CNN
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Air Force Special Warfare recruit Clay McCallister quit his civilian job earlier this month, excited to spend time with his family before shipping out for basic training in March and building the military career he has so vigorously prepared for.

But just two days after leaving, McCallister received a call from the Air Force that cast his family into limbo. Due to an executive order from President Donald Trump, all transgender military recruits, including McCallister, had been put on hold indefinitely – even those who had been contracted and scheduled to ship out in the coming weeks.

“It is stressful and it can be frustrating because, really, we just want to do the same job that everybody else is doing. All the uncertainty is honestly just unnecessary,” McCallister said.

Though the Department of Defense has yet to release an official policy to comply with Trump’s order, it has already taken stopgap measures that have caused uncertainty and confusion among trans service members and their families.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a February 7 memo ordered a pause on enlistments of transgender members and those “with a history of gender dysphoria.” He also ordered a halt of all gender-affirming surgeries and “newly initiated” hormone therapies for active-duty troops. Hegseth cited the executive order, which accused trans people of perpetuating a “false ‘gender identity’” and stated that being trans “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle.”

Transgender service members and their advocates have fiercely rejected the administration’s suggestion that trans people’s identities mean they do not meet the armed forces’ integrity standards. Many of them also fear the Trump administration may be gearing up to dismiss some active-duty trans service troops – as he attempted to do in his first term.

The order also argues that the “medical, surgical, and mental health constraints” on trans people are inconsistent with the US government’s “high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity.”

But trans service members argue the opposite, pointing out that they have passed the military’s rigorous requirements and insisting that removing trans troops would harm military readiness and deprive branches of members who have vital skills and training. Though the military does not track its trans population, estimates vary from between 8,000 to 15,000 members – a sliver of the more than 2 million active duty and reserve US troops worldwide.

Air Force Master Sgt. Logan Ireland, who has served openly as trans for about a decade, said the language in the executive order is “concerning and disheartening.”

Ireland oversees more than a dozen Special Investigations personnel in the Indo-Pacific and has been deployed and stationed in Afghanistan, Qatar, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates. Since the order was issued, he has received overwhelming support from his leadership, peers and subordinates.

“I would give my life for these people in power and in leadership, but it seems that my service is not valued or not needed, or I am somehow not worthy of wearing the uniform when I’ve served honorably for over 14 years,” Ireland said.

“It almost seems like there’s a disconnect between different people in leadership positions and those of us that are at a lower level,” he said of the anti-trans policies. Claims that trans people are less able to serve aren’t reflective of the reality Ireland and others live every day, he said. “We’re meeting the standard today. We’re deployed today. We’re combat-ready today.”

CNN has sought comment from the White House. The Pentagon declined to comment on when it plans to release its official policy regarding trans troops and how active-duty service members will be affected.

Ireland often mentors incoming trans recruits. He fears the ban on their enlistment may be a harmful setback for the military, which has struggled with recruitment in recent years.

“There are (trans) people coming in that are providing valuable jobs. I have doctors that are coming in. One recruit is a special warfare candidate. Man, do we ever need those in the Air Force and in our military,” Ireland said. “I wish that our leadership would see that these candidates and those of us in active duty – we meet the same readiness standards as anybody else that is in uniform.”

McCallister has spent more than a year training to meet the exceptional physical and mental requirements to serve in Special Warfare, a highly trained Air Force unit entrusted with specialized missions. Like other trans recruits, he had to provide extensive medical documentation that he has recovered from any gender-affirming surgical procedures and could pause or halt his hormone therapy if his deployment required it.

“My physical capabilities don’t limit me at all when it comes to doing the job, and there’s really nothing else that should hold me back from doing it,” McCallister said.

McCallister, now unemployed, is nervously watching a legal challenge to the executive order by a group of transgender active-duty service members and two others hoping to enlist. The plaintiffs sued to block the Trump administration from enforcing the order, and a federal judge who is weighing whether to indefinitely block the order has said she will wait to issue her ruling until the Defense Department releases official guidance implementing the mandate.

“I think there’s a fight to be had for everybody that’s able to serve to be able to,” McCallister said. “I just want to show my daughter that anything’s possible if you’re willing to fight for it.”

Transgender service members fear enforcement of Trump’s executive orders will severely limit their ability to serve authentically and to access gender-affirming medical treatment. Some, fearing they could be dismissed from active duty, have begun to financially prepare their families in case they lose their jobs.

One nonbinary Naval officer, who asked not to be named out of fear of retaliation, began saving money and talking to their wife about the potential of dismissal when they saw Trump was a forerunner in the 2024 presidential election. They also accepted an order to be relocated to the East Coast, where they have extended family that could support them if they became unemployed.

“If everything hit the fan, I needed to know that my family was safe, that they were going to be secure, and that there was not going to be any disruption in our housing situation,” they said. “The military pays our mortgage. They pay for the food, they pay for my child’s medical care.”

The officer’s wife, like many military spouses, does not work due to the constant relocation and uncertainty that comes with being a military family.

“I’ve accepted what the potential outcome is. I think I’ve made my peace with it, but my wife is very hurt and she feels very betrayed and very angry. She feels like this doesn’t align with our American values.”

Though trans troops are awaiting official policy from the Defense Department, the concerned Navy officer pointed to previous statements made by Trump and his leadership team.

During Trump’s first administration, the president announced in a post on X that transgender people would be unable to serve in the military “in any capacity.” The effort caught the Pentagon by surprise and was ultimately tangled in court battles until President Joe Biden took office and overturned the policy.

Hegseth, before becoming defense secretary, wrote in his book “War on Warriors” that “for the recruits, for the military, and primarily for the security of the country, transgender people should never be allowed to serve. It’s that simple.”

Even if transgender people are allowed to continue serving under this administration, the Naval officer believes the environment inside the military and the implementation of rules restricting trans members would become so hostile that they would leave.

”They’re just going to be choked out by so many other smaller, more insidious rules and the enforcement,” they said. “I think it’s only a matter of time before people are emboldened to be hateful and discriminatory.”

The officer has been serving in the Navy since they were a teenager and are just five years away from retiring.

“I want so badly to serve,” they said. “I would like to finish my career and finish what I started, and I have so much to do and so much more to give.”