COVID Vaccine Mandates Weakening US Military, Retired Real Admiral Warns

A retired U.S. Coast Guard rear admiral warned that COVID-19 vaccine mandates are weakening the military and driving down recruitment efforts.

In a letter published Monday, retired Coast Guard Vice Admiral William “Dean” Lee criticized the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate. The rule, implemented in 2021 through the Department of Defense (DOD), has allowed for few religious exemptions.

Lee noted that he is vaccinated himself and isn’t against COVID-19 vaccines, but argued that removing every single service member who refuses the shot violates their constitutional rights and hinders military preparedness. It comes as U.S. Army officials confirmed on Sept. 30 that they failed to meet recruiting goals.

“Reports of recruiting struggles across the services indicate that the vaccine mandates are an impediment to recruiting, exacerbating the current recruiting and retention problems that are already impacting force strength in some DOD components,” the three-star vice admiral wrote in an open letter to members of the Coast Guard. “Enforcement of the blanket mandate is also resulting in separations of thousands of personnel and therefore is exacerbating force strength issues, and thus readiness concerns.”

Across all military branches, hundreds of service members have been discharged for not receiving the vaccines under Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin’s directive. A number of them have applied for religious exemptions but were almost exclusively denied.

Lee told the Washington Examiner in an interview that top officials in the armed service are “patting themselves on the back” because they push “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” or a left-wing training protocol that some say is based on Marxist critical race theory.

However, the vaccine mandate, he said “is neither diverse … neither equitable [nor] inclusive—because up to seven people that they’re discharging, five of them are members of minority status,” he added. “So that’s not inclusive. So what they’re doing is they’re excluding men and women of faith.”