Unvaccinated National Guardsmen excited ‘about the opportunity to come back’
Mike Brest
Video Embed
While it’s still unclear if rescinding the coronavirus vaccine mandate will help the National Guard’s recruitment numbers, members who no longer fear losing their jobs over it are excited.
National Guard senior enlisted adviser Tony Whitehead told reporters on Tuesday the guard’s senior enlisted leaders are “excited about the opportunity to connect with the soldiers and airmen that were really waiting to hear some news about” the reversal of the Pentagon’s coronavirus vaccine mandate, which was overturned in early January after Congress repealed it in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act.
CIA DIRECTOR VISITED KYIV TO MEET WITH UKRAINIAN LEADERS ABOUT RUSSIA’S PLANS
Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added that “it’s still a little bit too early to tell” whether it will make a difference in their struggling recruitment numbers. But they will get a better understanding of its effect next month at the National Guard’s first drill since the mandate was lifted.
Roughly 92% of the National Guard has been vaccinated as of Jan. 9, according to the National Guard Association of the United States, and that percentage increases slightly when including those who had one shot of the two-shot vaccine. The Army National Guard had granted 6,578 temporary exemptions, 14 permanent medical exemptions, and one permanent religious one, and it hadn’t involuntarily separated any vaccine refusers, while the Air National Guard granted 153 medical exemptions, 622 administrative exemptions, and separated 69 airmen.
“So as the chief said, you know, it’s too soon to tell, but the excitement about the opportunity to come back and to serve is high,” Whitehead added. “And so we’re hoping that we see some great numbers from that, but it’s a matter of waiting to see, but we’re impressed with the leaders making the call to say, ‘Hey, how soon can we do this?’ That was one of the things that was like, ‘Hey, how soon can we get them back into the formation,’ which was exciting for us here, which means that they’re staying connected, but those soldiers and those airmen that have to make that tough decision.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The National Guard, like the Pentagon as a whole, is still working on certain areas of the policy regarding the now-defunct mandate.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin mandated all U.S. military members get the initial vaccine back in August 2021, and the department separated roughly 8,400 service members who refused to get the vaccine or get an exemption request approved while the policy was in effect.