Tag Archives: navy seal

Report: Navy Violating Vaccine Mandate Injunction

As previously reported, a US District Court has told the US Navy not to punish or discharge nearly three dozen SEALs and other operators who have religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccine. However, First Liberty Institute, representing those SEALs, says the Navy is continuing to mistreat the sailors in violation of the court’s order:

One of those included a service member, identified as “Navy SEAL 26,” who requested permission to travel to a program for traumatic brain injuries. According to the complaint, “multiple high-ranking Naval officers in SEAL 26’s command began calling the treatment center and asking if it would deny treatment to someone who is unvaccinated.”

It added that the treatment center wouldn’t comply but “the result is that the Navy ran out the clock on SEAL 26’s request again: the treatment center had to give his spot to another patient because SEAL 26 had not been given approval to attend.”

Within the rules of the military, this is arguably a common technique to take punitive action without actually taking action. The Navy can try to say, with some disingenuous sincerity, that according to its policies “no adverse action” was taken against the SEAL — because there was no official “action” taken. Worse, the sailors can’t “appeal” an administrative non-action, leaving them with no recourse.

In this case, however, the Navy is not beholden only to Read more

Marines Accused of Farce After Granting Two Religious Vaccine Exemptions

The US Marine Corps has reportedly granted two Marines the freedom to not receive the COVID-19 vaccine — the first, and only, exemptions of the 13,000 requests made in the US military. This seems like a (very) small step in the right direction, but reports indicate both of those Marines had already been denied and then had to appeal – and the only reason their appeals were approved was they were both already outprocessing the Corps, essentially making their exemption moot [emphasis added]:

One of the Marines, according to the officer, was on terminal leave when the appeal was granted, meaning that member was already in the process of separating from the military.

The other Marine who was granted an appeal, according to the officer, was in the SkillBridge program, which allows members who are within 180 days of release from active duty to locate career opportunities as they transition into civilian life.

So now the Marines can rebut accusations of “blanket denials” by showing that they have granted two (two!) exemptions to US Marines who asked for a religious exemption…and who will shortly be civilians.

Mike Berry, First Liberty’s General Counsel, is incredulous, noting the US military has repeatedly highlighted the fact it hasn’t granted a religious exemption to vaccines in decades — and yet, suddenly it did.

That said, an inside source indicated the Marines were still Read more

District Court Stays Navy SEAL Vaccine Requirement

In a little reported headline, a US District Court judge issued a temporary injunction preventing the US military from punishing or discharging 35 US Navy SEALs and reservists who have religious objections to the COVID vaccine:

Judge Reed O’Connor, the U.S. District Court Judge for the Northern District of Texas, issued the stay in response to a lawsuit filed by First Liberty Institute in November on behalf of 35 active-duty SEALs and three reservists seeking a religious exemption…

Despite saying they would offer a religious exemption, the US military has famously granted exactly zero such exemptions (of more than 15,000 requests), leading to skepticism of Read more

Navy SEALS File Lawsuit Over COVID Vaccine Religious Exemptions

First Liberty Institute has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf 26 US Navy SEALs, 5 Navy EOD techs, and 3 Navy Divers who have religious objections to the mandated COVID vaccine, yet aren’t being granted religious exemptions. As noted at FoxNews [emphasis added]:

Fox News previously reported that for some SEALs seeking religious exemptions to the mandate, the process is nearly impossible to successfully complete to get a waiver. In addition, a series of new directives by the Navy are promising severe punishment, including court-martial (criminal) prosecution, revocation of special operator status, drastic pay cuts and a ban on travel for SEALs who do not comply with the mandate by the end of November.

After the lawsuit was filed, Stars and Stripes noted no branch of the military has Read more

Navy SEALs Marcus Luttrell, Bill Wagasy Talk Faith, Service

Former US Navy SEALs Marcus Luttrell — best known for the book and movie Lone Survivor — and Bill Wagasy recently spoke to a group of Texas high school students on leadership, character, and faith in God.

“Billy and I are kind of cut from the same cloth, if you will,” Luttrell said, mentioning the students should pay attention to Wagasy’s advice. “We started up together, came up together, deployed into combat together…”

Between Wagasy’s talks on honor, developing character, brotherhood, fearing God and developing intellect, the students Read more

MRFF Objects to Doctor’s Afghanistan Rescue by Navy SEALs

Fresh off its fundraising efforts capitalizing on the death of former US Navy SEAL Glen Doherty, the MRFF is now trying to make waves over the latest death of an active duty Navy SEAL.  Michael Weinstein’s group objected to the rescue of Dr. Dilip Joseph in Afghanistan.

Why?  According to the MRFF, Dr. Joseph was the wrong religion.

Public reports indicate US Navy SEAL PO1 Nicolas Checque was killed in the successful rescue of Dr. Joseph, who had been abducted by the Taliban 3 days earlier.

President Obama said this about the rescue:  Read more

Michael Weinstein Plagiarizes Latest Blog on Fallen Navy SEAL

Normally, if Military Religious Freedom Foundation founder Michael Weinstein is at a loss for words, he fills in the space with alliterative adjectives.  Yesterday, it seems he filled in the space with someone else’s words.

Michael Weinstein plagiarized a section of his passionate demand for an apology from Governor Mitt Romney for his “untruthfulness” about Glen Doherty.  From Weinstein’s piece, as published on the Huffington Post:

Romney did not mention the man’s name during the Read more

Weinstein Uses Friend’s Death to Shill for Foundation

Michael Weinstein’s need to stroke his ego knows no limits.  Glen Doherty was one of the four men killed in Libya when the consulate was overrun.  Weinstein has been loudly touting the fact Doherty was a member of his advisory board.  Fair enough.

But when invited to speak on cable news about Mr. Doherty, Weinstein did what he is often wont to do:  He talked about himself.  Interviewing Weinstein in a split screen, Judge Jeanine of “Justice with Judge Jeanine” on FoxNews started with a simple statement:  “Tell us about him.”  Weinstein’s response mentioned Doherty only once, in the first few words [edited to remove verbal fillers]:  Read more

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