At 7:00 p.m. on January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump started to sign what has been termed as “an avalanche of executive orders” for his new administration. Two (2) of the orders have veteran-related impacts.

One of the first Executive Orders signed dealt with canceling former President Joseph Biden’s 2021 Executive Order that allowed transgender personnel to serve openly in the military.

During President Trump’s first term, in 2017, the President posted on social media that he would “not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military.”

The official Pentagon policy that followed was somewhat narrower, but was still effectively a ban on transgender troops, reversing an open service policy that was first put in place in 2016.

The President’s 2025 Executive Order did NOT ban transgender troops from serving in the military, however advocates of transgender military personnel claim that his recent order lays the groundwork for a follow-up executive order that would ban transgender individuals.

The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law totaled the number of transgender service members at 15,500, but that number has not been updated since 2014. The Pentagon has said it does not track the number of transgender service members.

Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said “that a trans military ban has deeply dangerous consequences beyond the armed forces.” However, he expects servicemembers, who transitioned medically, to be the first targeted.

President Trump pledged, on his campaign trail, to roll back protections for transgender people. Following Trump’s reelection, several international news outlets reported that his aides were drafting an executive order to medically discharge all transgender service members.

The second veteran-related Executive Order signed by President Trump was entitled “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program.” This Executive Order suspends the Refugee Admissions Program for ninety (90) days and will be started on January 27, 2025.

The Executive Order states that, after ninety (90) days, the secretaries of Homeland Security and State will submit a report to the President on whether or not the program “would be in the interests of the United States.”

According to Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, the current suspension of the Refugee Admissions Program puts at risk several thousands of citizens of Afghanistan, who helped the American Mission.

Families of active-duty U.S. military service members, as well as Afghans who are now in hiding from the Taliban, are directly impacted by this Executive Order. These, approximately 1,600 people, have already cleared the complex United States’ vetting process, been approved, and are actively prepared to travel.

Mr. VanDiver explained that people vetted under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program entered the United States “only after receiving a government or U.S. run nonprofit referral and after undergoing extensive service verification, background checks, medical screening and rigorous security vetting.”

“The Executive Order,” according to VanDiver, “risks abandoning thousands of Afghan wartime allies who stood alongside U.S. service members during two decades of conflict.”

After the United States Armed Forces withdrew from Afghanistan and the Taliban took power, the Biden administration launched Operation Allies Welcome, allowing 76,000 evacuated Afghans to enter the United States.

As of 2023, approximately 90,000 Afghans, that have properly been vetted, have settled in the United States.

Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Kevin Cramer are in favor of clarifying the Executive Order to make sure that thousands of Afghans, who helped the U.S. in Afghanistan are not left in limbo. “I’d like to get them back here,” said Senator Graham, “if they’re associated with helping our cause.”

“I hope they can work through that. The botched withdrawal from Afghanistan was traumatic enough,” Senator Cramer denoted. “One of the reasons was that it left behind so many of our allies.”

My Opinion: There are two (2) sayings that I believe are valid. “History has a habit of repeating itself” and “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Nearly fifty (50) years ago, I witnessed the fall of Saigon and our hurried evacuation, leaving behind thousands of Vietnam allies. This decade, I witnessed the same scenes of our hurried evacuation from, this time, Afghanistan, leaving behind thousands of our Afghan allies.

According to AfghanEvac, there are approximately 1,600 refugees (including relatives of United States service members) who have been properly vetted and have all the necessary clearances to be admitted to the United States legally.

There are several thousand of Afghan allies that were having their U.S. paperwork processed and vetted – and now this processing and vetting has been suspended for a minimum of ninety (90) or longer days.

I concur with Senators Graham and Cramer that these Afghan refugees should not be abandoned.

BioSketch: John Plahovinsak is a 32-year Army veteran, who served from 1967 to 1999. He is the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Department of Ohio’s Hospital Chairman and Adjutant of DAV Chapter #63 (Clermont County). He can be contacted at: plahovinsak@msn.com.