The Story of One Involuntary Veteran
Why does someone join the United States military? Service members are the one percent who voluntarily raise their hands and swear to defend the Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic. Sometimes, the domestic enemies pose great threats that have gone unnoticed for too long. From 2020 to the present, one such service member could never have imagined the illegal actions that would be made against her for simply protecting the oath she took. Not many know that at least 8,500 active duty members were discharged, most without an honorable characterization, and tens of thousands were placed on permanent non-pay status in the Reserves and National Guard. And every member has different experiences ranging from loss of pay, coercion, threats from leaders, loss of promotion, and mental and physical injury. For Céspedes, the moment of leaving the military was a sad sigh of relief. In other words, involuntary discharge was the final blow in a long series of mistreatments. On July 11, 202...
