The Army will immediately begin separating soldiers who refuse the COVID-19 vaccine, it announced this week.
Commanders will initiate involuntary separation procedures against Soldiers who have refused the COVID-19 vaccination order and do not have an approved or pending waiver, an Army news release said Wednesday.
“The readiness of the Army depends on Soldiers who are prepared to train, deploy, fight and win our nation’s wars,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said in the statement. “Unvaccinated soldiers present a risk to the force and jeopardize readiness. We will begin involuntary separation procedures for Soldiers who refuse the vaccination order and are not pending a final decision on an exemption.”
A spokesman for the 18th Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg estimated that more than 97% of soldiers here had been vaccinated as of Wednesday.
Plus:North Carolina-Based Soldier and Marine Sue to Block Military COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement
Fort Bragg is the most populous military installation in the United States with about 55,000 service members.
According to the latest Department of Defense data on Wednesday, 597,533 regular Army, National Guard and Reserve soldiers have received the COVID-19 vaccine, and 276,240 are partially vaccinated with at least one dose.
As of January 26, approximately 96% of Army regulars and 79% of reservists have been vaccinated.
Army leaders gave regular soldiers a deadline of Dec. 15, 2021, and reservists and National Guard soldiers until June 30 to receive the vaccine.
According to the Army press release, it has yet to separate any soldiers solely for refusing to comply with a legal order to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
As of January 26, Army commanders had relieved six regular Army leaders, including two battalion commanders, and issued 3,073 written reprimands from general officers to soldiers who refused the vaccination order.
It is not known if any of those soldiers are from Fort Bragg.
Bragg’s soldier refuses the vaccine
On a September 9 cheepKatie Phipps Hague said her husband, Lt. Col. Paul Douglas Hague, has resigned due to various concerns, including the vaccination mandate.
Hague was a signal officer at Fort Bragg assigned to the Army Reserve Command.
His wife tweeted that Dec. 13 was his last day at Fort Bragg, and a log provided to The Fayetteville Observer says his last day of service with the Army was Thursday.
In his August 23 resignation letter that his wife shared on Twitter, Hague said he doesn’t think the vaccine has been adequately studied for long-term effects.
Plus:Soldiers at Fort Bragg will be required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine
“I am incapable of submitting to the unlawful, unethical, immoral and tyrannical order to stand by and allow a serum to be injected into my flesh against my will and better judgment,” Hague wrote.
Hague also raised concerns about the current presidential administration and the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
He told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in September that he has completed 18 years of active duty and has two years left until retirement, but he doesn’t want the vaccine.
Hague said he believed he could “manipulate” himself during those last two years, but he would sacrifice his “personal integrity” and the oath he took to “protect the rights of Americans.”
Hague said he got the other military shots, and for him, it’s not a question of whether he’ll get the shot.
“This is about the freedom of the American people: the right to choose their own medical procedures. The right to decide what will be injected into your body and what will not. That is a natural human right that we cannot take away from people. And I took an oath to protect and uphold the Constitution that gives Americans those rights.”
Hague is not the only soldier at Fort Bragg who has raised concerns about the vaccine.
Bragg Soldier Sues DOD
After Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced the COVID-19 vaccine mandate in August, Master Sgt. Daniel Robert, an infantryman from Fort Bragg, joined Marine Sgt. Hollie Mulvihill, air traffic controller at Marine Corps Air Station New River Jacksonville, filing a lawsuit in US District Court in Colorado to vacate the mandate.
They named Austin and the US Department of Defense, the Department of Health and Human Services and its Secretary, Xavier Becerra, and the Food and Drug Administration and its Acting Secretary, Janet Woodcock, as defendants.
Austin’s August 24 order states that, after consulting with medical experts and leaders, it determined the vaccine is necessary to “force protect and defend the American people.” The order states that only licensed vaccines will be used in the future.
Plus:With COVID-19 mutations on the rise, Fort Bragg soldiers discuss vaccine hesitancy
Robert and Mulvihill’s lawsuit states that they both contracted COVID-19 and recovered, and that their natural immunity should serve in lieu of the vaccine.
The plaintiffs asked the court to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent the military from enforcing the vaccination requirement, claiming it would harm them.
On September 1, a judge denied the request for a temporary restraining order.
Judge Raymond Moore ruled in favor of the defendants on January 11, closing the case.
Lawyers for Robert and Mulvihill filed an appeal of the judge’s ruling on Tuesday.
In its response to the lawsuit, the Army noted that the Department of Defense’s immunization program has been in place for decades and requires all service members to receive nine immunizations and an additional eight “depending on circumstances such as deployment.”
They said “immunization requirements have been common in the military for generations and are critical to reducing morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases in the military, where service members must routinely operate in close quarters,” beginning with the General George Washington’s 1777 address for the Continental. Smallpox Army.
The defense said the COVID-19 vaccine was added to the DOD’s vaccine list after the pandemic killed more than 770,000 Americans.
According to the DOD on Monday, there have been 92 reported service member deaths from COVID-19.
The defense argues that a court order would be “unprecedented” and would cause “judicial interference in military matters.”
“A court order against Department of Defense requirements for a COVID-19 vaccine would degrade military readiness, undermine efforts to combat the deadly coronavirus, and harm national security,” the response read.
The defense said COVID-19 vaccines are safe as reviewed by the FDA during a Phizer clinical trial of approximately 46,000 participants and more than 350 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered between December 2020 and August. of 2021.
They wrote that Mulvihill received a temporary medical exemption from the vaccine requirement and that Robert’s application is pending and that neither of the plaintiffs “shall suffer any adverse employment or disciplinary consequences for noncompliance while they have an exemption or an exemption application pending. “
While the Army regulation grants a medical exemption from an immunization requirement on a case-by-case basis, the defense said there is no automatic exemption based on prior infection, using the flu as an example.
“Furthermore, plaintiffs’ argument that the vaccine itself, if taken, would cause irreparable harm is not supported by credible evidence,” the defense argued.
Furthermore, the defense argued, an injunction against the “Department of Defense directive would adversely affect the public interest and national security of the United States.”
Plus:Federal Government Files Motion to Dismiss Challenge to Military Vaccine Mandate
“If unvaccinated, plaintiffs could become infected with COVID-19, become seriously ill, and face hospitalization and death, all of which would affect their unit’s readiness. Unvaccinated service members could also spread the coronavirus to others, which is of particular concern to the military, given that many service members work in close quarters or operational settings.”
According to this week’s Army news release, unvaccinated Soldiers who have applied for a medical exemption or religious accommodations are temporarily exempt from the COVID-19 vaccination requirement while their applications are reviewed.
Soldiers who receive denials of their requests for medical exemptions or religious accommodations will have seven calendar days from the denial to begin a COVID-19 vaccination regimen or file an appeal.
If the appeal is denied, they will have seven calendar days to start the vaccination regimen.
Soldiers who will complete their separation or retirement, or begin transitional leave, on or before July 1 will be granted a temporary waiver and allowed to complete their separation or retirement.
Writer Rachael Riley can be reached at [email protected] or 910-486-3528.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism