Marine Corps compliance with vaccine mandate on course to be military's worst

[Zorro]

Up to 10,000 active-duty Marines will not be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus when their deadline arrives in coming days, a trajectory expected to yield the U.S. military’s worst immunization rate.

While 94 percent of Marine Corps personnel have met the vaccination requirement or are on a path to do so, according to the latest official data, for the remainder it is too late to begin a regimen and complete it by the service’s Nov. 28 deadline. Within an institution built upon the belief that orders are to be obeyed, and one that brands itself the nation’s premier crisis-response force, it is a vexing outcome.

The holdouts will join approximately 9,600 Air Force personnel who have outright refused the vaccine, did not report their status, or sought an exemption on medical or religious grounds, causing a dilemma for commanders tasked with maintaining combat-ready forces — and marking the latest showdown over President Biden’s authority to impose vaccination as a condition of continued government service.

“Marines know they’re an expeditionary force, and pride themselves on discipline and being first to fight,” said David Lapan, a retired Marine Corps officer and former communications chief for the service. Leadership, he said, should be alarmed that the Marine Corps ethos of always being ready for the next mission appears to be tarnished in this case. “Why,” Lapan asked, “did they decide not to follow a direct order?”

https://wapo.st/3cAkP0K

Discharge these insubordinate assholes.

[NQAS]

1. Fine

Boot them out.

And, if possible, without VA benefits, TriCare, etc.

And a general discharge.

And when they rebuild, no white nationalists.

[tenderfoot]

2. Gee, I wonder where these Marines get their news?

eom

[2naSalit]

3. Obey the orders...

Or GTFO.

We don't need insubordination among the troops. It's one way to oust the infiltrators.

[SoCalDavidS]

4. Unless They Are Discharged, The Mandate Is Toothless

They must be disciplined, no leniency.

[Ka-Dinh Oy]

5. I say a dishonorable discharge is in quick order.

[Sherman A1]

6. Less than honorable discharge and no benefits

Then is is time to re-evaluate the need for a Marine Corps.

[MineralMan]

14. 94% followed the orders.

There's no need to re-evaluate the need for the Marine Corps. Just discharge the 6% and replace them through recruitment and training, as usual. 94% is far higher than the general population when it comes to vaccination rates. It's very good, actually.

Just give the 6% walking papers with an administrative discharge and no veterans benefits.

[ProfessorGAC]

22. Mostly Agree

One difference I have is the recruitment/retraining piece in your post.
I think this presents an opportunity to reevaluate actual personnel needs.
I have a suspicion that a small fraction of that 6% actually needs to be replaced.
Same with the air force.

[BlackSkimmer]

28. This. Very much so.

When I was in, we had no say-so as to taking those shots.

Just marched us through in a line with those horrid air gun type injections. God knows what they gave me. I’ve long since lost that shot record.

[RainCaster]

17. Keep the Marine Corps, dump the Space Farce

Our country has no need for any soldiers who won't follow orders.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

7. Nothing like turning down FREE health care, boys.

Uncle Sam owns your asses until he says NO MAS!

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

8. Can't ready standby if you're not fully vaccinated

They should have known that when they signed up.

[Progressive Jones]

9. Lots of wannabe cowboys in the Marines. nt

[Bettie]

10. Are they normally allowed to

refuse vaccinations or get exemptions to orders because they "don't want to do it"?

That hasn't been my sense of how this works.

[localroger]

11. Propaganda is a hell of a drug /nt

[Elessar Zappa]

12. Discharge all of them.

We don’t need people who won’t follow lawful orders in our military.

[MineralMan]

13. If 94% of Marines followed the orders, discharge those who did not

and replace them with new Marines. If they cannot follow such simple, yet important orders, they are poor Marines who might not follow other orders when the chips were down. Good riddance to them.

[crickets]

20. This. nt

[bluestarone]

15. If anything else, this mandate shows us where the RUMPERS are in our military!

These that refuse the vaccination will certainly join the anti-American security forces. Need to keep all eyes on them!

[Aristus]

16. This just makes absolutely no sense to me.

When I was in the Army, it would never have occurred to me to refuse to get vaccinated. I was ordered to, and I got them. Not only that, it was for my health and the health of my buddies. Refusal would have been staggeringly selfish.

I got immunized against typhoid before I shipped overseas to Germany. My arm hurt like hell for hours afterwards. When I got orders to deploy to the Gulf in 1991, I was told I was getting the typhoid vaccine again. "I already had it; it's right there in my medical record."

"You're getting it again."

And that was the end of it. I got the vaccine again and the sore arm again. No strain. No whining, no crying, no insubordination, and certainly no bleating about my 'rights'. I obeyed the order. End of story.

[cadoman]

18. when people organize, they have power

Even when they do it for the wrong reasons.

I suspect that many of the most elite and highly trained units are organizing not to take any of the COVID vaccines. If it were just entry level they would get weeded out quickly and replaced.

So now it's up to us to decide if we want to call their bluff, with the possibility of losing some of our most difficult to replace armed forces. I don't claim to know who will blink first, but it's not a great situation as far as defending the country goes. Damn that misinformation!

[BlackSkimmer]

19. Do you have some information that the "elite" units are not taking the vaccine? nt

[Mr.Bill]

21. I really don't understand why

they are being given a choice. They should be given less than honorable discharges and lose all benefits.

[haele]

23. Medical exemptions can be figured out.

Religious exemptions are a lot more difficult -the DoD, like the rest of the government, are having their lawyers work over how to determine a valid request on religious basis without ignoring the science and reality, otherwise, any one can claim religious exemptions for anything.
For example, most OTC medications and supplements were tested using fetal cells or tested with fetal cell based therapy. Will these same people stop taking Tylenol, or Tums, or Neosporin, or any number of things they can pick up at the base/ship's store, or commissary, or medical clinic?

Too many of religious exemption requests are political or fear based rather than religious.

Haele

[LiberalFighter]

27. Base it on their medical records. Any vaccines or medical treatment received.as an adult.

Should nullify their religious scam.

[Kaleva]

24. Marine Corps probably has the highest percentage of Magahats of any service so this is a good thing

Weed them out.

[Hekate]

25. Line'm up and offer them a choice of two doors: one to the medics and one to the street...

I think the Navy has already made it quite clear that if someone chooses the street door they will lose everything and be on the hook for repaying their educational costs.

[oasis]

26. KKK and Proud Boy jar heads should be shitcanned. nt