By Col. Jon Trainor, USAF | Real Clear Defense
I am a military chaplain who signed the controversial Declaration of Military Accountability. From my informed vantage point as both a participant in the Religious Accommodation process for the COVID-19 vaccine, and as one of the individuals likely injured by the vaccine, too many senior leaders across the Department of Defense were willfully ignorant, culpably lazy, or outright dishonest in unlawfully denying religious accommodation requests.
Some of these senior commanders prioritized their careers over standing up for service members whom they recognized, or should have recognized, as having strong Constitutional protections for their religious liberties.
The most important of their supposed justifications for denying religious accommodation, readiness, was the very thing compromised by their actions as
1) they discharged 8,339 service members for refusing the vaccine,
2) vaccine injuries continue to mount,
3) members suffer from moral injury as a result of issuing an illegal order, following a broken process, or receiving a vaccine against one’s conscience,
4) many of those still serving have loss of trust in military leadership across the force, and 5) recruiting and retention shortfalls have increased.
Background
When Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued the “Mandatory Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccination of Department of Defense Members” on August 24, 2021, thousands of service members anxiously observing the vaccine rollout began applying for Religious Accommodation as the legally prescribed means of protecting First Amendment right to freedom of religious conscience.
Secretary Austin’s memo forced observant military members to wrestle with at least one of several matters of conscience:
1) Will this novel vaccine cause harm or offer protection?
2) Were the processes used to manufacture this vaccine moral and ethical?
3) If it is harmful and unethically produced, how does taking it impact my standing before God? And
4) Given the previous questions, can the order itself be a moral order?
Of the more than 36,000 waivers sought during the COVID-19 vaccine mandate from August 24, 2021 until it was rescinded on January 10, 2023, the Army approved 6.04%, the Air and Space Force 2.31%, the Navy 1.02%, the Marines 0.52%, and the Coast Guard 0.29% in the active component alone, not including the reserves.
How is it possible that so few requests were approved when something so great as members’ Constitutionally protected religious rights were at stake?
Or, conversely, how could leaders justify seemingly blanket disapprovals when each request was meant to be handled individually on its merits?
The Military Member’s Rights
Service members are protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which states that “…governments should not substantially burden religious exercise without compelling justification.” This principle is implemented by Department of Defense Instruction 1300.17: (DoDI) , which likewise states,
“…the DoD Components will accommodate individual expressions of sincerely held beliefs (conscience, moral principles, or religious beliefs) which do not have an adverse impact on military readiness, unit cohesion, good order and discipline, or health and safety” (italics added).
The bar for determining the sincerity of a member’s beliefs is extremely low, needing to meet only one of the following factors:
1) the requester is credible,
2) the requester’s demeanor and pattern of conduct are consistent with the request,
3) the requester participates in activities associated with the belief,
4) other persons supporting the claim are credible, and
5) the request is supported by letter(s) of verification or endorsement from an organization espousing the beliefs.
Clearly, both law and policy intend great latitude in discerning sincerity and set the default position in favor of accommodation.
Denying the Member’s Constitutional Rights
Since commanders, whose primary duty is to “support and defend the Constitution,” are required to approach each accommodation packet individually and with due consideration of Constitutional rights, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, DoD Instructions, as well as unique service branch guidelines, it is unconscionable that a few commanders across the DoD managed such unity of effort in declining thousands of religious waiver requests.
Commanders obviously concluded that failure to comply with the mandatory vaccine had “a real (not theoretical) adverse impact on military readiness, unit cohesion, good order, discipline, health or safety,” but is this really the case?
Nearly 100 service members died with COVID-19 over three years; 93 were unvaccinated. While this is tragic, from 1980-2022, the US military averaged 256 deaths by illness per year, according to the Defense Casualty Analysis System; there is no increase in deaths by illness during the occurrence of COVID-19. Stories such as the COVID-19 outbreak on the carrier USS Roosevelt in the spring of 2020 alarmed many of the potential impact on readiness.
However, over time, the theoretical threats upon which commanders initially based their decisions did not materialize. The virus was less deadly than expected, service members were typically not in the threatened demographic, and the services adapted with virtual tools, risk-informed decision making, telework, shiftwork, robust sanitary procedures, and other creative solutions to mitigate the COVID-19 threat and remain mission effective and resilient.
Commanders were willing to sacrifice the religious freedom of members based on the advice of experts within the medical field who yielded to an apocalyptic narrative accompanied by draconian prohibitions (e.g., social distancing, masking) that proved to be harmful.
Finally, it is most disconcerting that no senior chaplain with stars on his shoulders was willing to put that rank on the table on behalf of their own chaplains or other military members whose religious rights were violated.
The Vaccine Hits Home
During this time, I was required to receive the COVID-19 vaccination. My job involved extensive travel and building strategic relationships with the Chaplain Corps and civilian religious leaders of countries throughout the Pacific. Though reticent to be vaccinated due to distrust of the science, I wanted to continue the vital effort of strategic religious engagement in the Pacific and reasoned away my objections.
Before vaccination, I easily passed a physical fitness test in 2020. After vaccination in 2021, I experienced a series of illnesses indicative of a failing immune system—paronychia, shingles, and pneumonia. For each illness, I sought treatment at Tripler Army Medical Center on Oahu; however, many of the symptoms persisted in 2022, and I simply thought these were the lingering side effects of pneumonia.
Further physical degradation and later blood tests determined the need for dialysis and a blood transfusion. This was shocking. A five-day hospital stay resulted in a diagnosis of Multiple Myeloma Stage Three. Extensive chemotherapy began immediately, which was followed by a stem cell transplant. Since recovering from the transplant, I have been on maintenance chemotherapy that will continue the rest of my life expectancy, which is now shortened considerably.
Determining causality is a subject never far from one’s mind after a terminal diagnosis. According to my oncologist, bloodwork from 2018 shows no abnormalities indicative of an onset of Multiple Myeloma.
The growing number of adverse events related to the vaccine and the unknown effects of the mRNA spike protein on the immune system have led me to a conviction the vaccine compromised my immune system leading to Multiple Myeloma.
The burden of proof is not on me to prove that my condition is definitively caused by the vaccine. The fact is, there is a temporal correlation between my vaccination and disease diagnosis.
It is grievous to think that the country I love and serve may be responsible for my shortened life, but it is the reality I face.
A Call for Accountability
Due to my life situation, I joined 231 veterans and active-duty service members in signing the “Declaration of Military Accountability” (DMA).
The DMA is a call to the DoD to put its house in order, to hold military leaders who imposed the vaccine mandate on the force to account, and to safeguard against such leadership failure in the future.
Readers who affirm these views may sign the DMA petition by visiting this website.
Colonel Jon Trainer (Master of Divinity, Master of Arts Theology) is a USAF/ANG Chaplain (28 yrs). He has served on the Command Staff at PACAF, USAFE, and USFOR-A. He is a graduate of Air War College and has a Master of Science in Military Operational Art and Science from Air University. The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official guidance or position of the United States Government, the Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the United States Space Force.
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