The U.S. Army announced its first separations of soldiers for refusing the coronavirus vaccine on Friday.
In addition to the three soldiers who have been separated, the Army has relieved six Regular Army leaders, two of whom were battalion commanders, and it has issued 3,251 reprimands for refusing it.
Each of the other military branches began separations for vaccine refusal weeks ago. To date, the Navy has discharged 544 sailors, the Air Force 212, and the Marines 1,038. Each of the services has a vaccination percentage rate in the mid-90s, leaving thousands unvaccinated and facing possible separation, though they represent a small percentage of the whole military.
Service members who don’t want to take the vaccine have the ability to seek a religious, medical, or administrative exemption. There have been thousands of medical and administrative requests that each branch has approved. The Marines have approved 992 such requests, the Navy 250, and the Air Force 571, while the Army has granted 4,397 temporary exemptions.
Religious exemptions have been much harder to come by for service members. The Marines has approved six of 3,653 religious exemption requests, and the Air Force has done the same with 23 of 7,503. The Army has granted two such requests out of 3,943. The Navy has not granted any of the 4,171 requests to avoid the vaccine on religious grounds from active-duty or reserve sailors.
Dozens of service members who unsuccessfully sought religious exemptions have filed lawsuits against the Department of Defense, with varying degrees of success.
Earlier this month, the Department of Defense asked the Supreme Court to allow its coronavirus vaccination requirements to apply to Navy SEALs who have refused on religious grounds after a federal judge blocked their ability to stop their deployments. The legal challenge to the mandates was brought by nearly three dozen Naval Special Warfare Command service members, including 26 Navy SEALs, who object to receiving the vaccine on religious grounds.
