The National Guard is a unique branch of the U.S. military that holds both state and national responsibilities ranging from responding to domestic natural disasters to supporting overseas operations. But tens of thousands of National Guard troops are at risk of being discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, worrying lawmakers on Capitol Hill that the Guard will be left crippled.
Approximately 40,000 National Guard and 22,000 Reserve troops did not receive their COVID vaccines by the June 30 deadline that was set in place by the Biden administration and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Those who failed to comply were cut off from some benefits and barred from participation in certain military duties. As of July 27, the total number of unvaccinated members of the Guard and Reserve hovers at 39,600.1
Due to both the state and international duties of the Guard, federal officials and governors have argued over who has the final legal say on the vaccine mandates. This has allowed for Guard and Reserve troops to have an extended deadline of seven months longer than other service members.
Military Facing Lowest Recruiting Numbers Since Vietnam War
Every branch of the military is already facing recruiting difficulties. Military recruitment numbers are the lowest they have been since the Vietnam War. The Army is expecting to reach only 40 percent of its recruitment target for the fiscal year—missing its recruiting goal by 40,000 individuals.2
“We’re talking about states potentially losing up to 20 percent to 30 percent of their guardsmen and women, replacing them in a very difficult recruiting environment, much less getting them trained to the capability they once were” said Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida. “When the next crisis comes to our shores the U.S. will lack the number [of] Guardsmen and women to come to our rescue.”1
Over 1,000 members of the Marine Corps have been discharged for refusal to comply with the vaccine mandate; 469 discharged from the Navy, 287 from the Air Force, and 345 from the Army.3
Pentagon Refuses to Budge on COVID Vaccine Mandates
Despite lawmakers, governors, and others pushing back against the mandates, Austin has refused to budge, citing national security. Defense Secretary Austin argues that service members who get COVID disease are not able to work, which jeopardizes the ability to meet combat mission requirements. Secretary Austin wrote to governors that vaccination is key to maintain a healthy military force and to protecting the American people.4
Katherine Kuzminski, director of the Military, Veterans, and Society program, stated:
The whole foundation of military action and conflict is based upon the ability to follow through with a lawful order…they don’t necessarily want to retain people who have indicated that they won’t follow a lawful order when it comes to vaccination.1
Several Republican governors are fighting the vaccine mandate for their National Guard troops, with governors from Alaska, Oklahoma, and Texas filing lawsuits over the mandate.3
Rep. Waltz, a 26-year veteran, said:
I fully understand… good order and discipline and ‘an order is an order’. You order the platoon to charge the machine gun on the top of the hill, they’ve got to follow it. But I also think it’s incumbent on us as leaders to constantly evaluate the cost and the risk of our orders. Maybe charging that hill is going to be too costly to that unit.1
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Click here to view References:1 Shkolnikova S. Fate of unvaccinated National Guard members and reservists sparks fear on Capitol Hill of mass military separations. Stars and Stripes July 27, 2022.
2 Kube C, Boigon M. Every branch of the military is struggling to make its 2022 recruiting goals, officials say. NBC News June 27, 2022.
3 Hadley G. Nearly all Airmen discharged over Covid-19 vaccine gets general discharges. Air Force Mag Apr. 29, 2022.
4 Associated Press. Austin to governors: Guard troops must get Covid vaccine. Politico Jan. 31, 2022.
8 Responses
Oh, we’re not gonna take it.☣️?
No, we ain’t gonna take it.
We’ve got the right to choose, and
There ain’t no way we’ll loose it.
This is our life, this is our health.
We’ll fight the powers that be, just
Don’t pick our destiny, ’cause
You don’t know is, you don’t belong.
Oh, we’re not going take it. ?☣️
No, we ain’t gonna take it.
Oh, we’re not going take it anymore.
Oh, your do condescending.
Your gall is never ending.
We don’t want anything, not a thing from you.
Your life is trite and jaded,
Boreing and confiscated.
If that’s your best, your best won’t do!
We’re right?
We’re Free!
We’ll fight !
You’ll see!
Oh, we’re not going take it. ☣️?
No, we ain’t gonna take it !
And don’t you take it ?☣️ either!
So as we have said all along all covid measures are for compliance testing. Not health, not safety – only compliance.
Masking , injecting, lockdowns. All are ONLY compliance tests. Nothing more.
Personnel of all ranks are not just required to follow orders, they are also obligated to refuse to follow illegitimate or immoral ones. By their own admission, the powers acknowledge their reasoning is to simply find out which personnel will follow orders. If the vaccine actually worked many more would be willing to comply. Our military personnel are not, and should not be, mindless robots who blindly follow every order–the Nuremberg Trials demonstrated that to the world.
Bastiat: The cruel choice. “When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing is moral sense, or losing his respect for the law.”
It is a new day and time and soldiers are not mindless machines. We want people who can think. And, yes, object!. All the Nazis were just “following orders”. Extreme comparison? But if those people would have stepped out of their group think then terrible mistakes would have been avoided.
But we can pay for gender changes. Where is our thinking leadership?
Somewhere along the way, someone paperclipped this when they meant to paperclip that.
Good ideas do not require force. The enemy in modern times, comes from within. And everywhere else.
A friend of liberty is a friend of mine. I wish I had friends. Can’t find any lately in this liberal bowl.
Just re hire the mercenaries, that’s all a modern day soldier is expected to be anyways, guns for hire.
Keep in mind that national guard troops have done for our country, so we should thank them for their service in spite of vaccination status. So for that reason I stand by their choice to decline Covid vaccine as well as other vaccines. Legal disputes are unnecessary stresses among troops and those who work for federal government and health care work jobs.
Draft the phizer and moderna board members first! Then all the high level people from woke corporations. We’ll see how they feel prancing around in red high heels, wearing rainbow pins, being forced to use pronouns and bunk with people of opposite biological sex or those experiencing extreme gender dysphoria. Quadruple jabs of every known injectable substance for everyone!
Top Gun ain’t going to save em this time.