Despite the military facing a recruiting crisis, the Biden administration is poised to kick out tens of thousands of service members who have objections to the military vaccine mandate.
Last August, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered every service member to be fully-vaccinated or else be discharged from the military.
So far, more than 5,000 service members have been forced out, but at least tens of thousands more who are not fully-vaccinated could be on the way.
Air Force Master Sgt. Nick Kupper is one of them. He has served 19 years in the Air Force and is now on the brink of being forced out this month for not complying with the administration’s mandate. He filed for a religious exemption but was denied. So far, the military has granted religious exemptions to service members who are already leaving the military, but not for those who would like to stay.
Kupper and his family stand to lose medical retirement benefits afforded to veterans who serve for at least 20 years.
“I’ve been counting on this 20-year retirement for the past 19 years. That’s been the plan. And all because they won’t grant me a religious exemption waiver. You know, they’re looking to kick me out. Actually, as of tomorrow,” Kupper said on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight.
“After 19 years, they’re gonna throw everything away that that I’ve worked for, but I’m just one of hundreds of thousands of people who are being kicked out because we won’t take an illegal emergency use vaccine,” he said.
Kupper and other service members have argued that they are only legally required to take an FDA-approved vaccine, but not the emergency-use-authorized vaccine that was made available to service members for almost a year. The DOD has treated them as interchangable.
Kupper claimed that Terry Adirim, the former defense official who authored the memorandum used to kick out service members for not taking the EUA vaccine, has confirmed on Twitter that the service members had the choice to take EUA vaccines and are only required to take the FDA-approved vaccines. Adirim, who is now at the Department of Veterans Affairs, has had her account on Twitter locked to the public for months.
Kupper noted that since the vaccine has been mandated, there has actually been an uptick in COVID cases in the military across the services.
The discharge of thousands of troops comes as each branch of the military is struggling to meet their recruiting goals, particularly the Army and the Air Force.
Kupper noted that the Air Force has not missed its recruiting goal in over 20 years. “They’ve already projected to do that this year. The Army was only at 40% of its recruiting goal just the other day and it only has three months left in this [fiscal] year,” he added.
Kupper said some Republican lawmakers have been fighting to help service members who have been or will be discharged from the military, including Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Thomas Massie (R-KY), and Chip Roy (R-TX).
However, he added, “They’re only a few. You know, we need everybody. This is not a problem for tomorrow to be solved or the next day. This is a problem right now. You’re talking about over 10% of your military is looking to be canned right now. I mean, if I were China or Russia, I’d be chomping at the bit right now.”
Kupper slammed Austin directly, noting that the defense secretary had to obtain a waiver from Congress in order to serve, since he had not passed the cooling off time for a retired general to serve as defense secretary, but that he was not willing to grant service members waivers from the vaccine to continue serving.
“I think it’s very ironic that you know, Secretary Austin was given a waiver by Congress to serve yet he refuses to give any of us waivers to keep serving,” he said.
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