On December 7, 2021, the Texas Military Department told Texas Army National Guard leadership that their members must receive a COVID-19 vaccination by June 2022.
If they don’t comply with order, these members could be discharged from their positions according to sources in the Texas Military Department.
Jeramy Kitchen of Texas Scorecard reported that members who currently haven’t received vaccinations will not receive drill pay until they become vaccinated beginning in December.
December 2 was the deadline for the Texas Air National Guard.
An anonymous source told Texas Scorecard, “In a briefing this morning, the Texas Military Department indicated that members of the Texas Army National Guard and Texas Air National Guard will have to receive the COVID-19 vaccination by June of 2022 or face discharge and they will not receive their monthly drill pay starting this month until they do.”
Vaccines mandates are a major issue for grassroots conservatives in Texas.
Bans on employer vaccine mandates were added to the most recent special session agenda but was not definitively addressed.
However, Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order attempting to ban employer vaccine mandates.
On December 7, 2021, went on Twitter to praise a federal court decision in Georgia placing an injunction on vaccine mandates for federal contractors. That same day the Texas Military Department issued its mandatory vaccination policy for its members.
State military bodies in several states have clashed with the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate policies.
In neighboring Oklahoma, Gov. Kevin Stitt announced that Oklahoma National Guard members would not be required to receive COVID-19 vaccinations.
This move was in open defiance to a Pentagon directive making vaccinations compulsory for all military members, which included the National Guard.
The individual service branches would determine their own vaccination deadlines.
This incident has created a dispute between the Department of Defense and the Oklahoma state government. The latter argued that while National Guard members are deployed by federal orders, they operate under the jurisdiction of a respective state’s governor, therefore, they are not subject to federal mandates.
As a result of this dispute, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued a directive on November 30 outlining that national guard members who do not receive a COVID-19 vaccination will have their compensation withheld and be prevented from receiving further training.
Moves of this nature have a political aim in mind. They’re designed to purge military and state defense force bodies of right-wing members. The long-term goal is to have military bodies that are filled with leftist or, at the very least, compliant personnel that will carry out the ruling class’s agenda.
Republican lawmakers need to stand up to these vaccination schemes and make sure that military units not be subjected to these political purges.
