Horowitz: Army recruitment down 23% amid mandates, as Army tosses requirement for high school diploma



No high school diploma? Be all you can be in the military. No COVID shot after years of meritorious service? Goodbye, as we ask illegal aliens to take your place. That is the state of play in the U.S. military.

The time has come for Republican “defense hawks” to finally show some concern for the quality, morale, and mission of the military, not just throw endless money at it while the military self-immolates, expels those who don’t get Pfizer’s shot, and then complains that it can’t meet its recruiting goals. Last week, the Military Times reported, “The Army has hit 40% of its recruiting goals this year, with the struggle to fill the ranks seemingly so grim the Defense Department reduced its planned total force size because prior recruiting goals were out of reach.”

Pentagon officials announced that across the military branches, annual target recruitment goals are down 23%. To accommodate growing recruitment problems, the military is offering more financial benefits rather than emphasizing the motivation of patriotism, because clearly, in this environment, it doesn’t work. Now they are abolishing the requirement for a high school diploma or GED as a prerequisite to joining basic training for those who sign up before the end of this fiscal year. That’s how desperate they are to meet recruitment benchmarks.

Here’s a novel idea: Before we lower standards to appalling levels, how about we stop kicking out some of the most seasoned, battle-hardened soldiers for not getting the shots? Up to 40,000 National Guardsmen risk expulsion from the force if they fail to comply with the mandate by tomorrow. That is 13% of the National Guard – and as much as 30% in some states. So, our government would rather recruit those without high school diplomas than relent on a mandate for a shot.

It’s important to remember in the context of recruiting new teenagers that some of the most patriotic military families are those who did not get the shots, especially among teenagers. Those 16- to 18-year-olds who didn’t get the shots in the past year made the right choice, even based on the original risk-benefit analysis. Yet all those young boys who didn’t want to risk myocarditis cannot follow in the footsteps of their fathers or grandparents. Instead of embracing these kids from a pedigree of hundreds of years of U.S. military service, the Pentagon is looking to further reach out to illegal aliens to serve in the military.

Which brings us to the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This is considered a must-pass bill because it’s been signed into law every year going back almost to WWII. Republicans have so much leverage to fix this problem and abolish the mandates and other policies that are destroying morale in the military and motivation to join it. Yet all they do is use their leverage to fight for more money to throw at the military rather than change the corrosive policies. After all, an authorization bill is not an appropriations bill and should be more about policy than money.

Last Thursday, every single Republican on the House Armed Services Committee voted for the NDAA, after Democrats and several RINOs voted down an amendment to block the vaccine mandates. Republicans are proud that they tossed another $37 billion into the Pentagon coffers, raising the spending for the national defense budget to an unfathomable $850.4 billion. But to what end? It contains another billion for Ukraine, ironically a country with a low vaccination rate.

Republicans think they are being pro-military and patriotic by passing the NDAA unconditionally and offering a raise to the troops, but the current and potential recruits would much rather join a military that doesn’t mandate every Pfizer product for eternity, groom them into transgenderism, teach them white people are racist, and send them to fight for every other country’s border but our own. They seem more concerned about performing abortions than about combat readiness. Perhaps focusing on those issues instead will solve the recruitment problem among the patriotic families who led our nation in recruitment based on family tradition.

According to the Pentagon’s 2020 propensity report, only 11% of teens and young adults, between 16 and 21 years old, planned on future service in the military. The top three reasons respondents gave for joining the U.S. military were: pay/money, pay for future education, and travel. Defending the country was not among them. And for good reason. Kids who come from the sort of families who would join to defend the country would not exactly be drawn to a military that gives tutorials on how to create safe spaces for pronouns. Thus, bribing people with endless monetary benefits is the only recruitment tool left to “be all that you can be.”

Republicans have the leverage to hold up both the defense appropriations bill and defense authorization bill in the Senate until the mandates are ended. Additionally, Republicans governors should assert their Title 32 control over their respective national guardsmen to prohibit any discharge on account of not getting the shots. They should also use all of the printed federal dollars that are going to fund Pfizer and other illogical COVID policies to create a state-based (non-federalized) guard as a landing place for those discharged from the military, like Gov. Ron DeSantis did in Florida.

At some point, money can’t buy you a moral, competent, and combat-ready military if we are left with a pool of recruits who perhaps need the allure of free castration surgery and hormone therapy to join. The feds can print an unlimited amount of money, but they can’t print warriors.

Deace: The fight for COVID freedom isn't over. Our gov't is still trying to ruin the lives of US troops.



I received a lot of images earlier this week from people giddy to share their mask-free experiences while flying. It's clear that one judge’s Thanos-like snap signaled a new birth of freedom to them, and as someone who has been pointing out how worthless the masks have actually been for the better part of the last two years, I am not without sympathy. But ...

We can’t be like the leftist zombies who believe that whatever emotion they have amounts to a Gospel all others must share regardless of experience. Our lust for freedom can’t intoxicate us to the point that we no longer recognize or even care about someone else’s slavery. Especially when the chains are for those whose very job is to make sure our freedom is preserved at all costs.

Because as some of us race to book our next maskless flight, there are other Americans currently serving in the military for whom COVID and its various oppressions are far from being a thing of the past. One such airman’s wife recently contacted me to make the point that lives and careers are hanging in the balance as we speak.

Her husband is a 16-year decorated veteran of 1,300 combat hours. Yet despite all his selfless dedication, he now awaits the verdict of his appeal of the Air Force’s refusal to grant him a waiver for taking the COVID vaccine. Their nine children await as well. They are in this together, fighting to defend the First Amendment’s right to free speech as a proud military family on the one hand; meanwhile, simultaneously being afraid to openly use the First Amendment themselves, because of how dead-set the military brass has been against individuals who choose not to poison themselves or turn their hearts into ticking myocarditis time bombs.

Does this make her sad? Frustrated? No, she says, while asking me to help her family and others like her draw attention to the ongoing and needless purge of the military’s conscientious vaccine objectors. She calls it “more like rage.”

“Some of my closest friends have told me completely ridiculous things like ‘we signed up for this’ because my husband joined the military,” said the airman’s wife, who herself also happens to be a nurse. “When I go to church, none of the women there even talk to me any more. We have such huge information gaps, and it is scary that our general population thinks this way.”

Sadly, the information gap is often born out of absorbing only the propaganda that makes us feel comfortable, instead of the truths that must nourish us if we are going to be effective in our duties as citizens. And one of those truths should obviously damn well be that those who took an oath to lay down their lives to defend their country didn’t sign up to be lab rats for Big Pharma.

So how about you step up on their behalf, get rid of that worthless Ukrainian flag emoji for a change, and replace it with a genuine concern for the men and women of the red, white, and blue before Biden completely ruins their lives?

“The Department of Defense has worked very hard to keep these individuals isolated and alone,” said the airman’s wife, referring to those who are refusing the jab. “We thought we were just 1-3 percent, but recently realized the numbers are closer to 7 percent for no vaccination and 20 percent or more for incomplete vaccination.”

To get rid of all those enlisted people for a lie is nothing short of an act of war being declared by our own country against reality and decency itself. We can take our own masks off all we want, but if someone else is still being forced to choke on them somewhere else in the form of a needle that offers none of its promised protection, none of us is truly free.

Not yet.

Horowitz: What will Gov. Abbott do with vax mandate in the Texas National Guard?



These were supposed to be part-time citizen soldiers, but so many of them have served multiple tours of duty in the Middle East. More recently, nearly all of them are at the Texas-Mexico border attempting to do the job the federal government won’t do. Now that same federal government is threatening to terminate thousands of Texas guardsmen if they fail to get a shot that quite literally is outdated, and numerous data points and testimony from military doctors raise concerns about adverse reactions. Will Texas Gov. Greg Abbott stand up for his Guard? What about other GOP governors?

The Biden administration officials know that with mounting opposition to COVID mandates, they must let some of the pressure out of the balloon and ease some of the restrictions affecting the average family. But they also understand that the military is a minority of the minority and that they can get away with illogical and illegal mandates on it for far longer. At present, it appears that no number of facts on the ground will change the minds in the Pentagon in terminating their July 1 deadline on all Army soldiers, including state guardsmen, to receive the experimental shots. While the damage has already been done in most circles of the active-duty military, there are thousands of Texas guardsmen who have not gotten the shots and are now starring down the barrel of losing their careers and all retirement benefits.

Here are the most recent vaccination numbers released by the Texas Military Department obtained by the Blaze:

As you can see, just 47% of the Texas Army National Guard are fully vaccinated, and 45% — accounting for 8,750 troops – have not begun the shots. At the border, 48% of the soldiers, nearly 3,000 of them, are unvaccinated, according to my source. And from speaking to two sources on the ground in the Texas Guard, it appears that most of them will refuse to get the shots. Will Gregg Abbott allow them to be terminated? Will Republicans in the U.S. Senate vote for the upcoming budget bill that continues to fund the DOD mandate?

The obvious question everyone should be asking is why are the GOP governors not uniting at a meeting and declaring the DOD mandate null and void? Remember, while governors have no control over the active-duty military, they do control the chain of command for disciplinary actions in their respective guards, absent a “Title 10” order from the president. At a minimum, each governor should direct the adjunct general of the Guard to announce that the state plans to fight the mandates and will dismiss any officer who encourages, much less coerces, soldiers to get the shots. That is fully within the legal authority of a governor.

Obviously, the Biden administration could use purse strings to gain leverage by threatening to cut off funding for the soldiers, but it’s hard for Biden to stand before America with waning popularity both for himself and the mandates and threaten to deny pay to the guardsmen in half the states. But that would require Republican governors to get on the playing field and pick the fight first.

The problem is that the Texas Military Department officials in charge of health issues in the Guard are downright on the same side as Biden, even though they work for Greg Abbott, who issued an order banning the mandate! In December, the Office of the Joint Surgeon of the Texas Military Department sent out a letter to doctors scoffing at religious exemptions and essentially ordering them into bullying soldiers to get the shots. The letter was publicized by Allen West, who is one of the candidates challenging Abbott for the GOP nomination on March 1.

Nice to see Gov Abbott posturing to join the 5 GOP Govs pushing back against fed overreach; however, Gov Abbott may want to speak to his own Deputy Joint Surgeon of the TX Military Department - Deputy Joint Surgeon Powell\u2019s internal memo seems to state something to the contrary.pic.twitter.com/VMJu0ka7nJ
— Allen West (@Allen West) 1639688580

Despite recognizing the governor’s order, the letter implores the doctors to take sides. “As a reminder, it is our job to convince Soldiers to receive the vaccine. If you, personally are not able to fulfill this role, please, privately message the State Surgeon.”

What about medical exemptions?

“If we do, and you authorize a temporary or permanent medical exemption for the COVID19 vaccine: ensure that you document (SF 600, uploaded to HRR or open an eCase); ensure that the appropriate exemption code is entered into MWD; and anticipate your decision will come under EXTREME scrutiny. Be prepared to justify it.”

What about religious exemptions?

“Read the regulation. See also AR 600-20. Ever seen a religious exemption for vaccines? NO! You haven't. That kid was administratively separated during IET. Soldiers will try. Soldiers will fail.”

Folks, this is not coming from the DOD or a blue state. This is the Texas Guard’s State Surgeon Peter Coldwell, who works for Adjunct General Tracy Norris – both of whom serve at the pleasure of the governor. How can this continue for even one day in Texas? Abbott claimed to have banned even private businesses from mandating the shot, yet he has his own state employees promising to make the lives of the Texas guardsmen miserable for not getting the shots.

Also, how can the Texas Guard leadership blow off concerns about medical problems, when in a Feb. 1 letter they admit the problem of adverse events? In that letter, they encourage soldiers to get the shots in the military (as opposed to a Walgreens) because then they will be eligible for medical compensation for line-of-duty injury in case of adverse events.

How can something like this be forced upon them? Consider the following points:

  • The military does not allow any vaccine mandate on experimental shots. There currently is no shot that is fully approved and available to service members. A federal judge in Florida agreed that Comirnaty, the approved injection with a license number, is not the same as the Pfizer shot available to the public, which is still operating under EUA.
  • How can they mandate a shot that not only fails to stop transmission but appears to have gone negative? My source in the Texas Guard tells me that over the past few weeks, 71% of the cases among those at the border are vaccinated, even though the background vaccination rate is only 52% among those soldiers.

With negative efficacy of the shots, most soldiers having had the virus already, and so many reported injuries in the military, is it really that hard for Republican governors to stand up for their guardsmen? With Biden’s polling in the toilet, many Democrat governors looking for an off-ramp, and the public finally realizing they’ve been scammed, is it too much to ask for GOP senators to fight the mandates in the budget bill?

Gov. Abbott, for his part, has asked the federal courts for a temporary injunction against the mandate. He may or may not succeed, but the courts (given their track record) cannot be the end-all. He is right that the governor of Texas does not take orders from the president. But it’s time to start acting the part. It would also help if he would start by cleaning up his own generals.

It’s time for the tyrants in Washington to learn what state sovereignty really is.
Military Vaccine Scandal Exposed: Liz Wheeler, Eric Metaxas, Sean Spicer | ROUNDTABLE | Rubin Report

Military Vaccine Scandal Exposed: Liz Wheeler, Eric Metaxas, Sean Spicer | ROUNDTABLE | Rubin Report

US Navy outlines discharge policy for unvaccinated sailors, includes possible punishments of recouping cost of training and education



The United States Navy announced new details about its COVID-19 vaccine mandate that goes into effect next month. The Navy noted that a newly created panel that will oversee the administrative discharge process for unvaccinated sailors could recoup the cost of training and education for service members who refuse to get the coronavirus vaccine.

All active-duty sailors are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Nov. 28. Service members in the selected reserve must be fully vaccinated by Dec. 28. Technically, sailors must have both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine or the one dose of the Johnson & Johnson by Nov. 14 so they can complete the 14-day waiting period to achieve full vaccination status by Nov. 28.

Those who refuse to get the vaccine by the deadline and do not have a medical or religious exemption will be discharged. Those service members will receive no lower than a general discharge under honorable conditions, which could result in the loss of some veterans' benefits.

To oversee the administrative discharge process for unvaccinated sailors, the Navy recently established the COVID Consolidated Disposition Authority. The CCDA has the authority to punish unvaccinated sailors by recouping the cost of training, education, and more.

"The CCDA may also seek recoupment of applicable bonuses, special and incentive pays, and the cost of training and education for service members refusing the vaccine," the U.S. Navy stated in a press release.

"For Navy service members refusing the vaccine, the CCDA also retains the authority for administrative processes regarding removal of warfare qualifications, additional qualification designations (AQD), Navy Enlisted Classifications (NEC), or sub-specialties, except in cases where removal authority is otherwise authorized by law or Executive Order," the Navy said.

Adm. William Lescher, Vice Chief of Naval Operations, said the CCDA would "ensure a fair and consistent process" for the discharge of unvaccinated sailors.

As of Wednesday, 94% of active-duty sailors are fully vaccinated and 99% have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the U.S. Navy. For reserve sailors, 72% are fully immunized against COVID-19 and 78% received at least one dose.

The Washington Post reported that 76.5% of active-duty Marine Corps personnel are vaccinated, and a mere 38% of Marine Corps Reserve personnel are vaccinated. There are reportedly 60,000 Air Force service members who are not fully vaccinated ahead of the branch's Nov. 2 deadline. Only about 40% of the Army Reserve and National Guard are vaccinated, but they have a vaccination deadline of June 30, 2022.

According to Navy data released on Oct. 13, there have been a total of 163 COVID-19 deaths within the branch, of which 102 were civilian employee deaths.

The U.S. Navy has 347,487 active duty personnel, 96,710 reserve personnel, and 281,161 civilian employees as of July 2021.

"Tragically, there have been 164 deaths within the Navy family due to COVID-19, far exceeding the combined total of all other health or mishap related injuries and deaths over the same time period," Vice Adm. John B. Nowell, Jr., the Chief of Naval Personnel, said on Oct. 14.

The Navy noted that of the 164 Navy COVID-19 deaths, 144 were not vaccinated. The vaccination status of the remaining 20 deaths remains unknown.

Biden admin opposes move to give honorable discharge to troops who refuse the COVID-19 vaccine, demands keeping dishonorable discharge on the table



The Biden administration thinks U.S. service members who refuse to comply with the military's COVID-19 vaccine mandate should be subjected to the potential of a dishonorable discharge.

What are the details?

In a statement issued Tuesday, the White House forcefully rejected a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) prohibiting the Pentagon from dishonorably discharging any service member who declines to get the vaccine.

"The Administration strongly opposes section 716, which would detract from readiness and limit a commander's options for enforcing good order and discipline when a Service member fails to obey a lawful order to receive a vaccination," the White House argued. "To enable a uniformed force to fight with discipline, commanders must have the ability to give orders and take appropriate disciplinary measures."

The provision, introduced by Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) during the bill's markup phase, ensured that service members removed over their refusal to get the vaccine would receive nothing but an honorable discharge, noting that "many Americans have reservations about taking a vaccine that has only been available for less than a year."

"Any discharge other than honorable denotes a dereliction of duty or a failure to serve the United States and its people to the best of the ability of an individual," the provision states.

What's the background?

The executive branch last month issued a sweeping directive requiring all U.S. service members to be vaccinated. At the time that the directive was issued, more than 800,000 service members had yet to receive a vaccine, according to Pentagon data.

The move controversial move drew immediate backlash from conservative lawmakers and members of the military. But the Pentagon, on the other hand, has characterized the mandate as a "lawful order" that must be followed.

In a statement to the Daily Mail, Green said he was "appalled" by the administration's opposition to his provision, adding, "This was a bipartisan amendment — every Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee agreed to it."

The news outlet recalled remarks Green made earlier this month when he argued, "No American who raises their hand to serve our Nation should be punished for making a highly personal medical decision."

Republicans by in large have resisted President Biden's attempts to mandate vaccination among service members, federal employees, and most recently, companies with more than 100 employees.

Also speaking with the Daily Mail, Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) argued, "Our readiness, our ability to take on the enemy is being undermined by forcing young people, people who are perfectly healthy, perfectly able to fend off Covid, and are required to have the vaccine."

Anything else?

In addition to opposing Section 716, the administration also announced opposition to another provision in the NDAA that exempts service members from the vaccine mandate if they have had prior COVID-19 infection.

"The Administration also strongly opposes section 720, which would create a new and overly broad exemption from the vaccination requirement for previous infection that would undermine the effectiveness of the requirement," the White House stated.

That statement appears to stand in contrast to documented evidence indicating that natural immunity arising from prior infection provides similar, if not greater, protection to the virus than does a vaccine.

Army officer resigns, gives up pension in protest of Biden's 'tyrannical' vaccine mandate, 'Marxist takeover of the military'



A U.S. Army officer has resigned from the service and forgone his pension in protest of the Biden administration's COVID-19 vaccine requirement for military personnel, calling the mandate one example of a "Marxist takeover of the military."

What are the details?

Lt. Col. Paul Douglas Hague, a 19-year veteran of the U.S. armed services, submitted his letter of resignation on Aug. 30, and it was shared to Twitter last week by his wife. In the scathing letter, he listed several factors that motivated his decision but noted the Pentagon's mandatory vaccination order was primary.

"First, and foremost, I am incapable of subjecting myself to the unlawful, unethical, immoral and tyrannical order to sit still and allow a serum to be injected into my flesh against my will and better judgment," Hague wrote in the letter, adding, "It is impossible for this so-called 'vaccine' to have been studied adequately to determine the long-term effects."

After eighteen years of active duty service in the US Army, my lieutenant colonel husband has resignedHe’s walkin… https://t.co/wB7TKiBS4y

— Katie Phipps Hague (@AtTheHague) 1631228756.0

The officer pledged that he would not be used as a "tool" of the Biden administration to force the COVID-19 vaccine on those who wish to remain unvaccinated.

What else?

Elsewhere in the letter, Hague cited his "complete lack of confidence" in President Joe Biden and his Defense Department as a reason for his resignation, arguing their failed leadership "unnecessarily cost the lives of 13 service members" killed last month in a terror attack in Kabul, Afghanistan.

He also decried what he characterized as "an ideologically Marxist takeover of the military and United States government at their upper echelons."

"I would like nothing more than to continue in the Army to reach my 20 years of active federal service and retire with my pension," added Hague, who is currently stationed at Fort Bragg. "However, I instead will join those who have served before me in pledging my Life, my Fortune, and my Sacred Honor to continue resisting the eternal and ever-mutable forms of oppression and tyranny — both from enemies outside our nation's borders, and those within."

Anything else?

After critics online asked why Hague decided to resign over the COVID-19 vaccine despite accepting the many other vaccines considered mandatory before serving in the armed forces, Hague's wife, Katie Phipps Hague, tweeted that her husband "didn't resign over a vaccine."

"He said he felt the vaccine was being used as a political tool to divide and segregate Americans. He then went on to list many other reasons for his resignation — none of which have anything to do with vaccines," she said.

In an interview with Fox News, Katie Phipps Hague confirmed that the resignation letter was submitted on Aug. 30 and has since been "sent up his chain of command."

Military members speak out against vaccine mandates: 'I wanted to serve my country, now I am looking at a result in which I am lumped in with felons'



Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a memo last week calling for the mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations of American troops. Austin ordered United States military leaders to "impose ambitious timelines for implementation."

More than 800,000 service members have yet to get their COVID-19 vaccines, according to Pentagon data.

In June, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) introduced HR 3860, which would prohibit any mandatory requirement that a member of the Armed Forces receive a COVID-19 vaccination.

"This bill prohibits the use of federal funds to require a member of the Armed Forces to receive a COVID-19 vaccination," the bill states, which has 31 cosponsors. "The bill also prohibits adverse action (e.g., punishment) being taken against a member of the Armed Forces because the member refuses to receive a COVID-19 vaccination."

On Friday, Massie hosted a roundtable discussion with a dozen members of the U.S. military to hear their concerns about the imminent vaccine mandate. The military members remained anonymous to avoid any backlash or retribution for their opinions on the COVID-19 vaccine. Massie's office did vet each service member for authenticity for the conference call.

One soldier, a six-year veteran of the Air National Guard as a front-line health care worker, said, "The science is ignored in favor of a vax everyone at all costs position. Superiors are aware of the fact that soldiers with prior exposure to COVID have a better immunity response than could be achieved with a vaccine, yet it simply does not matter."

Another anonymous service member who has been part of the military's COVID-19 response team for the past six months claimed, "The pressure from commanders to get people vaxxed is intense." The individual is in the process of obtaining an exemption, but alleges there is daily harassment from commanders who urge him to abandon his exemption request, according to the New American.

A Christian, who joined the military out of a sheer love of country, said his religious accommodation request was denied by the Surgeon General of the Army "without any reason given." The Army veteran proclaimed, "I am going to fight this in Federal Court if I need to."

A major with 17 years of active service revealed that he contracted COVID-19 and recovered. The officer suffers from a heart condition, which is under control. Still a few years away from retirement, the major revealed, "Privately I've been told that I qualify for a medical exemption, but the pressure put on the medical staff is such that none of the doctors are willing to officially sign off."

"This is total nonsense; we have thousands of soldiers deployed in combat zones overseas and none of them have received the COVID vaccine," the incensed major declared. "They are still accomplishing the mission."

An enlisted Navy man alleged that an officer told him, "You are the reason your mom and dad is going to die." However, the reason why the Air Force E4 is vaccine hesitant is because a close family member recently died from a blood clot immediately after getting the vaccine.

"I wanted to serve my country and now I am looking at a result in which I am lumped in with felons and rapists, I won't even be able to own a firearm," the Navy man, who is still under contract, said.

Two of the service members say they have been threatened with a court-martial or a dishonorable discharge.