The U.S. Army announced Wednesday plans to immediately start discharging soldiers who have not received the Covid-19 vaccine, a move that could affect more than 3,300 service members who have refused the shot.
Army Secretary Christine Wormuth on Wednesday ordered commanders to start involuntary separation proceedings for those who have refused the vaccine and do not have a pending or approved exemption.
“Army readiness depends on soldiers who are prepared to train, deploy, fight and win our nation’s wars,” she said, according to the Associated Press. “Unvaccinated soldiers present risk to the force and jeopardize readiness. We will begin involuntary separation proceedings for Soldiers who refuse the vaccine order and are not pending a final decision on an exemption.”
The announcement comes after the Pentagon ordered all service members to receive the vaccine, including those who are active-duty and in the National Guard or Reserves. The Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy have already discharged active-duty troops or entry-level personnel at boot camps who have refused the mandatory shots.
More than 650 Marines, airmen and sailors have been discharged or dismissed from entry-level training at boot camps, data from this week and last week show, according to the AP.
The Army, which is the last to begin enforcing the policy, said last week more than 3,000 soldiers have been given official written reprimands, the AP reported. About 97 percent of Army soldiers have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, while more than 3,000 have requested medical or religious exemptions.
The military services have worked to review the cases of those who request medical, administrative or religious exemptions, requiring soldiers to undergo counseling with medical personnel, chaplains and senior commanders.
Wormuth’s directive covers active-duty soldiers, reserves serving on active duty, and cadets at the Military Academy at West Point, its preparatory school and ROTC.
Soldiers will be discharged for misconduct; those who are eligible to retire can do so before July 1, the order says.
Last month, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Department of Defense from taking action against 35 Navy service members who refused a Covid vaccine because of religious objections.
Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas issued the injunction after service members from the Navy SEALS and Naval Special Warfare Command sued the Biden administration over the military vaccine mandate.
“The Navy servicemembers in this case seek to vindicate the very freedoms they have sacrificed so much to protect,” O’Connor wrote. “The COVID-19 pandemic provides the government no license to abrogate those freedoms. There is no COVID-19 exception to the First Amendment. There is no military exclusion from our Constitution.”
The First Liberty Institute, which is representing the Navy SEALs, filed a motion on Monday asking the judge to hold the Navy in contempt for not honoring the judge’s order.
“A substantial number of them continue to experience this harassment for being unvaccinated,” Mike Berry, the lawyer representing the SEALs, told the Washington Examiner. “We expect the Navy to follow the law. The Department of Defense is not above the law. And right now, they seem to be acting as if they are above the law.”
Source: National Review
