COVID Vaccine Mandates Weakening US Military, Retired Vice Admiral Warns

Members of the U.S. Coast Guard march in the Italian Heritage Parade in San Francisco, Calif., on Oct. 10, 2021. Ilene Eng/The Epoch Times

A retired U.S. Coast Guard rear admiral warned that COVID-19 vaccine mandates are weakening the military and driving down recruitment efforts.

In a letter published Monday, retired Coast Guard Vice Admiral William “Dean” Lee criticized the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate. The rule, implemented in 2021 through the Department of Defense (DOD), has allowed for few religious exemptions.

Lee noted that he is vaccinated himself and isn’t against COVID-19 vaccines, but argued that removing every single service member who refuses the shot violates their constitutional rights and hinders military preparedness. It comes as U.S. Army officials confirmed on Sept. 30 that they failed to meet recruiting goals.

“Reports of recruiting struggles across the services indicate that the vaccine mandates are an impediment to recruiting, exacerbating the current recruiting and retention problems that are already impacting force strength in some DOD components,” the three-star vice admiral wrote in an open letter to members of the Coast Guard. “Enforcement of the blanket mandate is also resulting in separations of thousands of personnel and therefore is exacerbating force strength issues, and thus readiness concerns.”

Across all military branches, hundreds of service members have been discharged for not receiving the vaccines under Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin’s directive. A number of them have applied for religious exemptions but were almost exclusively denied.

Lee told the Washington Examiner in an interview that top officials in the armed service are “patting themselves on the back” because they push “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” or a left-wing training protocol that some say is based on Marxist critical race theory.

However, the vaccine mandate, he said “is neither diverse ... neither equitable [nor] inclusive—because up to seven people that they’re discharging, five of them are members of minority status,” he added. “So that’s not inclusive. So what they’re doing is they’re excluding men and women of faith.”

In response to the seven Coast Guard members being discharged, a spokesman told The Day publication in August that each request was evaluated by authorities in the Coast Guard headquarters and their legal counsel on a case-by-case basis.

“None of the requests was approved. Four cadets chose to become vaccinated after their requests for exemptions were denied and four cadets chose to resign from the Academy,” spokesman David Santos said.

Three Christian members of the Coast Guard in September filed a lawsuit against the military branch’s vaccine mandate, saying it only approved 1 percent of religious exemptions to the shot.

Notably, a member of the Coast Guard who was thanked by President Joe Biden for his recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian faces discharge because he’s not vaccinated. Aviation Survival Technician Second Class Zach Loesch told Breitbart News that he is one of several Coast Guard members who will be discharged in 30 to 60 days.

Recruitment Down

Current and former military and DOD officials have warned in recent days that the armed service is currently seeing shortfalls in recruitment efforts.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin listens to China's Defence Minister Wei Fenghe at the ministerial roundtable luncheon at the Shangri-La Dialogue summit in Singapore on June 11, 2022. Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images

“In the Army’s most challenging recruiting year since the start of the all-volunteer force, we will only achieve 75 percent of our fiscal year 22 recruiting goal,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said in a statement on Sept. 30. “The Army will maintain its readiness and meet all our national security requirements. If recruiting challenges persist, we will draw on the Guard and Reserve to augment active-duty forces, and may need to trim our force structure.”

Army Maj. Charles Spears previously told The Epoch Times that a variety of problems have contributed to the recruiting struggles, including more than three-quarters of American youth being unable to serve without a waiver because of issues such as obesity and addiction.

Warning

Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper in September issued a warning that the U.S. military is “slowly dying” due to poor recruitment, which puts Americans “in danger.”

“The armed services are struggling to meet their recruiting goals like rarely before,” Esper wrote in an article published Sept. 19. “The Army is the most affected, projected to fall short by up to 15,000 soldiers, with a larger deficit expected next year. Experts point to a variety of reasons, such as insufficient pay and benefits, a difficult work-life environment, ‘culture war’ issues, COVID-19, and a strong job market.”

The Epoch Times has contacted the Coast Guard for comment on Lee’s letter.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.