AD Vaccine Mandate

[STEVE81]

Although I do have my vaccine, I have mixed feelings about it as well. There lots of folks in the military (and out, for that matter) that believe too much of what they see on social media. I mean, there is an obvious divide in the country when it comes to the vaccine. One side would have you believe that the vaccine is nearly infallible with the actual virus being comparable to the plague while the other side makes receiving the vaccine out to be a sure-fire death wish. To be honest, its exhausting.

As far as those of us in the military are concerned, I am fine with the vaccine being mandatory. I think the important part is to realize the we need to be able to deploy to anywhere in the world. When we do, we are sometimes at the mercy of the countries we deploy to when it comes to things like vaccination status. I am in the middle east right now. Most of the countries in this part of the world will not allow anyone into the country unless they have been fully vaxxed and, in some cases, quarantined beforehand. If military members were not vaccinated, we would have a really hard time (basically impossible) manning these deployments. Considering our purpose is to deploy, then I don't really see how this is an issue. Get the vaccine and do your job.

[1stindoor]

Not disagreeing with you as I have spent nearly 3 decades getting shots for all manner of deployments OCONUS. At the same time though, none of those shots were so hotly contested nor were we so greatly divided. For as many people that believe too much of what they see on social media, there are just as many that believe too much of what they see on mainstream media. I agree that readiness and deploy-ability are crucial here, but it is also still a volunteer military. If you're going to make it mandatory and people reject the mandate, then let them separate.

[STEVE81]

Not disagreeing with you as I have spent nearly 3 decades getting shots for all manner of deployments OCONUS. At the same time though, none of those shots were so hotly contested nor were we so greatly divided. For as many people that believe too much of what they see on social media, there are just as many that believe too much of what they see on mainstream media. I agree that readiness and deploy-ability are crucial here, but it is also still a volunteer military. If you're going to make it mandatory and people reject the mandate, then let them separate.

I want to agree with you on that one but if that were to be allowed, I worry what our numbers are at the end of the day. Basically, how many people would just say "screw it, I'm out" and just leave. Just based on guys that I work with (let's be honest, that's a small sample size) I feel like we may be looking at a 30%-50% reduction in force if that we were to be allowed to separate if we refused the vaccine. Our country's defense could not handle that.

Full disclosure, I don't know if there is a right answer here. I can tell you one thing for sure; nobody is happy with this. Nobody feels good about it.

[1stindoor]

Also don't know the "right answer." But my gut tells me the lesser of the two evils would be to let those that are refusing the vaccine out of the military. DoD (my opinion only) would suffer far greater in recruitment and retention by handing out a bunch BCDs and ART 15s. Personally, I think had Trump gotten the credit for pushing the emergency authorization for the vaccine and not been demonized for calling out China for COVIDs creation there would be a lot less pushback by those in uniform. Unfortunately we can't change what has happened.

[n2ratfishin]

Wow Steve, your base has a much higher non vaccinated rate than Ft Campbell. Seems like they were 70% plus vaccinated when I left a month or so ago. When the base cut off leave unless you're vaccinated most went ahead and got the shots. One of the unit commanders lives near me. He told me several months ago everybody that did not want the vaccine had to come tell him why not in person. Full discloser, his unit deploys all over the world frequently.

[STEVE81]

Wow Steve, your base has a much higher non vaccinated rate than Ft Campbell. Seems like they were 70% plus vaccinated when I left a month or so ago. When the base cut off leave unless you're vaccinated most went ahead and got the shots. One of the unit commanders lives near me. He told me several months ago everybody that did not want the vaccine had to come tell him why not in person. Full discloser, his unit deploys all over the world frequently.

Honestly, I don't know what the vaccination rate is/was at that base. I'm just basing that on how it "felt" when I would talk to people about it. So please take whatever I say on the matter with a grain of salt, if you were not already. I'm just a guy that talks to airplanes and occasionally gets to do a little fishing.

[toporanger]

I want to say Riley is over 90% vaccinated for the soldiers. I am currently in DJ and its so strange here, no masks etc as everyone is vaccinated and or tested negative with a quarantine.

[1stindoor]

"and/or tested negative" is the overall issue here in my opinion. I work with a lot of contractors who are more than willing to be tested regularly, but may not be given the option. I have another AD Soldier in my office that gets at least one or two "nasty-gram" emails from O5/O6 and E9s because he's not vaccinated. HOWEVER, he recently had COVID, took the monocolonal AB treatment and is not able to take the vaccine for 90 days. Has sent in his paperwork from the hospital (military), updated his MEDPROS...twice, sent screenshots of his medpros showing his exemption, and still gets a call or email at least once a week telling him he needs to contact this person or that ASAP. My point behind this is even the ones "tracking" compliance...can't see compliance in the system.

[toporanger]

"and or tested negative" is a bit different out here though. YOu cant leave base in that status. We have a small controlled village here on base. And when they tested negative it was after a quarantine I believe. I cant see how that level of precaution can be done in the states.