Thread by @robbystarbuck

The Pentagon is pretending they’ll honor religious exemptions but I’ve talked to a large number of chaplains & troops in recent days who tell me ALL religious exemptions they’ve seen have been denied by the Lt. Gen. with no explanation even if they’ve been approved in past years.

An interesting note: The process has changed for getting any religious exemptions from vaccination. Last year they quietly changed the old approval system which was done on the commander level in close consultation with chaplains. Now the Lt. Gen. decides all of them. Why?

Other units reported that they were told their exemptions wouldn’t even be sent until they officially put the mandate in place (which was today) so it’s yet to be seen what they do for those units but all the other troops I’ve spoken to had theirs denied when theirs were sent.

Many reported feeling like they are being threatened with job loss, loss of promotions, loss of pensions and more. Is this how we want our troops to feel @SecDef? Some can’t even see their family because a radius of travel has been imposed on the unvaccinated. Unacceptable.

Worse yet (legally speaking) some of them report that they’re being prevented from taking part in some of their religious activities due to the travel restrictions that‘ve been placed on unvaccinated troops. Others report being punished with extra work for being unvaccinated.

I’ve spent a lot of time on this since I broke the story about Fort Polk forcing troops to wear red armbands if they’re unvaccinated. The morale is beyond low. They’re scared and angry. They can’t believe after all they’ve done for their country, this is the thanks they get.

I’m putting this out there publicly to demand @SecDef does the following:

• Re-evaluate religious exemptions that have been denied
• Remove travel limitations for religious activities and visiting family
• Stop singling out unvaccinated troops, it’s discriminatory and wrong