Posted on 03/04/2023 4:10:52 AM PST by george76
The Department of Defense (DOD) is mulling moving forward with discharges for some servicemembers who did not seek exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, according to a Feb. 24 letter from the Office of the Secretary of Defense viewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
As of Friday, the services have rescinded their vaccination orders as required by Congress.
“It’s very important that our service members go and follow orders when they are lawful,” Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Gilbert Cisneros told Republican Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana Tuesday.
The military is considering discharging servicemembers who did not seek a medical or religious exemption to the COVID-19 vaccine and received adverse actions to their military records, according to a letter to Republican Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Mike Rogers of Alabama viewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation and testimony provided to Congress on Tuesday.
Although the military services have rolled back their COVID-19 vaccine requirements and halted discharges of unvaccinated members after Congress legislated the end of the department-wide mandate, the Department of Defense is mulling moving forward with separations if members did not seek religious or medical exemptions, according to a Feb. 24 letter from the Office of the Secretary of Defense viewed by the DCNF. When pressed for an explanation at a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee Tuesday, service leaders said vaccine refusal cases are still being dealt with on an individual basis.
“Appropriate officials within the military services continue to review cases on an individual basis to determine appropriate action for service members who did not submit an exemption or accommodation request, remained unvaccinated, and refused a lawful order to take the vaccine,” the letter said
...
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin formally rescinded the order to receive the COVID-19 vaccine on Jan. 10 as directed by Congress in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed in December. In the weeks following, each military service branch has formulated guidance echoing the rescission.
“It’s very important that our service members go and follow orders when they are lawful,” Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Gilbert Cisneros said in response to a question from Banks questioning the reasoning behind continued review.
“What is the point if we rescinded the mandate?” Banks asked.
“The situation that you just described it was members who refused the vaccine, disobeyed a lawful order,” Cisneros continued. “Services are going through a process to look at that and evaluate what needs to be done in those situations.”
He said several thousand members did not seek any accommodations.
Roughly 8,400 members were discharged, but in 2022 several legal cases blocked the services from issuing discharges to the remainder of unvaccinated servicemembers, and the Army voluntarily paused discharges.
...
Soldiers, sailors and airmen who have already been discharged have the opportunity to petition their service branch to change the characterization of their discharge to honorable, according to guidance issued by each service.
However, those who bucked orders to receive the vaccine and did not seek medical or religious accommodations could have violations of the military justice code and other disciplinary consequences ingrained on their records, Under Secretary of the Army Gabe Camarillo said. Those violations would in normal circumstances lead to discharge, he explained.
Representatives from the Navy and Air Force echoed Camarillo’s explanation.
“Aggravating factors” beyond sole refusal to receive the vaccine will not be able to scrub their files of all adverse actions, Under Secretary of the Air Force Gina Ortiz-Jones said.
...
In a letter to DOD from earlier in February, Banks and Rogers asked the department to provide clarity on each service’s process for removing the vaccine mandate and reintegrating unvaccinated members into the force. They asked whether the rescission memos implied that only members who submitted accommodation requests are exempt from the vaccine in the future.
“No Service members currently serving will be separated based solely on their refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccination, if they sought an accommodation based on religious, administrative, or medical grounds,” the Friday response said.
“The department has complied with the NDAA requirements,” Cisneros said in his opening statements. He reiterated that no vaccination requirement exists for new military accessions — enlisted, officers, cadets and other programs — or retention.
No worries. LOL. But I thought Freeper handles were SUPPOSED to be obscure references!
My organization stated in a management meeting that they would not even bother looking at the exemptions. Dumb azzes never thought there were managers in that meeting with exemptions in the system. They did it on a recorded online meeting. Needless to say that recording got deleted in 10 days. Some organizations it’s better to do nothing than follow their rules and self identify as someone in opposition to whatever is being required or discussed.
You have to go through a humiliating procedure where people tell you they know about your religious believes more than you do and if you punch them in the face they don’t approve your waiver request.
There is no exemption for I don’t want to be part of this.
If you want to believe the Daily Caller go ahead.
Tgey didn’t apply for an exemption because there is none
Do you actually believe there’s any kind of medical exemption? There isn’t. There is no doctor saying this person is exempt.
You think there’s a medical exemption for tge military? The healthiest people on the planet? Tgat some military doctor is going to write?
The Daily Caller doesn’t even think so. They lie.
You think the military is going to let some guy claim religious exemption that hasn’t been in a church once in his life or once since the last wedding he went to, and they can and will prove it, because they’ve been ordered to vax everyone up to now long after years after Covid is a problem
There is no exemption for which to apply.
You are wrong and the Daily Caller is wrong and so is anyone pretending these people had or have any choice. They don’t.
There were no exemptions for military. Even daily mass going Catholics were getting denied. That is a fact.
What military member is sick enough to get an exemption who is fit enough for deployment?
None
What military doctor was going to claim exemption for a patient?
None
What illness gets exempted. Th
The ignorance is outrageous
. .
This is why people think you’re a dumb Canadian.
Ever think some didn’t HAVE a medical a religious or medical exemption - they just didn’t want unknown or possibly *evil shit through their veins?
Just punch Alberta's Child in the face for, once again, making a Canadian ass of himself.
The Pentagon said if they put on dresses they will be Exempted
WAS it a lawful order? DID they disobey it?
The “vaccine they were ordered to take, doesn’t actually exist in the US, but our military attempted to pass off a relabeled concoction as the one they were supposed to take.
Many of them knew of the wonderful anthrax jab.
https://search.brave.com/search?q=anthrax+vaccine+long+term+side+effects+va&source=web
Because this experimental gene therapy has been proven to be a deadly and ineffective, variant producing, illness generating political tool, wouldn’t it be more to the credit of those declining shots?
These soldiers had the character and foresight to protect themselves and the health and readiness of the armed forces. They should be celebrated.
IDK why anyone would join the military when the chain of command is so screwed up.
I don’t know what kind of organization you work for, but that is the exact opposite of what I’ve seen here on FR. At least 90% of the Freepers I know who requested medical or religious exemptions from their employers’ vaccine mandates were successful — no questions asked. In fact, most of these employers (as I suspected) were so afraid of losing key employees that they would have accepted ANY half-assed “religious” statement as a legitimate reason to grant an exemption.
I just told my employer “I ain’t doin’ it.”
This has nothing to do with me and nothing to do with the Daily Caller. They are just reporting on what is happening with this particular group of Congressmen. For the second time — READ THE ARTICLE …
The military is considering discharging servicemembers who did not seek a medical or religious exemption to the COVID-19 vaccine and received adverse actions to their military records, according to a letter to Republican Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Mike Rogers of Alabama viewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation and testimony provided to Congress on Tuesday.
You can divide the military personnel into three groups:
1. Those who took the vaccine
2. Those who refused to take the vaccine and applied for religious or medical exemptions
3. Those who refused to take the vaccine and DID NOT apply for religious or medical exemptions.
The letter referenced in the Daily Caller only related to Group #3. Nobody at the Daily Caller has said anything about whether these people had any chance in hell of getting their exemption request approved. Neither have I. Nothing I’ve said here has any relevance to whether the requests would have been approved. But from a LEGAL standpoint, Group #2 is in a much stronger position than Group #3 when it comes to forcing the government’s hand in restoring positions and rank, recovering lost income, etc.
Thanks. I appreciate the input from the special education class here on FR.
Exactly. That goes without saying.
I’m self-employed, but I told my clients who imposed their own stupid mandates the same thing.
You are correct. Most companies went hard on mandates at first then backed off and granted the exemption. Some went in hard and then went silent in a wait and see. My employer did the second but I had other companies offer me an open invitation with an understanding that my exemption would be honored if I chose to make a move. Current status is the entire thing just died without it being brought up or being enforced. Still a BS event to try to force the world to get an experimental treatment. The entire thing was just very Orwellian as it occurred.
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