Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin gave a memo in August demanding mandatory vaccinations for all U.S. troops. At that point, there were purportedly over 800,000 unvaccinated service members.
The Biden administration recently objected against an amendment that would guarantee any military member who declined to get the COVID-19 would be given an honorable discharge.
“The Administration strongly opposes section 716, which would detract from readiness and limit a commander’s options for enforcing good order and discipline when a Service member fails to obey a lawful order to receive a vaccination,” the White House argued against the provision. “To enable a uniformed force to fight with discipline, commanders must have the ability to give orders and take appropriate disciplinary measures.”
There are apparently current American service members who are very upset about the possibility of declining the COVID-19 vaccine and being dishonorably discharged, as per Liberty Counsel – a self-portrayed “Christian ministry that proclaims, advocates, supports, advances, and defends the good news that God in the person of Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins and offers forgiveness and eternal life to all who accept him as Lord and Savior.”
The association professes to have been “inundated with heart-rending pleas for help from military members who are being ordered to get the COVID shots or face discipline.”
“A United States Marine who served in Afghanistan during Operation Freedom Sentinel and Operation Southern Vigilance is facing dishonorable discharge if he does not get the COVID shots,” the report alleged. “This service member graduated as the Honor Graduate of the class in a course meant for Corporals and Sergeants and is currently serving as an E4 (Corporal).”
The Marine has already been determined to have two heart conditions: arrhythmia and right bundle branch blockage. “Taking the shot isn’t an option for this Marine due to the side effects of blood clots and heart inflammation being seen,” Liberty Counsel alleged.
“The military personnel informed the Marine that the only way for a medical wavier was that the diagnoses would have to be congenital heart failure,” the report said. “He is also being told there are no religious exemptions.”
The unnamed Marine corporal told Liberty Counsel, “If I don’t stand for what I believe in, I could never look at myself in the mirror again. This is everything I’ve fought for and taught my Marines and everything our Founding Fathers stood against. This is completely unconstitutional and goes against more than one Amendment.”
Last month, Sens. Ted Cruz, Roger Marshall, James Lankford, and Tommy Tuberville, established the COVID-19 Vaccine Dishonorable Discharge Prevention Act to ban the Department of Defense from dishonorably discharging service members for rejecting getting the vaccine.
Cruz bashed President Biden and his administration for threatening American military members with dishonorable discharge over their decision to not get the vaccine.
In August, Rep. Thomas Massie held a conversation with twelve unnamed members of the U.S. military to hear their views on vaccine mandates.
A major with seventeen years of active service told Massie that he already had the coronavirus and got better. However, the officer has a heart condition and is worried about receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Privately I’ve been told that I qualify for a medical exemption, but the pressure put on the medical staff is such that none of the doctors are willing to officially sign off,” he said.