Fellow Patriot: The voluntary financial generosity of supporters like you keeps our hard-hitting analysis coming. Please support the 2024 Year-End Campaign today. Thank you for your support! —Nate Jackson, Managing Editor

November 22, 2023

The Army’s Big Vax Mea Culpa

In a letter to discharged Soldiers, the Army is obviously trying to shore up its huge recruiting shortfall.

Of all the indignities and outright tyranny forced on the American people during the coronavirus pandemic — lockdowns, school closures, masking, leaving people to die without loved ones permitted to be by their side — mandating that young, healthy military personnel choose between COVID vaccination or discharge was very high on the list.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin officially rescinded the military-wide vaccine mandate on January 10, 2023 — too little too late after roughly a year and a half of requiring it, and then only after congressional Republicans forced his hand.

Notably, the U.S. Army recently sent a letter to roughly 1,900 discharged unvaxxed Soldiers all but begging them to come back. The Air Force sent a similar letter.

The Army letter outlined “new Army guidance regarding the correction of military records for former members of the Army following the rescission of the COVID-19 vaccination requirement.” It notified recipients, “As a result of the rescission of all current COVID-19 vaccination requirements, former Soldiers who were involuntarily separated for refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccination may request a correction of their military records from either or both the Army Discharge Review Board (ADRB) or the Army Board for Correction of Military Records (ABCMR).”

In other words, Oops, sorry we ruined your military career. Please come back, baby, it’ll be different this time, we swear.

Joe Biden’s military is certainly suffering a recruitment and readiness crisis. The Army is at its smallest since 1940, and missed its recruitment goal for the last two years. “In the fiscal year that just ended,” reports The Washington Times, “the Army brought in about 55,000 recruits — 10,000 short of its goal of 65,000.” The Navy and Air Force face similar troubles.

Part of that shortfall is because fewer Americans are physically healthy enough to serve (a double irony given the vax mandate on those who did clear that bar). The Pentagon blames other factors, too, like Biden’s supposedly fantastic economy providing other opportunities. Blame goes everywhere but the Biden administration’s woke DEI initiatives and “white supremacist” witch hunts that are turning off the most obvious military recruits.

On the one hand, the administration claims to be inoculating the troops against a virus. On the other hand, Team Biden is hell-bent on pushing its social contagion.

Those policies constitute willful destruction of our Patriot Armed Forces.

During a recruitment crisis, it’s probably not a great idea to tell healthy young people they can’t enter service or continue to serve without the jab.

As for removals, a couple of former Soldiers who publicized the letter over the weekend claimed, “Around 8,000 soldiers were kicked out for not getting the vaccine, which is a lot even if you don’t take the context of the recruiting crisis into account.” The difference between 8,000 and the 1,900 letter recipients is likely the meaning of “kicked out” — many more Soldiers voluntarily resigned rather than wait to be, as the letter put it, “involuntarily separated.”

“Thousands of troops unsuccessfully sought religious exemptions from the inoculation,” reports Fox News, “including 8,945 soldiers, 10,800 airmen and guardians, 4,172 sailors, and 3,717 Marines.” The religious claims were arguably dubious — unless it meant opting out of the Covidian cult — but it was the only resort many thought they had.

Finally, inquiring minds might want to know if any Soldiers took up the Army’s offer. Prior to the letter, just 43 former personnel had requested rejoining any branch. Something tells us begging won’t help the Pentagon regain any honor.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.