Marine Veteran Warns of Continued Concerns Despite Military COVID Mandate Repeal

Tommy Waller, a Marine Corps officer, quit his military career after being denied a religious accommodation in order to avoid the COVID-19 mandate. Waller is still concerned about the possibility of unvaccinated troops being targeted, even though the mandate has been repealed recently.

Waller, who served as the commander of a reserve Force Reconnaissance Company, was denied his religious accommodation request on Nov. 10, 2021—the official birthday of the Marine Corps. Waller believes that the Marines’ handling of the vaccine mandate was illegal. Waller waited for a year to request religious accommodation in the hope of a different result.

“I waited a year for the Marine Corps to be able to wake up to the fact that what they were doing was unlawful,” Waller said NTD News “And then of course, after a year, I decided to go ahead and retire.”

Waller had retired from the Marines not long before Congress included a provision (pdf) in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act to repeal the vaccine mandate. Despite Waller’s objections, President Joe Biden signed NDAA. This officially ended the military’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate.

Waller, now the president and CEO at the Center for Security Policy raised the possibility of unvaccinated service personnel being punished for refusing the COVID-19 vaccination.

Fox News published last week a letter from Gilbert Cisneros (Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness), which stated that 69,000 active-duty service members had never been vaccinated. Cisneros claimed that approximately 53,000 of the unvaccinated members requested a religious exemption or medical exemption. “no Service members currently serving will be separated based solely on their refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccination if they sought an accommodation based on religious, administrative, or medical grounds.” Cisneros’ letters seemed to open up the possibility that 16,000 unvaccinated military personnel who didn’t request an exemption or accommodation could still be discharged.

Although the vaccine mandate has ended, the military could claim that 16,000 unvaccinated troops, who never asked for any exemption or accommodation, disobeyed a lawful order and were therefore entitled to discharge.

Was a FDA-approved Vaccine available?

Waller suggested that the legal basis of the vaccine mandate could be questionable if an FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine wasn’t actually available to military personnel.

“What happened is [Defense Secretary] Lloyd Austin gave an order that was lawful and said, ‘You’ll inoculate the force with an FDA-approved vaccine,'” Waller said. “[But an FDA-approved vaccine] did not exist. In fact, I think it’s still a question whether or not you can get the version of the vaccine that Pfizer got FDA approval for.”

Emergency use authorizations (EUAs) were the only way to make the first COVID-19 vaccinations available in America. Final approval was granted by the FDA for the Pfizer-BioNTech version of the vaccine. “Comirnaty” August 20, 2021

Austin issued the military vaccination-mandate (pdf) after Comirnaty was approved by FDA. This mandate stated that mandatory vaccinations would be given. “will only use COVID-19 vaccines that receive full licensure from the … FDA in accordance with FDA-approved labeling and guidance.”

Although Comirnaty was approved by the FDA, military plaintiffs filed lawsuits to claim that the FDA-approved label for the drug was not publicly available. They claimed that only the EUA version, as well as other EUA-based vaccines, were actually made public. A Navy administrative separation board ruled last May that U.S. Navy Lieutenant Bill Moseley had the right to refuse to receive vaccinations without asking for any exemption or accommodation. This was because the FDA-approved vaccine was not yet available.

Waller: Mandate Was Political Purge

Waller stated that the original legality and repeal of the vaccine mandate are still under dispute. However, Waller claimed that the leadership responsible for the mandate was still in control.

“We think that just because the National Defense Authorization Act … repealed or rolled back this mandate that the problem is over, but the same people who inflicted it upon the Department of Defense personnel are still there,” Waller said.

Retired Marine claimed that the vaccine mandate, now defunct, was a tool. “purge” People who are ex-military personnel for political reasons. “and I think it’s been highly effective at removing those that won’t break the law for those that are in charge.”

NTD News