Dear Mr. President, Mr. Kennedy, and Mr. Hegseth,
I am so excited to see how you will uphold the Constitution of the United States, and the freedoms it protects. I am writing to you in a personal capacity as a private citizen, informed by my 7 years of military service that included service during the pandemic. The opinions below are my own and do not reflect the official views or endorsement of the DoD, USN, or any other government entity. When viewing seeming statements of fact, they should be viewed as merely my opinions. I am proud to say that I am one of the 300 who didn’t separate from the military due to the now rescinded FDA approved Covid-19 vaccine mandate, despite incredible pressure for over 2 years.
REQUEST:
Respectfully requesting the immediate removal of all vaccine requirements for all active duty, reservists, and their dependents on base facilities.
BACKGROUND:
There are two ways to be excused from taking vaccinations in the military; Medical Allergy Waiver or Religious Accommodation Request, both of which are difficult to obtain.
The military has a medical readiness department, which oversees a series of requirements to make service members “deployable” and has almost nothing to do with actual readiness. While you can request a medical waiver for vaccines, it is nearly impossible to get one because few service members have the ability to test for specific ingredients in ever-changing vaccine vials. There is little legal recourse to decline “medical readiness” requirements, even if a life-threatening episode to vaccination has been recorded. In that situation, the onus is on the service member to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the vaccine was the cause of their reaction. Even if we can prove that we are allergic by going to a civilian allergist, the readiness requirements may hold us back from filling our billets, for which we have been unfairly punished. Because military medicine has no capacity/protocol to test for adverse reactions before administering vaccinations, I believe the risk to our service members and their families outweighs the benefits of mandatory vaccination.
Many service members, like myself, do not have the resources to prove that a vaccine caused injury, especially when stationed overseas. We are reliant on a medical system that does not always hold space for our lived experiences, especially those that contradict the “safe and effective” narrative. Unless the Trump Administration leaves a lasting legacy in the military by making vaccinations optional, the military will continue to order us to play metaphorical russian roulette with vaccines that could kill us. This is not in the spirit of protecting our country, but directly hurts our fighting force, further deteriorating our ability to unite from within and fight our external enemies.
If service members submit religious accommodation requests, it is a much longer and difficult process than their civilian counterparts: they must get a Commander’s memo acknowledging counseling, a medical memo acknowledging that they have been counseled on the product constituents, risks, and benefits of vaccinations, and then go through an interview with a chaplain to collect their endorsement letter. With all of these memos, the service member then writes a letter, and finally routes the packet up through the chain of command. This puts a lot of responsibility on the service member, who may not even have a high school degree. I personally have found protection from vaccine requirements by submitting two religious accommodation requests of my own, but the process is long and daunting, even for someone as seasoned as myself who has a college degree and we must be willing to put ourselves in a position where we could be administratively separated should our request get denied. Our civilian counterparts submit their religious accommodation requests by clicking a button on a computer screen. As part of the religious accommodation request packet, it is encouraged to get backing from a religious leader at your place of worship to prove that it does truly conflict with your pre-established religious beliefs. This marginalizes all those who may not have a religious community to back them up, and this happens too frequently in the military. Not having adequate support could lead to the dismissal or denial of a religious accommodation request at any point in the process. This is not in accordance with Frazee v. Illinois ruling since no religious accommodation request should be turned down based upon lack of affiliation with a specific religion.
Even if our requests come back approved, the approval may have legal conditions that make all the protections granted temporary and rescindable by anyone in a position of leadership at any time, without the opportunity to submit another religious accommodation request (RAR) or subsequent appeal for the reversal on the initial RAR, effectively forcing us to take any vaccination or face dishonorable discharge for standing by our beliefs. I have included with this letter the approval for my own RAR. Please note the conditional aspects of this approval.
1.) SAFETY CONCERNS:
On the basis of safety alone, I implore you to make all vaccinations optional for service members and their dependents.
Not only are many of the required vaccines unable to prevent transmission or illness, I believe all of them come with an unacceptable level of risk to life and limb. Thimerosal (mercury), for example, is injected into our veins and we are capable of passing mercury to our children. Schools on military bases have vaccine requirements that children of troops overseas will be forced to comply with. This is no longer the compulsory vaccination of service members, but of their families. I signed up to keep our people free, I want that freedom for my family too.
Undertested mRNA is now in the annual flu shot. It is my personal opinion that compulsory vaccination is an unreasonable risk for all and should be optional. Should we have an outbreak of some sort amongst our ranks, maybe this could be cause for reevaluation but vaccination for diseases that have been largely eradicated makes no sense to me from the perspective of operational risk management, which dictates that we should “accept no unnecessary risk.”
2.) Respectfully requesting that awareness training on vaccine injury and associated short/long-term risks, be mandatory for all military medical professionals. Mr. Kennedy would be a great resource for developing this training.
Culturally, the military medical system is not mentally or emotionally aware of the concept of vaccine injury. Many doctors will find any other excuse, besides the vaccines themselves, to assign responsibility for the damage vaccines may inflict immediately, or cumulatively, over time. This leads to an inability to diagnose, treat, or provide adequate disability for service members during and after service for service related injuries. Respectfully recommend that all service members disabled as a result of any vaccine have their VA disability rating immediately and retroactively bumped to 100% permanent from the time of separation. Also requesting that the onus be on military medical to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that a potential vaccine injury was definitively caused by another issue and that without conclusive proof, it will be assumed to be a vaccine injury for the purposes of VA disability. My hope for this policy is to instill a true sense of the risk inherent in vaccination and ultimately push a cultural shift where the military has to truly take accountability for vaccine injuries in servicemembers.
3.) The DoD needs to work hard to rebuild the trust of its people and that starts with an apology but finishes when the Trump administration ensures that returning members don’t have to grapple with a host of new vaccines simply to rejoin.
Recruitment is down across all branches largely due to the mass firing of patriotic service members who held the line against the overturned vaccination mandate during the pandemic.
Reenlisting members will still be mandated to take all required immunizations to rejoin service, effectively asking them to compromise the values that caused them to leave service initially. This bait and switch must be addressed immediately to protect the integrity of the promises made by Trump Administration. I believe that the easiest way is accomplish this goal is to change Military Readiness requirements to making vaccination optional.
I witnessed personally, the injuries of my colleagues and their families, who often hold civilian positions in the military and who also were threatened with the loss of employment. Guillain-Barré Syndrome, strokes, chronic seizures, autoimmune disorders and heart problems are the results I have personally witnessed as the results of pro-vaccine policy. It was never about safety. The deterioration of trust between military leaders and their subordinates, active duty, reserve, and civilian, has never been worse, as a direct consequence. I myself was stunted in my career due to the fact that I was unvaccinated. I personally would like an apology and a promotion for myself as well as all of us who were passed over for advancement, if only for embodying the values of honor, courage, and commitment as we stood, and still stand, for the rights of our fellow service members.
4.) Lastly, we need a cultural shift as it relates to “good order and discipline.” Injecting ourselves with known carcinogens and heavy metals should never be a basis for good order and discipline. This cultural shift must come from the top down. I believe the science that suggests vaccines are potentially far more harmful than good and find my trust in leadership is vastly undermined by such pervasive mentalities.
I would strongly urge Donald Trump to use his power as Commander in Chief to make all vaccinations, in all forms, optional for service members.
These views are my own and do not reflect those of the DoD or USN. This is a letter to the POTUS and therefore protected communication as per DoD Directive 1325.06 and the First Amendment. I write this letter in a personal capacity and as a private citizen, referencing my service in the military for context and not for clout. I am not advocating for partisan political causes or campaigns in accordance with DoD Directive 1344.10. I am not responsible for the eager circulation of my letter on public platforms or the attention it garners. I also hereby invoke the protections of the Whistleblower Protection Act as they apply. These words are my own and meant in utmost respect, without insubordination or contempt. My ultimate intent is to uphold the oath I took to support and defend the constitution.
Sincerely,
Kathryn C. Clark
The signatures of the volunteers below represent members of the DoD community who have a vested interest in seeing vaccination in the military become optional and may have assisted in the editing of this letter:
1. Kyle F. Chapman (military spouse, DoD contractor)
2. Victoria M. Rushakoff (USMC veteran; Sgt)
3. Anna Johnson (military spouse)
4. Michael Keane USCG MK1
5. Crystal Kupper (retired Air Force veteran spouse)
6. Rebekah Abbott (Army Spouse)
7. Destiny Nelsen (Army Dependent)
8. Elizabeth Marie Rose (concerned mom of CT ANG SrA)
9. Michelle Carroll (Army spouse)
10. Marvin Carroll, Army AD
11.TSGT Scott R. Lauderbaugh USAF Retired - Member of The 231 Militaryaccountability.net Co/Host of The FORGOTTEN SOLDIERS PODCAST https://rumble.com/user/TheForgottenSoldiers
12. TSgt Jodie Ruther, Air Force, Active Guard
13. Sherri Kirklin (concerned mom of Navy Midshipman)
14. Pamela Uschek (Army spouse)
15. Justin A. Buda, Major (sel), USAF
16. Heather Smith, (military spouse 33yrs)
17. Kirsten Wolfford, Lt Col, Air National Guard
18. Natali Mills, MSgt, Air National Guard
19. Ionela Redmond, Capt, USAF AD
20. Jennifer Wielicki-Israel (USCG Veteran, Army Chaplain Spouse)
21. James Geddes https://rumble.com/user/UNMUZZLEDCHAT
22. Eric Piatt (USMC veteran; Sgt)
23. Lucas Warzyniak (Army 1st Lieutenant)
24. Paul Addington (GSE2, Navy veteran)
25. Cierra Addington (spouse of Navy veteran)
26. David Trupe, TSgt, USAF, AD
27. Ruth Saraiva Trupe (spouse of AD member)
28. Natalie Horanoff, SrA, USAF, AD
29. John Eugene Delarm (SFC involuntarily Separated U.S Army) Member of The 231 Militaryaccountability.net Host of THE FORGOTTEN SOLDIERS PODCAST https://rumble.com/user/TheForgottenSoldiers
30. Jewel Walker, MSN, RN, CPT, USA (Ret.)
31. Eric Andrew Perez (Marine Vet.)
32. Zach Emmott, MSgt, USAF (ret.)
33. Benjamin Leiby, Lt Col, USAF
34. Brennan Schilperoort, Maj, USAF
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