{"id":1623155,"date":"2022-08-26T12:03:13","date_gmt":"2022-08-26T16:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1623155"},"modified":"2022-08-26T12:03:19","modified_gmt":"2022-08-26T16:03:19","slug":"unvaccinated-soldier-who-was-barred-from-official-travel-says-career-basically-at-a-halt-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/unvaccinated-soldier-who-was-barred-from-official-travel-says-career-basically-at-a-halt-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Unvaccinated Soldier Who Was Barred From Official Travel Says Career Basically at a Halt"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Funvaccinated-soldier-who-was-barred-from-official-travel-says-career-basically-at-a-halt-2%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1623155&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Unvaccinated soldiers affected by a U.S. Army order restricting their official travel have told The Epoch Times that their careers have been severely impacted.<\/p>\n<p>According to U.S Army fragmentary orders (FRAGOs) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/us-army-restricted-unvaccinated-soldiers-official-travel-documents-show\">published<\/a> by Fox News, the U.S. Army has barred unvaccinated soldiers from official travel without the under secretary\u2019s approval.<\/p>\n<p>The directives also apply to those in the process of learning the fate of their request for religious accommodation from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-vaccine-mandate\">vaccine mandate<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>One FRAGO dated June 16 read: \u201cUNVACCINATED SOLDIERS ARE NOT ELIGIBLE FOR OFFICIAL TRAVEL WITHOUT PRIOR-APPROVAL FROM THE UNDER SECRETARY OF THE ARMY.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The soldiers\u2019 units are responsible for submitting requests to the under secretary. And unless they can obtain \u201cprior approval\u201d from the under secretary, it appears a line has been drawn in the sand, demanding that unvaccinated soldiers get vaccinated or risk promotion to a higher rank, career advancement, and other valuable training opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>Chief warrant officer (CW2) Michael Davenport, a 16-year veteran of the Army, told The Epoch Times that he considers his career \u201cbasically at a halt.\u201d Having once served as a U.S. Army infantry soldier with the 1st Ranger Battalion, Davenport assumed a role akin to copilot of an Apache advanced attack helicopter in 2019. As a result of the Army\u2019s travel restrictions, Davenport is unable to partake in temporary duty travel to attend <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-military\">military<\/a> schools and training that would advance his career. \u201cIf I can\u2019t progress in education and training,\u201d he said, \u201cI\u2019m going to fall far behind and potentially not be promoted at the next promotion board.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As \u201ca fairly new pilot,\u201d Davenport said, he is not yet a pilot in command (PIC). His religious objection to the military\u2019s vaccine mandate since September 2021 may cost him the PIC designation. Because he is unvaccinated and unable to travel, he has been prevented from participating in training with the Combat Training Center. \u201cFor example, they made me the rear detachment officer in charge while others participated in the training,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>While he submitted a waiver and exception to policy (ETP), Davenport said \u201cit came back denied because of the travel restrictions.\u201d In fact, his unit \u201csent up the ETP to the Under Secretary for others\u201d to no avail.<\/p>\n<p>He said, \u201cI\u2019m missing out on training that would certify me to go on a deployment or a rotation to another theatre, [as well as] the required hours [of flight time] needed to become pilot in command.\u201d He described the experience as \u201cdetrimental\u201d to his career.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, Davenport\u2019s unit was recently up for a European Command (EUCOM) rotation. An ETP to deploy with his unit is still under consideration. But rather than receiving confirmation whether he would deploy with those he has flown with since June 2020, he said, \u201cthey moved me to a non-deploying sister battalion within the brigade while others have begun the EUCOM rotation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Davenport considers stories like his to be harmful to military readiness. \u201cThe Army has spent millions of dollars on my Ranger training and flight training,\u201d he said. \u201cTo put anyone on the sidelines that the Army has invested so much in is the opposite of readiness in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Losing Experience Is the Result<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Epoch Times also spoke to Sergeant First Class Robbie Barnes (a pseudonym) who has served 20 years in the U.S. Army. After returning from an overseas assignment, Barnes requested religious accommodation in October 2021. \u201cI\u2019ve requested multiple times to find out its status, but I haven\u2019t heard anything,\u201d he said. This, he suspects, is because he is close to retirement. \u201cI feel like they\u2019re just trying to see if they can wait me out to retirement,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p>As a result of his religious objection to the vaccine, he said people have made \u201csnarky\u201d comments. \u201cIt\u2019s basically the projection of a feeling that you\u2019re not really of any value until you get the shot,\u201d he said, admitting that \u201cthis has been kind of difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Barnes has not only missed out on deploying overseas again, but also on a few training events and career-enhancing advancing opportunities. \u201cAnd there\u2019s not a chance in hell these things may change any time soon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m now basically stagnant in my career at a time when I would need to be competitive for promotability if I were to not retire, to basically put myself at the tip of the spear to remain competitive,\u201d he said. According to Barnes, senior leadership and those with experience the Army should draw from are \u201cbeing pushed out of the Army.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Barnes questions the ability of new recruits to contribute something substantial to the Army when senior leadership who refuse the vaccine mandate are being threatened and pushed out of the service. New recruits could miss out on learning all the longstanding skills and abilities necessary to take on an adversary, he said. \u201cGiven the current climate around the world, if something were to happen, we\u2019ve pushed out all our experienced people,\u201d he said, warning that \u201cif we go into a large-scale conflict now, we are going to struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that every time a Democratic administration comes in, they come in with the intent to shrink the military,\u201d Barnes said. \u201cBut today, it appears they are trying to shrink the military and make it appear to be our fault for our choosing to leave, [while also] trying to make sure that they have a military force they can control in a better fashion than one with people who are willing to push back against the unlawfulness of a vaccine mandate, for example.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The views of Davenport and Barnes do not reflect the position of the Department of Defense or the Department of the Army. Neither the Pentagon nor the U.S. Army responded to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-j-m-phelps\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/default-user.png\" alt=\"J.M. Phelps\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"names\">\n<p>Freelance reporter<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>J.M. Phelps is a writer and researcher of both Islamist and Chinese threats.\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unvaccinated soldiers affected by a U.S. Army order restricting their official travel have told The Epoch Times that their careers have been severely impacted.According to U.S Army fragmentary orders (FRAGOs)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1623155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1623155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1623155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1623155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1623155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1623155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1623155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}