The day when retired Air Force Col. Thomas McNish could play with his grandchildren again could not come soon enough. The former Vietnam POW thanks the fast Department of Veterans Affairs vaccine rollout and decisions former President Donald Trump made to cut through stifling bureaucracy.

“We took maximum advantage of the ability to break free,” McNish, 78, said of the vaccine he quickly received at his local VA hospital in San Antonio, Texas, in January and the one his wife got at a senior center shortly after.