Back from a year overseas, he says his general-manager job had no store and no staff

A car wash chain fired a National Guard staff sergeant two days after he complained of military-service bias, a federal lawsuit alleges.

The complaint, filed September 8, 2026 in the US District Court for the District of Kansas, comes from a former general manager who serves in the Kansas Army National Guard. He says Club Car Wash treated his service as a problem to manage and, over four years, blocked his advancement before pushing him out.

The worker joined the operator in February 2021 and moved up into management while keeping up regular drill and stretches of training, according to the filing. The first flashpoint came in October 2022. The complaint says the company told him he would be promoted to an area manager role in Wichita, then gave the job to someone else after he had spent weeks preparing to hand off his store. Leadership, the filing states, "questioned his dedication to the company."

Most of the case turns on what happened after a longer absence. His unit deployed to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in December 2023 for a year, and he gave the company advance notice, the complaint says. He came home in January 2025 and asked to return to work. Rather than his old general manager post, the filing states, he was first offered a lower-paid manager-in-training position. After he objected, the company gave him a general manager title with no store and no staff to supervise - what the...

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