We’ve known this day was probably coming for quite a while now. Of all of the vaccine mandates in place around the country, the one with the most teeth to it and the hardest to refuse without consequences was always going to be the military mandate for service members to be vaccinated. While vaccination rates in the military have been much higher than the national average, not all of our men and women in uniform have complied. The first of the American armed services has now stepped forward to complete the process among some of the non-compliant. The United States Air Force has discharged more than two dozen people for refusing to take the vaccine. But the few details provided to the media surrounding these discharges suggest that there may have been other complicating factors involved. (Associated Press)

The Air Force has discharged 27 people for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine, making them what officials believe are the first service members to be removed for disobeying the mandate to get the shots.

The Air Force gave its forces until Nov. 2 to get the vaccine, and thousands have either refused or sought an exemption. Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said Monday that these are the first airmen to be administratively discharged for reasons involving the vaccine.

She said all of them were in their first term of enlistment, so they were younger, lower-ranking personnel. And while the Air Force does not disclose what type of discharge a service member gets, legislation working its way through Congress limits the military to giving troops in vaccine refusal cases an honorable discharge or general discharge under honorable condition.

Given the size of the Air Force and the number of people still believed to be unvaccinated (numbering in the thousands), 27 people doesn’t sound like very many. The deadline for service members to be vaccinated was November 2, so roughly six weeks have passed since then. These administrative processes frequently take a while, so I was honestly surprised to see them moving this quickly.

Clearly, it’s going to take a lot longer for others. As the linked report notes, there are at least one thousand airmen who have refused the shot and nearly 5,000 who are in the process of requesting exemptions. Those cases are all still being processed.

So how did this group get shown the door so quickly? One hint may be found in the report that all 27 of them were young airmen in their first term of enlistment and none of them requested an exemption of any type. They just refused to go get the shot. While this is purely speculative, I can tell you from my own military service that there are always a certain number of enlisted men and women who finish basic training and are given their first duty assignment, only to realize that military life isn’t for them after all. But going AWOL can lead to lifelong problems, so they look for a way to be kicked out early.

Back in my day, I served with sailors in similar situations who went and “confessed” to being addicted to drugs, even though some of them had never engaged in any serious drug use. There was a rehab program in place and they would then “fail” out of rehab. They wound up getting a general or “other than honorable” discharge and were on their way. These airmen were probably aware that washing out of the Air Force for not being vaccinated could, at worst, get them a general discharge and they might still get an honorable one. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that these 27 new civilians did something similar.

The fact that none of them requested an exemption is another clue. If they really wanted to stay in the service, they most likely would have tried to work within the system and be granted an exemption. That would have kept them in uniform without having to get the shot. Further, the Air Force spokesperson said that at least some of the 27 also had other disciplinary issues on their records prior to the failure to obey a lawful order to take the vaccine. Some of them may have already seen the writing on the wall and knew they would be on the way out anyway, so they used the vaccine refusal as a vehicle to get away fairly cleanly.

When all of the arguments and processing are finally over, the military is going to win in the end. Some people may be granted exemptions, but for the most part, when the military issues you an order you follow it or they will make you pay the consequences. Our service members don’t enjoy all of the same rights and freedoms as civilians. It’s part of the contract you sign when you enlist. So don’t expect this to be the last story of unvaccinated service members being discharged that you see in the news.