EXCLUSIVE: The Air Force is still grounding pilots seeking religious accommodation for the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, but is allowing other unvaccinated service members to continue flying regularly.
Capt. Alan Soseby, an active-duty Air Force instructor pilot, said Wednesday that he has been out of a job for nearly a year, even though the Air Force recently allowed unvaccinated pilots to fly again.
Last week, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an order that, starting in October, would protect unvaccinated Air Force personnel from being punished or involuntarily terminated because of religious objections to the vaccine.
The commander of the 19th Air Force had a policy of discharging any airmen who had not been previously vaccinated. After that policy was overturned after the first court order in October, other unvaccinated pilots were allowed to continue flying. However, Sosebie is still barred from flying because he has already filed voluntary discharge papers.
Sosebi, who has served for about 10 years, said, “I still haven’t had any disciplinary action against me that is unreasonable and unfounded,” aside from what they did under this COVID-19 mandate.
The appeals court held that the Air Force “improperly relied” on a broad formula to rule out religious objections to the VAX mandate.
“They are the ones who started all this. And they have the ability to eliminate all the paperwork … apparently, they don’t want to let it happen, and that’s why I’m still unreasonable, and they won’t let me fly,” said the captain .
Military personnel march at Maxwell Air Force Base.
(Maxwell Air Force Base)
Soseby said his son’s serious medical problems require extensive care and multiple surgeries, and he plans to stay in the Air Force for 20 or 30 years. He is now expected to be released against his will.
“And because of his medical problems, we planned to serve in the Air Force for 20 or 30 years, and if they would let us, we would like to do that. But they decided to take more measures against me. They seem to be able to “, he said.
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Lt. Col. Tyler Steph said he was suspended from training Becoming a T-38 instructor in October 2021 and not being able to fly since then, it was very hard on his family as he was the sole breadwinner and needed to pass the military and work like this cannot interrupt existing flight hours. a pilot of a major airline.
In addition, if he is eventually discharged from the Air Force, he will lose the GI Bill education benefits he plans to use to send his daughter to college.
“So I’m kind of missing out on my kids’ college education, which is a financial strain, but it’s also stressful for him,” she said.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
“My goal is to serve as honorably as I have, 20 years or so, and retire when I have to. But then I hope to be financially secure and help set our family up for success. But it’s under threat.” It’s clear,” Steph said.
Steph, who has been in the military since 2006 and has four children, says she feels uncertain as she waits to get out of the Air Force.
“It’s thrown our family into complete limbo,” said Steph, whose children ask her daily if they should move. “They ask me every day where we’re going to live and I can’t answer that. So it’s very, very difficult in terms of family stability. And obviously the financial aspects of it as well.”
He said he was upset he couldn’t fly again when the policy for unvaccinated pilots was lifted in October because he couldn’t pass the training.
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“When I was trying to get through training, it was very frustrating to have guys in the squadron who were still unvaccinated flying airplanes, sitting in classrooms, sitting in meetings, doing everything I would have done if I had been in training. in the exact same places, around the exact same people. “But they didn’t let me do the training, but they let me fly the planes because they told me I was dangerous,” he said.
“The treatment received by Lt. Col. Steph and Captain Soseby is retaliatory and shows why our lawsuit is so important,” said Danielle Runyon, who is representing Soseby and Steph in the class action lawsuit filed by the First Freedom Institute. Along with Schaerr Jaffe LLP and Hacker Stephens LLP.
The Air Force did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story. An Air Force spokesman previously said: “The Department of the Air Force is complying with the court order to suspend all disciplinary and adverse actions. Refusal of the COVID-19 vaccine who submitted a timely request for a religious accommodation and falls within the definition of a court-approved class.”
T-6 instructor pilot Andy Grieb, one of the plaintiffs in the First Liberty case, was suspended from flying and ordered by the Air Force to instruct in the simulator pictured here because his religious accommodation request was denied.
(First Freedom Institute)
According to Runyon, even though Congress is now poised to repeal the vaccine mandate in fiscal year 2023, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), service members who claim religious exemptions are still being fired by the military. can be released.
“While section 525 of the proposed FY 2023 NDAA would effectively repeal the COVID-19 mandate and eliminate the need to vaccinate military personnel, section 524 and section 736 of the 2022 NDAA would still apply clearly shows that he will do it,” he said.
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“Section 736 deals with the description of service that military personnel may receive for failing to comply with the order to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Thus, Navy SEALs and military personnel who are part of Doster. [Air Force] “Classes that have been exempted from vaccination or are subject to exemption proceedings for non-vaccination are not protected by this law,” Runyon said.