Instead of going the Chapter route to remove non-vaccinated Soldiers from the ranks, the Army has instead decided to flag them, deny them promotions, and bar reenlistments:
Pfc. Shaniah Edwards prepares to administer a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to soldiers and airmen in the Virgin Islands, Feb. 12, 2021.
The Army won’t promote or reenlist troops who refuse the coronavirus vaccine and who haven’t requested an exemption, according to a memo from the service’s top civilian leader.
The new rules apply to active-duty, Reserve and National Guard troops, including those in at least one state where the governor doesn’t require the vaccine.
Army Secretary Christine Wormuth in a Nov. 16 memo lays out what will happen if soldiers refuse the vaccine and don’t have an exemption request pending. They will have their records flagged the day they make their final vaccine refusal, after a meeting with a medical professional and a second order to get vaccinated.
You can read more at the link, but an interesting stat in the article is that about 72% of the Army is completely vaccinated. With the end of the war in Afghanistan I would not be surprised if another drawdown is coming and the non-vaccinated is turning into a way for the Army to cut its numbers.
As I have long said, when DOD instituted the Blended Retirement System a few years ago, it was the first step to eventually doing away with the fixed military retirement system. This latest report will be used to further justify moving military retirement totally to a Thrift Savings Plan model:
Recruits with Charlie Company, 1st Recruit Training Battalion, receive their service rifles at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego on Nov. 15. (Lance Cpl. Cristian G. Torres/Marine Corps)
Military leaders will need to make some difficult choices on pay and benefits in coming years if they want to maintain funding needed to keep up force readiness and end strength, a panel of defense experts said on Tuesday.
“We need to focus [military] benefits on those currently serving, but the problem is most of the benefits now have shifted to those no longer serving,” said Arnold Punaro, former staff director for the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“There are 2.4 million retirees [receiving benefits] compared to 1.3 million active -duty troops getting them … The deferred piece of military spending has to be dealt with.”
Purnaro’s comments came at a roundtable event on military challenges organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Other panelists echoed his concerns about personnel costs continuing to rise within the Defense Department even as the services’ end strengths have declined. Earlier this fall, CSIS released a report noting that the number of active-duty troops fell by more than 64 percent from 1952 to 2016, but total DOD personnel spending rose by 110 percent over the same period.
In the past week the U.S. military has lost former Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno and now General Colin Powell as well:
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Colin Powell speaks via satellite to the Pentagon while visiting troops during Operation Desert Shield.
Colin Powell, the boundary-breaking military leader and diplomat whose sterling reputation of service to Republican and Democratic presidents was stained by his faulty claims to justify the 2003 U.S. war in Iraq, died Monday of COVID-19 complications. He was 84.
A veteran of the Vietnam War, Powell spent 35 years in the Army and rose to the rank of four-star general before becoming the first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His oversight of the U.S. invasion of Kuwait to oust the Iraqi army in 1991 made him a household name, prompting speculation for nearly a decade that he might run for president, a course he ultimately decided against.
You can read more at the link, but I always felt bad for Colin Powell because of how the intelligence community let him down with the faulty intelligence with Iraq. He seemed to take pride in his creditability and it was shot after the faultiness of the intelligence was discovered after the war in Iraq.
Condolences to all the friends and family General Powell.
Does anyone think it is a coincidence that with the drawdowns in Iraq an Afghanistan that the CSIS is advocating for cutting troop benefits to pay for more equipment from the defense contractors that lavishly donate to CSIS?:
“While today’s U.S. military is near its smallest size since the end of World War II in terms of active duty end strength, personnel costs are at a historic high,” wrote Seamus Daniels, associate director for Defense Budget Analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The 2ID Association remembers LTG Timothy Maude who was killed at the Pentagon on 9-11. As a LTC, he served as the 2ID's Adjutant General from June 1985 to May 1986 and the G-1 from May 1986 to June 1987. His Tomahawk from the CG's Mess is on display in Maude Hall on Camp Casey. pic.twitter.com/2jp3QC3UZk
The video made by a Marine Lieutenant Colonel criticizing U.S. military generals over their failures in Afghanistan went viral over the weekend. Lt. Col. Scheller has now resigned his commission. I wonder if he has political ambitions?:
Lt. Col. Stu Scheller was dismissed Friday from command of the Advanced Infantry Training Battalion at Camp Lejeune, N.C., over the original video. In the new one, he claims he is not currently under investigation and that he likely would be allowed to ride out his remaining three years until retirement if he chose to stay silent.
“I don’t think that’s the path I’m on,” he says in the video, shot inside an “abandoned school bus” in eastern North Carolina. “I’m resigning my commission as a United States Marine, effective now … [and] I am forfeiting my retirement, all entitlements. I don’t want a single dollar.”
He suggests that senior military generals would need the roughly $2 million he’d expect to receive in retirement and his other benefits more than he would once he’s through with them.
It looks like U.S. service members better get ready to roll up their sleeves or find something else to do as a profession:
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks at a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington on July 21, 2021. Austin has said he is working expeditiously to make the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory for military personnel and is expected to ask Biden to waive a federal law that requires individuals be given a choice if the vaccine is not fully licensed. (Kevin Wolf/AP)
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday said he will seek President Joe Biden’s permission by mid-September to require all troops receive the coronavirus vaccine regardless of whether the shots obtain full federal approval.
“I want you to know that I will seek the president’s approval to make the vaccines mandatory no later than mid-September, or immediately upon the U.S. Food and Drug [Administration] licensure, whichever comes first,” Austin wrote in his message. “Public reporting suggests the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine could achieve full FDA licensure early next month.”
Biden said last week during a news conference that he expects the FDA will approve the vaccines by the early fall.
It looks like for a number of servicemembers it will be back to wearing masks indoors regardless of vaccination status:
The Pentagon on Wednesday announced it would once again require all individuals to wear face coverings when indoors at Defense Department facilities in locations deemed high risk by federal health officials for the spread of coronavirus.
The directive from Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks on Wednesday walks back guidance issued in May that allowed service members and others who had been fully vaccinated against the virus to forgo mask-wearing at Defense Department facilities worldwide. It comes one day after the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance encouraging vaccinated Americans to don masks indoors in certain locations where the coronavirus is spreading rapidly.
