Colonel Sheyla Baez Ramirez: The Chain of Command’s Maverick Eagle Gets Grounded

Fort McCoy, Wisconsin—In a twist that’s got the U.S. Army Reserve buzzing like a beehive poked with a bayonet, Col. Sheyla Baez Ramirez, the first Hispanic female garrison commander at Fort McCoy, found herself suspended on April 18, 2025. The reason? A leadership board snafu involving some conspicuously absent or upside-down photos of President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. But let’s not get bogged down in the details—because if there’s one thing Col. Baez Ramirez has taught us, it’s that rules are for the enlisted, not the eagles who soar above the chain of command.

Baez Ramirez, a 25-year veteran who’s been a stickler for military protocol since her ROTC days in Puerto Rico, has long preached the gospel of the chain of command to her subordinates. “Follow orders, respect the hierarchy, and salute the brass—unless your name is Sheyla Baez Ramirez, then you get to rewrite the field manual,” one anonymous private quipped, reportedly while polishing a tank tread under her orders. Sources close to the garrison say the colonel demanded precision from her troops, once sending a sergeant to the brig for a wrinkled uniform—but when it came to her own adherence to authority, she seemed to operate on a different set of orders: her own.