Coast Guard Members Discharged Over Refusing Vaccine Allege They Have Been Wrongfully Denied Separation Pay

Former Petty Officer Second Class Chris Collins was separated from the Coast Guard on Nov. 7, 2022, over his refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Courtesy of Collins

Coast Guard personnel separated for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine say they have been denied the separation pay they have rightfully earned through years of honorable service.

Petty Officer Second Class (E-5) Chris Collins originally asked for a medical exemption, but his request was “outright denied” in October 2021, he told The Epoch Times. Collins had just recovered from COVID-19 and feared the vaccine would complicate matters. In the same month, his request for religious accommodation was also denied.

Having served nearly 12 years as an aviation maintenance technician, Collins was separated from the Coast Guard on Nov. 7, 2022.

“Technically, most of us are getting kicked out of the Coast Guard according to Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) Article 90 and Article 92,” he said, referring to the violations of willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer, and failure to obey an order or regulation, respectively.

“We haven’t been convicted of assaulting or disobeying a superior officer, or failing to obey a lawful order, but that’s what we’re being accused of.”

Collins said a conviction would require a court-martial, and this is something the Coast Guard has avoided. “Instead, they’re acting as judge, jury, and executioner,” he said. “They’re saying we were accused of it, and our punishment for being accused is to say we are not worldwide deployable.” And as a result, he said, “they are able to discharge us and not offer us an administrative board to hear our case.”

“Since I was involuntarily separated, I thought some sort of separation pay would be provided,” Collins said. “None of that was offered or even considered.”

The issue, according to attorney R. Davis Younts, is that the vaccine mandate had an impact on typical policy and procedure. Lt. Col. Younts currently serves as an Air Force Reserve Judge Advocate General (JAG), and represents multiple military clients in his private capacity as a civilian attorney.

“The problem for those who have been denied a religious or medical accommodation is that their discharge, while involuntary, may be considered misconduct, making them ineligible for separation pay,” Younts told The Epoch Times.

A Quick Exit

Collins was given a 30-day notice of his discharge date. He said, “I was blown away by the quickness at which they were going to get us out.”

Furthermore, he alleged, “It’s mandatory in the Coast Guard that you receive some sort of separation training, but 30 days was not enough time to schedule and meet their own requirements for separation” As a result, he was not given the opportunity to pursue “transition training” that would have potentially helped him re-enter the civilian workforce.

Prior to his discharge, Collins also began to experience a medical issue that would have precluded him from performing his job. “None of that was addressed before my discharge,” he said. “I was told to deal with it when I got out.” According to him, “this is against Coast Guard regulations, but they did it anyway. None of my medical issues were sorted out.” A medical evaluation process should have begun, which could have resulted in medical retirement, he contends.

Rear Adm. Richard V. Timme (L) awards Petty Officer Second Class Chris Collins (R) with an Air Medal for his efforts rescuing oil rig workers trapped in a fire in February 2022. Courtesy of Collins

“Ironically, before I got kicked out, I received an Air Medal from the admiral that would go on to sign my discharge paperwork three months later,” he added. The Air Medal was awarded for a rescue he participated in earlier this year. “There was an oil rig that caught fire and nine workers were trapped roughly 120 feet off the ground,” he said. “We pulled all of them off in under 30 minutes, with no injuries.”

Another Separation

Petty Officer Third Class (E-4) Tabitha Woolery once served as a Marine Science Technician for the Coast Guard. A promotion to Petty Officer Second Class (E-5) was cut short due to her refusal of the COVID-19 vaccine. On July 8, after nearly eight years of service, she was subsequently separated from the Coast Guard.

Shortly after the Coast Guard’s adoption of a military vaccine mandate, her command initially threatened a negative mark on her record if she did not receive the COVID-19 vaccine by a certain date. But after refusing, they simply gave her another deadline.

Former Petty Officer Third Class Tabitha Woolery. Courtesy of Woolery

Requests for both religious accommodation and medical exemption were denied. Thus, she became part of the first 156 service members to be separated by the Coast Guard. While the process of separations was set to begin in December 2021, the threat dragged on for the next five months.

“At the end of April, I got pulled into the office and was told they were going to separate me,” Woolery said. “But I didn’t know how much time I had left.” Her command couldn’t give her “a straight answer,” she alleged. After numerous attempts to pinpoint a date, she said, “an entire week had passed to get an answer of 30 days.”

Like Collins, Woolery expected separation pay that’s available for Coasties who are regularly discharged or involuntarily discharged. To date, she has not received such pay.

Woolery’s own command was unable to answer questions about the separation pay she thought she was entitled to, she said.

“I wrote Enlisted Personnel Management (EPM) an email, telling them I could not get help from my command,” Woolery said. In response, Woolery received what she described as a “nasty” email, indicating that she did not qualify for the pay since she was being separated for refusing to take the vaccine.

“But this isn’t stated in the manual,” she said. “I met the criteria of an honorable discharge and a good record, but clearly that’s being ignored.”

“Where was the Coast Guard’s integrity?” she said, referring to “the one they demanded from us, which we gave effortlessly for this country.”

Younts emphasized that his views do not reflect those of the Department of Defense or the Department of the Air Force. The Coast Guard did not return an inquiry from The Epoch Times about Collins’s and Woolery’s cases.