President Biden’s Defense Department has been busy recently gutting our forces of soldiers who refuse to get the required COVID vaccination, including the staggering, 60,000 Army National Guard troops who were told June 1 that they are no longer allowed to participate in their military duties. They are effectively shut off from many benefits of the military.
It’s one thing to read numbers on a website, it’s another to put a face to the insanity.
Air Force Master Sergeant Nick Kupper is a 19 year veteran who received his papers one month prior to becoming eligible for full military retirement. It is particularly cruel as he is the father to special needs child and his family had been counting on receiving the benefits of 20 years service.
Kupper appeared Wednesday on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program, and as if to prove how petty the DOD is being, the Air Force called him right before his appearance to let him know they wanted to process his separation package the next day. Watch:
Tucker Carlson hears from Nick Kupper (Air Force Master Sergeant) about the experience he had refusing to take COVID.
This is an urgent problem. It’s estimated that over 10% is in danger of being canned. pic.twitter.com/C7Nsur2mRQ
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) July 7, 2022
Responding to a Carlson question, Kupper points out that he’s only one of a vast number of soldiers affected by the mandate:
…in fact you said it’s tens of thousands, it’s actually hundreds of thousands, by the DOD’s own numbers today. I mean you’re looking at guard or reserve—from all the branches—in the Air Force alone it’s over 10,000 people, to include myself.
He described the profound impact this will have upon his family.
And you know, like you said, yeah, I’ve been counting on this 20-year retirement for the past 19 years, that’s been the plan, and all because they won’t grant me a religious exemption waiver, you know, they’re looking to kick me out…
So after 19 years, they’re going to throw away everything that I’ve worked for. But I’m just one of hundreds of thousands of people who are being kicked out because we won’t take an illegal, emergency use vaccine.
He also notes that the vaccine’s results haven’t been so good, to put it mildly:
In fact, Tucker, talking about “it doesn’t protect you from COVID,” if you look at their own numbers the DOD has seen a threefold increase in cases and deaths on a monthly basis since the mandate was enacted.
They go on to talk about the struggles in recruiting efforts across the services, a subject which RedState’s streiff recently reported on.
I Stand With USAF Master Sergeant Kupper…
I Will Not Be Mandated To Roll Up My Sleeve… pic.twitter.com/sTamacWmdk
— Covid-1984 (@Spiro_Ghost) July 7, 2022
Kupper has a strong record throughout his career, twice winning the Air Force’s recruiter of the year title and devoting thousands of hours to mentoring youth, raising money for child sponsoring organizations, and helping and sponsoring orphans from Ukraine. He even competed on the “American Ninja Warrior” show in 2019, giving the Air Force’s profile a nice boost on national TV.
The Master Sergeant isn’t the only airman denied an exemption. Paradise indicates that they were not generous in distributing them.
Kupper, one of the more than 9,000 Airmen to have made requests for religious accommodations. Of these 6,642 applications were denied by commanders. There are 2,399 pending, 98 have been granted. After their religious waiver request was denied, thousands have had to appeal. 34445 appeals were denied while 721 are still open. A mere 30 Airmen had their religious exemption request approved by appeal.
Threety percent of the 9,000. That’s appalling. Kupper notes that soldiers have to be vaccinated, but the COVID vaccine presents problems. It’s wrong that they’re forcing out such a fine serviceman, and thousands upon thousands of others, threatening our military preparedness and breaking the morale of soldiers.
The administration just seems to like punishing its own citizens, as this case shows. Kupper and his child, as seen here, should be treated better. It’s downright cruel, what the government is doing to these men and women, and their families.