As a lifelong liberal I have been instinctively wary of military establishments, both ours and those in countries all over the world. Much of world history can be tracked with the endless ways military leaders and resources have limited both individual and collective freedom -- social, political, philosophical. Too much "freedom" is contrary to the disciplined order that is essential to an effective military. So now, once again, objections to vaccinations has reached a level of discontent among the ranks that military leadership is moving to eliminate what has become a threat to good order.
Over the past several days, the Defense Department has taken its first steps to separate scores of personnel across different services for refusing to comply with the department’s COVID vaccine mandate — either by being vaccinated or by demonstrating a genuine religious exemption. Given this policy, potentially thousands of other active-duty, reserve and National Guard troops may also face separation.
While this will be a challenge for maintaining cohesion and a team-focused culture while ensuring readiness for possible homeland and worldwide deployments, there is also a risk that domestic extremist groups in the United States will seek to ramp up recruitment, propaganda and disinformation to draw in former service members with continued resentment over the vaccine mandate and other COVID-related measures. Thousands will now have the even greater grievance of being separated from the service.
Former members of the military are most certainly not the dominant component of those who subscribe to anti-government, white supremacist or other extremist beliefs in the United States. But research has shown that extremist groups target military personnel for recruitment, and at least 81 of those suspected in the Jan. 6 insurrection against the U.S. Capitol had military backgrounds. Extremist groups are likely already thinking about the prospect of recruiting thousands of personnel separated from the military because of their opposition to the vaccine mandate.
In other circumstances I would be suspicious of yet another threat to individual freedom, especially since many of the vaccine hesitance crowd claim either civil or religious objections to being vaccinated. Even among medical professionals there is a segment who would rather lose their employment than be vaccinated, so this is a serious challenge to the overwhelming need to stop the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. Though I'm solidly in the pro-vaccination camp, I sympathize with the vaccine hesitant folks in principle. But in this case I approve of what the military leadership is doing.
My usual suspicion of military over-reach is tempered in this case by personal experience of having been drafted as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam conflict. I was among that segment of the population, some older professionals but mostly young people, who objected to the US involvement in Vietnam. Arguments about that war are well-known but my purpose in writing here is not to re-litigate those days. Here I want to discuss specifically how the military handles conscientious objectors and endorse the stops military leadership is taking to identify and isolate today's vaccine objectors, and to document here how impressed I was with the professionalism with which we were trained and integrated into the ranks of active duty forces.
Conscientious objection to war has a long history, not just in America but other places as well. Even in Russia draft legislation allows people to choose an alternative civilian service for religious or ideological reasons. Most objectors are employed in healthcare, construction, forestry and post industries, serving 18 to 21 months. The Wikipedia article about conscientious objectors has more information than most people care to know about the subject. This is not remarkable, but at the time I reported for basic training I didn't know what to expect.
As a college freshman I was obliged to take part in ROTC and I hated every minute of it. I was amazed at the narrow simplicity of what passed for academic studies, and as a member of the college marching band I couldn't stand the ROTC uniform. It was later when the draft started, that I decided to apply for conscientious objector status. I had no idea what to expect, but following guidelines from a couple of organizations I persuaded my local draft board to change my status from 1-A to 1-A-O (CO in uniform, as opposed to 1-O, civilian service only). Draft status is determined by local draft boards and once that status is granted the military cannot change it. All COs went into the US Army (none in other branches) and all would become Army Medics. With two years as a music major in a college band I could not be assigned to a military band because band members are issued weapons and are classified as a combat position.
Since that time conditions may have changed, but in 1965 all conscientious objectors were sent to Fort Sam Huston, Texas (San Antonio) for modified basic training. The modification was a heavy emphasis on first aid because following basic training all COs were sent to MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) to join the Medical Service Corps. But the reason we went to Ft. Sam was that was where Army Medics were trained. Hand-to-hand combat and weapons training was optional for those who wanted that training, either for self-defense or to protect the lives of patients in the field should they have that responsibility.
I was surprised and pleased at the time to discover the professionalism of the men and women who did the training. They knew we were conscientious objectors and we were treated with total respect. They knew we were being prepared to go into a combat environment and lives were at stake, both ours and those of others whom we would be caring for as part of the Medical Service Corps. I have mostly good memories of those days, believe it or not, and have contact now, more than fifty years later, with one of my buddies.
Based on my own experience I have no suspicions about all branches of the military taking steps to identify and separate individuals refusing to be vaccinated. The January 6 attack on the capitol was poorly organized, but it was orchestrated to include extremist militia groups aiming to take control of the country by overturning the results of the presidential election. There may or may not be a clear connection between anti-vax individuals and known violent extremist groups, but it's better to err on the side of safety than leave their objections to fester and spread. The result will be more focused forces.
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