a wounded heart. And it is just one of the most glorious things on that phone call to be able to pray for these warriors and pray for their families and ask God to restore them and give them hope and to point them to that hope that's found in Jesus Christ. So you asked about the general numbers. So we have right now we have 41 in the army that we have reinstated and gotten their careers back. And these are incredible stories. We're sharing them on social media, and the office of the Secretary of War and the Under Secretary of War, they're sharing them on social media as well. So a lot of those are on Twitter, now known as X or on LinkedIn or on Facebook. And um, and what we're finding in our responses is when we call these folks, we have a very high percentage interest, uh, over 80% that are interested in returning to service when we, as warriors of conscience, who walked in their shoes and understand what they went through, when we reach out to them and explain to them what options are available and what that informed consent is so they can make an informed decision that's best for their family. And so we're excited, we're in a recontact campaign where we're going and we're contacting every single person that we know of that was kicked out, and we're asking everybody else, maybe we don't know about you. And so we're asking you to reach out to us so that we can then have a conversation with you about how you can come back in to service or have your records corrected so you can move on with your life with dignity and honor.

SPEAKER_02 21:01

Colonel, that is one of the most encouraging and exciting things um we could possibly hear uh coming from the Pentagon. And and I I know that this would be an entirely different program uh because we really I want to get into a little bit about Memorial Day and how the average American should think and feel, how we interact with some of our friends that are veterans, maybe some that are active duty. Um what does this day look like for a service member? But I do want to quickly acknowledge it is amazing that God has people of faith now in the Pentagon at some of the highest levels, all over the cabinets in Washington, D.C. And we are so encouraged that you are there. And again, probably for another episode, we'd love to get into uh some of the behind the scenes of how God is moving there.

How Civilians Should Approach Memorial Day

SPEAKER_02 21:45

But let me shift over to this Memorial Day question. So uh for for most Americans, we have friends that were uh veterans from one of the branches of service, maybe some friends that are still active duty, and and it seems Like the Memorial Day hits different for men who have men and women who've spent time in the service than the average American. So, as an average American who is not part of the military, how should we view Memorial Day and how should we interact with our friends who've been in the military?

SPEAKER_00 22:17

Thank you for that. The first thing I would say is I'd point you straight to John 15, 13, one of the most uh no well-known passages regarding this. It says, Greater love has no man than this, that a man would lay down his life for his friends. And, you know, when I think about the soldiers I lost when I was a combat commander in Iraq, uh that's that's where my mind goes on Memorial Day is to these soldiers and their families, and because they they no longer have that father and husband in their home. And that was all the way back in 2003, 2004, when I was in the very beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Uh, but this Memorial Day is a little bit more, uh it's a little different for me because in my current capacity, what I'm actually learning is I'm I'm hearing a lot of stories from families who lost loved ones because of the COVID shot, because it wasn't 100% safe and effective, like the government had told us. Uh, it was an experimental vaccine that we didn't have long-term studies on. And actually, a lot of the studies were hidden by some of these uh vaccine companies. And a lot of that got exposed, of course, as we know now over these last couple of years. But uh I'm hearing way too many stories of people who lost loved ones because they got the COVID shot and then had very, very severe adverse reactions after that. And these are service members that were told you will lose your job if you don't get this shot, just like I was told. And for many of them, they they didn't, they hadn't really thought about anything else. They just said, okay, well, it's it's another shot, like I've gotten a bunch of other shots, and they hadn't really thought through the implications of that. And so that's something that I think about on this memorial day that is a little bit different than all the previous ones, is those who lost loved ones because they immediately had uh severe adverse reactions to those COVID shots. But I would just ask the American public in general, when when you're reaching out to service members and their families, especially those who've lost a loved one, um telling them that you're praying for them and that you uh that you're thinking of them and even offering to because they're not gonna ask you to, you know, hey, bring me a meal, but offer, say, hey, you know, uh, if I if I bring you a meal this week, would Tuesday be better or would Thursday be better? Uh and then that way you're you're extending that offer to just, you know, serve them in a really tangible way. I know when I was deployed, my wife would say, she's she's never gonna ask for any help. But if somebody reached out to her and said, hey, Adra, we're gonna bring you a meal on Tuesday night, uh, would you like it at five o'clock or six o'clock? Then she'd say, Oh, okay, uh, I'll take it at five o'clock. So it just, you know, giving that kind of tangible offer, or even say, Hey, can I take you out for coffee? I'd love to just hear your story, or tell me the story of your loved one that you lost. And, you know, that's something that's so healing. People love to talk about that person that meant so much to them. And and and that's a really tangible way on Memorial Day that you can reach out to people who have lost loved ones and let them tell their story so that they're not forgotten.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

Well, Colonel, this is that this is such a great message uh for all Americans because so many of us we have friends that are veterans we love and care about, and sometimes we don't know exactly what to do. Um, so great insight and advice.

Contacting The COVID Task Force

SPEAKER_02 25:27

If there's people that uh maybe want to have some of their military veteran friends that maybe they they were these conscientious uh warriors, if they want to reach out, where's the best place for them to follow through if something happened to one of them?

SPEAKER_00 25:42

The the most effective thing they can do is send an email to it. I'm gonna give you the I'll spell it and I'll say it. It's sa.covid.taskforce at army dot mil. Let me let me spell it out. S Sierra A Alpha, that stands for secretary of the army.covid, c o v I D.Taskforce, one word, at army dot mil. Send us an email and then we will engage you and get you in the process of getting either reinstated or reconciled.

Final Thanks And Memorial Day Blessing

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Perfect.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

Well, Colonel Boren, we are so grateful for you. Uh it it's it's been such a blessing to get to know you over the last couple years and to see what God is doing in your life. We're so grateful for you. Thank you for taking time to be with us today.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

I'm honored. Thank you so much for having me. God bless you.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

Yeah. And for everybody else, thank you for listening today. God bless you on this Memorial Day. If you are a veteran or active duty service member, we are so grateful for you. We pray that God would be with you today in a special way. Have a great day.