National Security at Risk as Hundreds of Navy SEALs Told They Won't Be Deployed Over COVID Vax Refusal
The Biden administration’s coronavirus vaccine mandate is jeopardizing national security as several hundred Navy SEALs refuse to comply with what they consider an unconstitutional violation of their civil liberties.
As many as one-quarter of all active-duty SEALs oppose the military vaccine mandate for various reasons, including religious grounds and their belief that they have natural immunity, Just the News reported Monday.
Not getting vaccinated would prevent these elite fighters from being deployed, igniting a potential national security emergency.
Attorney R. Davis Younts, a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve, represents a group of SEALs who are seeking a religious exemption from the vaccine mandate.
“My clients include several Navy SEALs who are a small part of a large group of SEALs and other military members who are being asked to choose between their faith and their ability to serve our nation,” Younts told Just the News.
“They have been told that if they seek a religious accommodation, they likely will no longer be able to serve our country as Navy SEALs and been given an arbitrary deadline to comply with the vaccine mandate.”
Younts said his clients are seeking at least a 90-day extension of the vaccine deadline, which is Nov. 28.
The SEALs, the most elite of America’s special forces, play a disproportionate role in modern military operations, so not having them on the front lines would compromise the United States.
Pastor Jeff Durbin, who has been ministering to the SEALs for several weeks, said some of the soldiers already have immunity because they contracted and recovered from COVID-19. Accordingly, they don’t want to get vaccinated, since studies show that post-infection immunity trumps vaccine-induced immunity.
“There are hundreds of Navy SEALs who have not been vaccinated, do not want to take the vaccine, or who have had and recovered from COVID and have the benefit of natural immunity,” Durbin told Just the News.
“A large number of SEALs that I am speaking on behalf of are facing the very difficult decision that even with a legitimate religious exemption that is based upon their commitments to Christ, the Gospel, God’s Law, and the Constitution, they will no longer be Navy SEALs,” he said.
Durbin is alarmed at the Pentagon’s inflexibility because the SEALs’ absence on the front lines undermines national security.
“Our country should be very concerned about what this would do to military readiness,” he told Just the News. “Losing hundreds of Navy SEALs because of their legitimate and sincerely held Christian beliefs could be devastating to us as a nation.”
Tim Parlatore, an attorney with expertise in military law, said he has spoken with numerous SEALs who oppose the mandate.
“It’s in the hundreds,” he told Just the News. “And it’s not the senior leadership. It’s all the shooters, and it is going to have a huge impact.”
“If they continue to with this asinine [policy], you are going to have the complete decimation [of] the SEAL teams,” he warned.
Parlatore underscored that the SEALs are not anti-vaccine since they routinely get numerous shots before deployment.
However, they’re skeptical of the coronavirus vaccines because they have not withstood long-term scientific scrutiny.
Retired Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill, known as the man who killed Osama bin Laden, suggested there’s a mass exodus in the making.
“Navy SEALs are getting out of the military in very frightening numbers,” he tweeted. “Why do you think that is?”
Navy SEALs are getting out of the military in very frightening numbers. Why do you think that is?
— Robert J. O’Neill (@mchooyah) September 21, 2021
Retired Navy SEAL Eric Greitens, a former Republican governor of Missouri who’s currently running for the Senate, said the Pentagon’s one-size-fits-all vaccine mandate only helps enemies of the United States.
This is wrong for national security.
The only people who will benefit from destroying the combat capacity of Naval Special Operations are the Taliban, Russia, China and other adversaries around the world.
This is also wrong at human level. https://t.co/TveflBhUxJ
— Eric Greitens (@EricGreitens) September 21, 2021
“This is wrong for national security,” Greitens tweeted. “The only people who will benefit from destroying the combat capacity of Naval Special Operations are the Taliban, Russia, China and other adversaries around the world. This is also wrong at human level.”
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