About 13 percent of the 2.1 million total force, at least 260,000 American troops, are not fully vaccinated, despite a Biden administration vaccine mandate for the military. Many of them could face discharge.
At least 268,858 service members, as of July 13, are still not in compliance with Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin’s August 2021 mandate, for every member of the military to be fully vaccinated with two doses of a vaccine. These statistics, are according to the Department of Defense (DOD) website
According to the latest statistics provided by the services, only about 20,000 of the more than 260,000 have received a temporary or permanent exemption. That means that at a time when the services are struggling to find new recruits, the rest face discharge from the military.
So far, according to DOD statistics, there have been 412,766 cases of those in the military who have had the coronavirus and recovered, with 95 related military deaths reported.
A Marine reservist and, General Counsel for First Liberty, is representing service members seeking religious exemptions. According to Berry, Religious accommodation requests have only been granted for troops who were already leaving the military. According to Breitbart News, Berry said:
“Losing nearly 270,000 troops would devastate our military. That’s more than twice as many U.S. troops than died during World War I from all causes, and almost as many as died in combat during World War II. Our adversaries are probably delighted to see the Pentagon eliminate more troops than they ever could.”
-Mike Berry, General Counsel for First Liberty
According to the latest available statistics, it is unclear whether DOD, will indeed discharge or merely discipline every single service member, not in compliance with Austin’s order. To date, the military services have kicked out around 6,431 members, with the Marine Corps leading with at least 3,069 discharges. Due to a court injunction, the Navy has been blocked from discharging any sailor who filed a religious exemption request.
After Republicans and some Democrats fought to take dishonorable discharges off the table, they have been either general or honorable. However, a discharge that is not an honorable discharge, means loss of benefits and a permanent record that indicates the discharge was possibly due to misconduct.
Recently acknowledging, that as many as 60,000 soldiers, or about 12% of their force — are not fully vaccinated, the Army National Guard and Army Reserve, (unless they have an approved or pending exemption), can no longer drill or be paid for it, as of July 1. Combined, the Army National Guard, has about 40,000 soldiers, and the Army Reserve, has 21,360 soldiers, who cannot drill, be paid, or be deployed on a federal status. Further, those who are unvaccinated reservists, without exemptions can still conduct state missions, but the Army said, they still face discharge.
The Army announced in a press release:
“Beginning July 1, 2022, members of the Army National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve who have refused the lawful [Department of Defense] COVID-19 vaccination order without an approved or pending exemption may not participate in federally funded drills and training and will not receive pay or retirement credit.”
- U.S. Army Press Release
Those soldiers who do not have an exemption and continue to refuse the vaccination order, may be subject to additional adverse administrative action, including separation (discharge). Mandating all troops be fully vaccinated is a readiness issue, according to the Department of Defense. The director of the National Guard recently told the Associated Press-
“When you’re looking at 40,000 soldiers that potentially are in that unvaccinated category, absolutely there’s readiness implications on that and concerns associated with that,” “That’s a significant chunk.”
- Army Lt. Gen. Jon Jensen
The mandate imposed by the Biden administration, has caught the attention of Republicans, who could retake either the House of Senate, as a majority this November, gaining the leverage they need to mitigate or even reverse the mandate. In fact, Navy reservist Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) confronted Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley over the discharges, during a hearing in April, where Milley downplayed the effect they would have on the military. Of the numbers of troops discharged he noted-
“The numbers are very low, by the way, of those that are refusing to be vaccinated, and they’re even lower,” … “I mean, it’s tiny the numbers that are actually being asked to process out. So, I think it’s manageable, and I think that I would prefer that everybody just go ahead and get vaccinated.”
- Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Mark Milley
Republicans have blasted the vaccine mandate, at a time when the military is facing historic recruiting shortfalls. In fact, the Army announced it was reducing its size, due to recruiting difficulties for the first time in its history. In an email statement, CEO of RedBaloon, a company that links anti-vaccine mandate job seekers, with prospective employers, put it this way-
“The U.S. Army is getting rid of the best of the best,” …“The kinds of service members who are courageous, have a backbone, and think critically are the kinds of service members that we need to defend our freedoms,” adding “Our military continues to struggle with recruitment. Perhaps, potential service members aren’t willing to risk the threat of woke policies,” …. “They’re putting a bullet in the recruitment process, and the guns aimed the wrong way. Deep-six the policies, not the military!”
-Andrew Crapuchettes, CEO of RedBalloon
America’s men and women in the military services deserve so much better of us. They are serving with America’s best interest at heart. They stand watch, at a post to preserve our nations freedoms. Instead of lifting them up, honoring them for their dedication, sacrifice and service – they are being reduced to the destruction of their own liberty of conscience, mandatory participation in an experimental anti-virus program, which has multiple lifelong side effects and woke mandates that force gender identity issues upon them that might compromise them in conflict.
If America wants to preserve it’s fighting forces – it must rally to their defense before the progressive liberal, woke, left-wing party destroys them. Like America needs them, those in uniform need America - to right the wrong being foisted upon them.
So much depends on our clear message to the White House in just three short months. This is one more good reason to not give tacit consent to those who are clearly adding to the struggle our military face – America needs to let our nations’ service members know “we have their six”.
“Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened”
-Billy Graham