Service members who refused COVID-19 vaccine reach settlement with Navy
Naval service members who refused the COVID-19 vaccine reached a settlement with the Department of the Navy last week.
First Liberty Institute, a non-profit legal organization, originally filed a lawsuit in November 2021 on behalf of 35 Navy SEALs and special operators in response to the Department of Defense’s vaccine mandate. The service members had applied for religious exemptions and faced discrimination in response. After the complaint’s filing, over 4,000 Navy personnel who had also filed for religious exemptions joined the lawsuit.
The settlement
The organization announced last week that a settlement has been reached with the US Navy, which has agreed to remove “adverse information” concerning the service members’ vaccine refusal from their personnel files. The Navy will also prohibit the next three promotion boards from considering vaccine refusal when deciding whether to promote a service member. In addition, the Navy has agreed to adjust the policy related to religious accommodation requests, provide more training for personnel who review such requests, issue a statement supporting the religious freedom of service members, and pay $1.5 million in attorney’s fees.
“This has been a long and difficult journey, but the Navy SEALs never gave up,” said First Liberty Institute Senior Counsel and Military Practice Group Chair Danielle Runyan in a press release. “We are thrilled that those members of the Navy who were guided by their conscience and steadfast in their faith will not be penalized in their Navy careers.”
‘People need to go to jail’
However, not all service members are claiming victory.
Lietuenant Ted Macie, who serves in the Navy Medical Service Corps, maintains that the settlement does not prevent the US military from repeating its actions.
Last year, Macie came upon Department of Defense data that showed an alarming surge in cardiac events among military pilots since the COVID-19 vaccine was introduced. When he brought it to the attention of his superiors, they blamed the COVID-19 virus and locked him out of his computer. He was placed under investigation.
In a lengthy post on X Friday, Macie, who will soon retire after 23 years of service, shared his thoughts on the settlement:
By no stretch of the imagination, am I ungrateful for this case, the lawyers and team. While this is a small victory for the SEALs, their families, and @1stLiberty, we (231 signatories of the Declaration for Military Accountability) need to keep pressing. Yes, there was a settlement and some relief, however, there is still nothing to prevent something like this from happening again. There must be accountability. People need to go to jail, at a minimum.
The effect of this case also created a pivotal moment in my family’s life. Since we thought I was going to be kicked out, we planned for me to run for Congress. This was never an aspiration, it was out of necessity. After experiencing 1. the blatant disregard for the law and people’s Constitutional rights, 2. the level of deception going on between pharma, FDA the DoD and 3. the lack of urgency or action by Congress, we quickly figured out that the majority of them are puppets and/or cowards with minimal integrity.
Additionally, since I was able to remain on active duty, I ended up becoming a whistleblower by tracking the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database DMED for unusual signals such as 151% Myocarditis and 973% increase in AD Pilot heart failure occurrences. After a video went viral, I was put under investigation instead of them investigating the information I was alerting up my chain of command, all the way to the @USNavyCNO. I’ve been quiet about it but I’m still dealing with whistleblower retaliation…more to that story another time.
We had no other option but to become a part of the solution, especially for our children. There’s more back story, but my wife @MaraMacie ended up running for US Congress in FL D5 because of what we experienced, fought tooth and nail for and the beautiful people we’ve met along the way. She’s built for this.
All the hardship just adds fuel to our fire. We’re going to save this place whether they like or not.
