Naval Lieutenant Levi Beaird, a Texan from Fort Worth, was surprised to learn that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) invited him to attend the State of the Union address. Beaird hopes his presence will bring attention to the more than 60,000 military personnel who faced consequences after refusing the COVID shot.
Cruz recently filed the Allowing Military Exemptions, Recognizing Individual Concerns About New Shots Act (AMERICANS) to build on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2023, which included language from legislation Cruz introduced last year to repeal the COVID-19 vaccine mandate in the Department of Defense.
The newest AMERICANS Act includes a requirement that the Secretary of Defense offer reinstatement to service members who were fired over the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate and prohibits the secretary of defense from taking any adverse action against a covered member based solely on the refusal to receive a COVID vaccination shot.
“The disregard this administration has for our service members is unconscionable, in fact it borders on outright contempt,“ Cruz told The Epoch Times in an email. ”My guest, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Levi Beaird, is a Surface Warfare Officer, and like so many others in our military, has had his livelihood threatened and faces serious retribution from this administration just for seeking an exemption from the COVID vaccine. Lieutenant Beaird is among the thousands of capable Sailors, Soldiers, Airmen and Marines this administration is eager to discharge and punish just for seeking an exemption. I’m proud to host him at the Capitol and I’m proud to fight for every service member battling this injustice.”
Using a Religious Accommodation Request, Beaird refused to receive the Navy’s mandated COVID-19 shot and was threatened with a discharge from the Navy. Days before he was to be involuntarily discharged, in March of 2022, a court decision in the case Navy SEALs 1-26 v. Biden stopped the discharge process.
Pressure to Take Shot Remains
Beaird and others who refused the shot continued to serve but have not been allowed to fully participate in building their career on the same trajectory. They still face repercussions for refusing the vaccine.That is because the Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to allow Navy commanders to continue to make operational deployment and assignment decisions.
In Beaird’s case, it means being denied a position that he would otherwise have if he had taken the shot and paying the Navy back for his education and retention bonus.
He graduated in 2019 from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, with a master’s degree in national security studies and was given a $105,000 retention bonus, which is paid in installments. The education and bonus obligate him to serve three years as a department head. If he doesn’t meet the obligation, he must pay the Navy back for the cost of both.
He expected to be the chief engineer on a Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) out of Mayport, Florida, but now the Navy won’t send him to a ship or allow him to do the job he trained for and is obligated to carry out.
The Navy stopped his scheduled bonus payments and is requiring Beaird, a father of four, to return $75,000 in bonuses already received. He also faces repaying hundreds of thousands of dollars for his military education.
“Even with my first denial, I knew my career is over,” Beaird told The Epoch Times. “The Navy is forcing me to choose between the God I love and the service that I love. I’m not going to violate my conscience—my sincerely held religious views. The decision, while clear, was not easy, and it hurt, because it was really the start of the death of my career.”
The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in the case Monday. The Navy says the case is over, but Navy SEALS, through the attorneys at First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit that defends religious freedom, are asking the court to continue, saying the over 4,000 Navy service members in the case are still being harmed because the Navy is allowed to make operational deployment and assignment decisions based on who is vaccinated.
“What we have seen over the course of this litigation, which basically has been the entire time that the mandate has been in place since 2021, is that those very decisions are the ones that have been harming religious service members in a way that it’s ending their careers. And that has to end, because that is what is continuing to happen,” Danielle Runyan, counsel for First Liberty Institute told The Epoch Times.
