President Donald Trump is being asked to exercise his authority as commander-in-chief and reinstate the pay and benefits of an Army doctor who was kicked out of the service after nearly 20 years for doing the same thing the president had done before he was a candidate, ask questions about President Obama's birth certificate.

Lt. Col. Terry Lakin was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Army Flight Surgeon Badge, Combat Medical Badge, the Bronze Star Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Army Achievement Medal with one Oak Leaf Clusters, the National Defense Service Medal with Bronze Service Star, the Armed Forces Expedition Medal, the Army Reserve Component Achievement Medal, the Army Service Ribbon, the Overseas Service Ribbon sixth award and the NATO service medal.

His tours of duty included Honduras, Bosnia, Korea, and Afghanistan.

In 2008, he began a personal investigation of the questions surrounding Barack Obama's eligibility to be president, including questions about the short form he had released. He continually requested through his chain of command for help resolving this issue, since part of his oath as an officer is to "support and defend the Constitution."

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In 2011, after being rebuffed by his commanding officers, he received orders to deploy to Afghanistan. At that point, not sure if his ultimate superior, the commander-in-chief, President Barack Obama was eligible, thereby making all orders initiating with him invalid, Lakin felt he had no choice but to refuse to deploy.

This invited a court-martial for Lt. Col. Lakin on charges of "missing a movement" after he was refused the right to produce any evidence that formed the basis for his decision. On the first day of the court-martial, Lakin pled guilty to three counts of disobeying orders. All of the charges were felonies.

Lakin was sentenced to six months in prison, forfeiture of pay, and dismissal from the service. He was just a few months short of retirement.

Just a few months after Lakin's court-martial, while Donald Trump was considering throwing his hat in the ring as a presidential candidate at that time, while being interviewed by multiple media outlets, he asked similar questions about Obama’s birth certificate.

"On ABC's "The View," he asked, "Why doesn’t he show his birth certificate?" Then while appearing on Fox News's "On the Record," he stated, "I want to see his birth certificate."

Then, just a few weeks later, on April 27, 2011, Obama caved and released what he claimed was his long form birth certificate. That's the document that the only official law enforcement investigation, done on the orders of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, found to be fraudulent.

Get an autographed copy of the now historic, No. 1 bestselling book that forced Barack Obama to release his challenged “birth certificate” in 2011 and get the whole story about his contested constitutional eligibility.

But the move came a few months too late for Lakin, He told WND if the president had produced the document earlier he would have accepted it as proof of the president’s eligibility and deployed.

"That's all I was asking for was some kind of verification. If the president would have shown that long-form birth certificate to me, or even my commanding officers, I would have accepted their word that it was legitimate and deployed."

Now, a petition on whitehouse.gov is calling on President Trump to reinstate Lakin into the Army with full rank, pay, benefits and pension.

In an exclusive interview, Dr. Terry Lakin told WND he has weathered the storm and now has a practice in Pueblo, Colorado, at the Southern Colorado Clinic.

"Things are going well, I am able to make a living, despite those who wanted to keep me from ever practicing medicine again. I'm able to employ 7 people and give them jobs."

Lakin told WND he was shocked and humbled when he first heard news of the petition.

"I had a friend who told me he was thinking about writing his congressman about this in a year or two," Lakin said. "I was shocked to hear about this petition. I have been truly blessed by God to have people who care about me. I just hope the president will also look at many of the other politically motivated convictions of members of the military over the past several years."

Lakin said one of things that has been a blessing is how he is able to provide medical services for many of the first responders in the surrounding area.

"I take care of a lot of the firefighters and police officers, not just from the county but even some of the surrounding counties."

His ability to achieve success after his dismissal from the Army is even more amazing when one considers there was an attempt by Obama supporters and others on the left to destroy him by stripping him of his medical license.

"There was an attempt by some to have my license pulled, which was crazy since nothing I did affected my ability to practice medicine," Lakin explained. "My issue with the army was essentially an administrative one rather than a criminal issue, yet there were some who wanted to destroy my family and me by leaving me without the ability to earn a living."

He credits his family for being key to helping get their lives back to normal.

"My wife and children have been great through all of this. I couldn't have done it without them."

At one time, he considered obtaining his license in Kansas and partnering with his brother Dr. Greg Lakin, but he ran into opposition from the state licensing board.

"At first it seemed like it would be a fairly simple process, but then went I went before the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts and it was obvious they were more focused on a political agenda then my medical qualifications," Lakin said. “They were very malicious with me and they just attacked me right and left. It was worse than my court-martial. They accused me of violating the Constitution and abandoning soldiers on the battlefield. It was brutal."

Get an autographed copy of the now historic, No. 1 bestselling book that forced Barack Obama to release his challenged “birth certificate” in 2011 and get the whole story about his contested constitutional eligibility.

He said he thinks part of the reason for the vitriol may have been because of the state’s ties to Obamacare, the much-troubled government takeover of health care decision-making. It's being targeted right now in Congress for repeal and replace.

"The former governor was the HHS secretary and many of the board members were supporters of Obamacare so they took it out on me."

His brother, Dr. Greg Lakin, is now a newly elected state representative for District 91 in Kansas in addition to running his practice.

Greg told WND that one of the reasons he ran for office was to help clear up some of the corruption in the state.

"There is some serious corruption with the Kansas Board of Healing Arts out here," Greg told WND. "I've seen them do similar things to other people than just Terry. I'm on appropriations, human services and the judiciary so I could rock the whole world here if I wanted to. I'm very patient but I know there will come a time when I will be presented with an opportunity to clean this mess up."

President Trump told Sean Hannity that he was considering issuing a pardon for Kristian Sauier, a former Navy sailor who is serving a year in prison for taking classified photos inside a nuclear submarine while former Secretary of State of Hillary Clinton avoided prosecution despite mishandling far more pieces of classified information.

Dr. Greg Lakin says he hopes this is the ideal time for his brother to also receive clemency and be reinstated since all he was doing was raising the same issues Trump did.

“The media says the birth certificate question is a settled issue, so if that's the case then let's settle it by pardoning my brother and reinstating him."