More than 200 active-duty and retired service members have signed an open letter pledging to bring to justice military leaders who implemented the Pentagon’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate.
Published January 1, the “Declaration of Military Accountability” opens with some familiar language:
In the course of human events it sometimes becomes necessary to admonish the lawless, encourage the fainthearted, and strengthen the weak. We have reached just such a time in our history. The affairs of our nation are now steeped in avaricious corruption and our once stalwart institutions, including the Dept[.] of Defense, are failing to fulfill the moral obligations upon which they were founded. Standing upon our natural and constitutional rights, we hereby apprise the American people that we have exhausted all internal efforts to rectify recent criminal activity within the Armed Forces.
What, exactly, is this “recent criminal activity”?
While implementing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, military leaders broke the law, trampled constitutional rights, denied informed consent, permitted unwilling medical experimentation, and suppressed the free exercise of religion. Service members and families were significantly harmed by these actions. Their suffering continues to be felt financially, emotionally, and physically. Some service members became part of our ever-growing veteran homeless population, some developed debilitating vaccine injuries, and some even lost their lives. In an apparent attempt to avoid accountability, military leaders are continuing to ignore our communications regarding these injuries and the laws that were broken.
According to the Pentagon, 98 percent of active-duty troops had been jabbed as of December 2022. At the same time, over 8,400 troops were booted from the service for refusing the shots. Of those, just 43 have tried to reenlist since Congress forced an end to the vaccine mandate last year, and fewer still have actually rejoined, CNN reported in October.
The vaccine mandate and the military’s treatment of those who objected to it, even when they had sincere religious reasons for doing so, have surely played a role in the services’ inability to meet recruitment goals in recent years. The signatories to the open letter say they want to “rebuild trust” in the military “by demonstrating that leaders cannot cast aside constitutional rights or the law for political expediency.”
Which leaders? They name names including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Charles Brown, Jr., and his predecessor, General Mark Milley, though they note that “numerous others” bear responsibility for the mandate and its aftermath.
“These individuals enabled lawlessness and the unwilling experimentation on service members,” reads the letter. “The moral and physical injuries they helped inflict are significant. They betrayed the trust of service members and the American people. Their actions caused irreparable harmto the Armed Forces and the institutions for which we have fought and bled.”
Furthermore, “These leaders refused to resignor take any other action to hold themselves accountable, nor have they attempted to repair the harm their policies and actions have caused.”
Thus, the signers of the letter feel compelled to “mutually pledge to each other that we will do everything in our power, through lawful word and action, to hold accountable military leaderswho failed to follow the law when their leadership and moral courage was most desperately needed.”
They promise to run for Congress or seek executive-branch appointments in which they can effect the measures they deem necessary, including recalling from retirement and court-martialing military leaders responsible for the mandate and taking away their retirement incomes.
“For the senior leaders named, and for the thousands who were not named but who are equally complicit, I hope this [letter] is a wake-up call,” Navy Commander Robert Green, Jr., the missive’s author, told the Epoch Times.
“Personal financial and legal risk is now part of the analysis our senior military leaders must take before deciding on policies that have implications for service members’ constitutional rights,” he said.
Some signatories are already running for state and federal office.
Former Navy SEAL Cameron Hamilton, a Republican running for Congress from Virginia, posted on X that “it was an easy decision to sign this. I am committed to defending liberty and ensuring accountability within our government.”
“Proud to be among the 231 signatories,” wrote veteran Chris Coulombe, a Republican seeking to represent a California district in Congress. “The vaccine mandate isn’t just about policy — it’s about the profound impact on our troops, our institutions, and the principles that guide our country. We’re calling for real accountability, seeking to repair the trust and uphold the values at the heart of our military.”
The letter-signers don’t merely want to bring military leaders to justice and then call it a day. They also promise “to train those who come after us to fulfill their duty in achieving this accountability and safeguarding against such leadership failures hereafter.”
Significantly, the signatories recognize that the political decisions that underlay the vaccine mandate are a reflection of America’s moral decline. “Our nation was once great because it was good,” they declare. “It was built on moral principles founded in natural law and yet, the recent acceleration of moral relativism has us headed towards a precipitous implosion. While all good things come to an end, we refuse to allow our nation to go quietly into the depths of decadence and decay.”
“May future generations see our efforts and, God willing, may they also be recipients of the great gift of liberty that we have had the honor of safeguarding.”
