In August, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a guidance that called for all U.S. troops to get vaccinated against COVID. At the time, about 800,000 service members remained unvaccinated. The punishment for not getting the vaccine was an honorable discharge.
Now, U.S. service members are caught between a rock and hard place as the Commander in Chief's vaccine mandate has reached their department. According to Liberty Counsel, a 501 tax-exempt religious liberty organization that participates in litigation related to evangelical Christian values, they have been "inundated with heart-rending pleas for help from military members who are being ordered to get the COVID shots or face discipline" since the vaccine mandates were established, The Blaze reported.
In fact, a report revealed how a United States Marine who served in Afghanistan during Operation Freedom Sentinel and Operation Southern Vigilance is now facing dishonorable discharge if he defies the COVID vaccine mandate.
According to the report, the Afghanistan war veteran "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 Afghanistan war veteran was also previously diagnosed with two heart conditions, arrhythmia and right bundle branch blockage, placing him at higher risk for developing blood clots and heart inflammation, two known side effects of the COVID vaccine. The report said that the only way the Marine could obtain a medical waiver was that if the diagnoses was "congenital heart failure." He was also informed that religious exemptions would not be provided.
"If I don't stand for what I believe in, I could never look at myself in the mirror again," the unnamed Afghanistan war veteran declared. "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."
In September, the Biden administration said it "strongly opposes" a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act, which would then only allow commanders to honorably discharge service members who refuse to get vaccinated against COVID, instead of ordering them to a dishonorable discharge, Fox News reported.
The White House argued, "To enable a uniformed force to fight with discipline, commanders must have the ability to give orders and take appropriate disciplinary measures."
But the dishonorable discharge, according to Vet Verify, is a "punitive discharge rather than an administrative discharge" that is handed down "or what the military considers the most reprehensible conduct" for acts that a general court-martial would consider "serious offenses" such as "desertion, sexual assault, murder," among others.
Those who are handed down a dishonorable discharge are also "regarded as shameful" and will find it "very difficult to obtain gainful post-service employment." They will also be prohibited from owning firearms, voting, receiving government aid and/or bank loans, and work at the state or government level.
In response, Republican Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Roger Marshall of Kansas, and James Lankford of Oklahoma drafted the COVID-19 Vaccine Dishonorable Discharge Prevention Act to prevent the Department of Defense from handing down dishonorable discharge orders.
"It's an insult to our servicemen and women who have served with honor to dishonorably discharge them for refusing the COVID vaccine," Sen. Cruz said. "Forcing all service members, including pregnant women and those who have already had COVID-19, to receive the vaccine is just one more example of President Biden and his administration putting politics ahead of science."
