Coming soon
This is Insubordinate, a newsletter about my experience in the military during the pandemic. I’ve been following public discourse regarding the virus, the lockdowns, mandates etc. What I believe is missing from the discussion are the personal experiences of service members who stood against an institution that seemingly abandoned law and its own regulations. In a culture that is guided by principles such as honor, integrity, excellence, the last two years have been incomprehensible. Those attempting to follow the regulations, bring awareness to the legal violations, and the logical inconsistencies are branded as refusers, conspiracy theorists, and (of course) insubordinates. The internal processes for redress have all failed. We have discharged over 8600 for vaccine refusal, yet the official DoD stance is that the vaccine is required for readiness. Are we truly to believe that kicking out 8600+ personnel (since 24 August 2021) is good for readiness? For comparison, we lost ~7000 during the 20-yr period that was Afghanistan and Iraq.
It is not normal for active-duty military members to step into the public square, but these are not normal times. I am not a virologist, a lawyer, nor a doctor. I am however a military officer who swore an oath to The Constitution. I am tired of watching the military continually violate the law and create distrust and division among the troops.
The “military mandate” is set to be repealed with the passing of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Does the readiness argument suddenly go away? What will DoD’s new official stance be? In the end it doesn’t matter because the reality is that the mandate was never a lawful order to begin with. I’ll explain how and why here at Insubordinate.