Tag Archives: military

The Washington Post reports: Roughly 40,000 Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers remain unvaccinated against the coronavirus a week before the service’s deadline, according to Army data, highlighting the persistent struggle for commanders to bring soldiers under compliance. Soldiers in the Army Reserve and Army National Guard were given until this coming Thursday to receive the vaccine, seek an exemption …

The Associated Press reports: The Novavax vaccine may be an acceptable option for some of the 27,000 service members who have sought religious exemptions from the mandatory vaccine. Military officials say many troops who refuse the shots cite certain COVID-19 vaccines’ remote connection to abortions. Laboratory-grown cell lines descended from fetuses that were aborted decades ago were used in some …

Military.com reports: The Army is circulating a draft policy tweak that would specify that soldiers can request to move if they feel state or local laws discriminate against them based on gender, sex, religion, race or pregnancy, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the plans. The guidance, which would update a vague service policy to add specific language …

Military.com reports: A Wisconsin National Guardsman who pleaded guilty to charges related to his role in the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is being removed from the military, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation. However, he has been allowed to continue his military training for a year after he was first charged, …

Courthouse News Service reports: The Supreme Court sided with the Defense Department on Friday afternoon, blocking a lower court ruling that would force the military to deploy unvaccinated Navy SEALs fighting a Covid-19 vaccine mandate. There was no majority opinion on the ruling but Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a concurring opinion. Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito dissented. …

The New York Times reports: Four U.S. Marines were killed in Norway during a NATO training exercise, Norwegian police said on Saturday. The Marines had been taking part in a long-planned exercise called Cold Response on Friday when their MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft crashed south of Bodo, in the northern county of Nordland, the Royal Norwegian Air Force said in …

The New York Times reports: The military base in Maryland that the president and the vice president use to travel to and from Washington was put on lockdown on Sunday night when two people, at least one of whom was armed, bypassed a security checkpoint at about the time that Vice President Kamala Harris and four Cabinet members landed there. …

San Diego’s NBC News affiliate reports: A sailor was stopped by Navy security at the main gate of NAS North Island in Coronado Tuesday morning with bomb-making materials in his pickup truck, a base spokesperson confirmed. Navy Security Forces stopped the sailor at the request of Naval Criminal Investigative Service, according to base spokesperson Kevin Dixon. The bomb-making materials were …

The Associated Press reports: Warning that extremism in the ranks is increasing, Pentagon officials issued detailed new rules Monday prohibiting service members from actively engaging in extremist activities. The new guidelines come nearly a year after some current and former service members participated in the riot at the U.S. Capitol, triggering a broad department review. The new policy lays out …

The Washington Post reports: The number of active-duty U.S. military personnel declining to be vaccinated against the coronavirus by their prescribed deadlines is as high as 40,000, with new Army data showing that, days ahead of its cutoff, 3 percent of soldiers either have rejected President Biden’s mandate or sought a long-shot exemption. Military leaders have few options to address …

Stars & Stripes reports: Cmdr. Lucian Kins was relieved of his duties Friday as second in command of the USS Winston Churchill, a destroyer, by Navy Capt. Ken Anderson, commander of Naval Surface Squadron 14. Officials said Kins was the first naval officer to be fired as a result of a vaccine refusal. A spokesman for the Naval Surface Force …

CBS News reports: The House on Monday night approved the 2022 annual defense bill, which authorizes programs and spending guidelines for the Pentagon and other national security programs, includes changes to military prosecutions, more money for Ukraine and a pay raise for service members. The bill had bipartisan support, garnering 363 votes. Fifty-one Democrats and 19 Republicans voted against it. …

From the Department of Defense: Today, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, in close collaboration with the Director of National Intelligence, directed the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security to establish within the Office of the USD(I&S) the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG) as the successor to the U.S. Navy’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force. …

The New York Times reports: Two months after the Pentagon began requiring all troops to get the coronavirus vaccine or face dismissal, the vast majority have now had shots, in part because none received a religious exemption, military officials said. While vaccine exemptions are often broadly worded, requests based on religious beliefs are coming under close scrutiny in the military …

Roll Call reports: Facing criticism that mandates for coronavirus vaccinations could force the Defense Department to fire thousands of civilians, contractors and troops, the Biden administration is signaling that vaccine resisters may get more time to comply. Three administration officials in the last couple of days have described the deadlines not as the dates when an axe will fall but …

Via press release from the US Naval Command: Sailors must be prepared to execute their mission at all times, in places throughout the world, including where vaccination rates are low and disease transmission is high. Immunizations are of paramount importance to protecting the health of the force and the warfighting readiness of the Fleet. “To date, over 98 percent of …

From the military blog Defense One: Catholic U.S. troops should be allowed to refuse the COVID-19 vaccine based solely on conscientious objection and regardless of whether abortion-related tissue was used in its creation or testing, the archbishop for the military declared in a new statement supporting service members who are seeking religious exemptions. “No one should be forced to receive …

The Washington Post reports: A Navy nuclear engineer and his wife have been charged with repeatedly trying to pass secrets about U.S. nuclear submarines to a foreign country, in an alleged espionage plot discovered by the FBI, according to court documents. Authorities say Jonathan Toebbe, who has a top-secret clearance, “has passed, and continues to pass, Restricted Data as defined …

The Washington Post reports: Hundreds of thousands of U.S. service members remain unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated against the coronavirus as the Pentagon’s first compliance deadlines near, with lopsided rates across the individual services and a spike in deaths among military reservists illustrating how political division over the shots has seeped into a nonpartisan force with unambiguous orders. For instance, …

Via press release from the White House: Ten years ago today, a great injustice was remedied and a tremendous weight was finally lifted off the shoulders of tens of thousands of dedicated American service members. The repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, which formally barred gay, lesbian, and bisexual service members from openly serving, helped move our nation closer to …