Active-duty Staff Sergeant Lance Castle, a decorated noncommissioned officer (NCO), didn't just refuse the COVID-19 shot on religious grounds—he was severely punished for it. 

To the world, his story began with the violent extraction from his cell. But that was merely the public overture, the first visible crack in a dam that had been straining for months. 

 The video, provided by Castle's defense counsel and later posted to X, amassed 6.4 million views on that platform alone. Reposts across other accounts pushed total viewership exponentially higher. It captured only a single moment of what followed his refusal.

In an in-depth investigation, J.M. Phelps uncovers a pattern of institutional pressure and brutal retaliation that occurred before and after this incident. The investigation draws on hundreds of pages of court-martial records, his defense attorney's interview notes regarding Castle's chain of command, including over 15 under-oath testimonies, internal emails and text exchanges with his superiors, as well as audio recordings now involving multiple squadron, group, and wing commanders from New Mexico's Cannon Air Force Base (AFB). Communications with Lt. Gen. Tony D. Bauernfeind, commander of Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) at Hurlburt Field, Florida, in 2024, and his senior enlisted leader, Command Chief Anthony W. Green, were also examined.

This is the first installment of a three-part series documenting how a service member was systemically targeted after asserting a protected religious objection to the COVID-19 shot. 

Before the shot mandate, Castle's Personnel Information File (PIF) was untarnished. A 2017 letter of recommendation for retraining into the Pararescue career field, written by his squadron commander from Kirtland Air Force Base, Lt. Col. Deedrick Reese, praised Castle as "a highly motivated and driven NCO," "one of the top NCOs in the unit," and "emotionally stable, morally responsible, [and] financially sound." 

In July 2021, one month prior to the shot mandate, his supervisor, Master Sergeant Jenae Bellar, signed mid-term feedback that still marked him at the top of the performance tier. His stated goal on that form was to retrain into a new career field—contingent on his vaccination status. That record was set aside the moment he refused the COVID-19 shot.

When Castle's squadron commander, Lt. Col. Enrique "Rico" Vazquez, was questioned under oath about Castle's military record, he agreed that Castle had a fairly good military record. When the military judge, now Col. Vicki Marcus, asked him directly, Vazquez reiterated that Castle "had a decent record." This is critical to note because after his trial, Vazquez pivoted, launching into his own narrative of how significantly flawed Castle's conduct and behavior was before, during, and even after his refusal to get injected with the shot.