Not much resistance from troops on vaccines
Shot rates for service branches largely are better than civilians’
SAN ANTONIO — Pvt. Jason Menendez took the coronavirus vaccine as soon as it was offered. He was one of the first to get the shot, receiving it almost a year before he joined the Army.
That wasn’t the case for Illinois National Guard Pvt. Ethan Mudd. While he didn’t have “crazy reservations,” he was concerned about long-term effects.
“Most vaccines are tested for a few years or just a little bit longer than this one was, and how fast they pushed it out initially made me nervous,” he said.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sparked controversy when he mandated COVID-19 vaccinations for all troops, prompting some to say they would quit before complying. But if Mudd and Menendez are representative of soldiers in training at the U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence in San Antonio, few are squabbling over the issue.
There were a few “stragglers,” which is what Menendez, 18, of Thousand Oaks, Calif., called the recruits who initially refused to take the vaccine during basic training at Fort Sill, Okla. He estimates that 85 percent of previously unvaccinated recruits “were open to the idea and/or wanted to get it as soon as possible.”
In the end, everyone he and Mudd graduated with agreed to be immunized.
Each service is setting its own deadlines for compliance, and some objectors may receive religious and medical exemptions. The Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps hope to have their members fully immunized this year, while the National Guard and reserves will wait until June, Pentagon spokesman Christopher Garver said. Those who refuse could be charged with violating a lawful order and face courtmartial.
Cases also could be handled via nonjudicial punishment rather than a trial, said Maj. Gen. Dennis LeMaster, who commands the Medical Center of Excellence and is chief of the Medical Service Corps.
The Army Public Health Center has said soldiers who refuse the vaccine will be counseled by their chains of command and medical providers, but it warned that “continued failure to comply could result in administrative or nonjudicial punishment — to include relief of duties or discharge.”
So far, Garver said, about 88 percent of all active-duty troops have taken at least one shot. Across the Defense Department, 58 out of 1.4 million service members have died of the virus.
The Navy reported that 93.5 percent of active-duty sailors have received one dose of vaccine and that 88 percent of active-duty personnel and 85 percent of its total force are fully immunized against COVID-19. There have been 13 deaths related to COVID-19 among Navy personnel, none of whom were immunized, the Navy said.
The Air Force reported that 75.1 percent of its active-duty personnel and 71 percent of the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve were fully vaccinated. Four airmen have died of the virus; the Air Force did not say whether they had been immunized. Space Force veterans were included in the numbers.
The Marines said 68.4 percent of active-duty members had been fully vaccinated as of Sept. 27. To date, two Marines have died of complications of the virus, said a spokesman, Capt. Andrew Wood.
The National Guard Bureau said 44.4 percent of its troops had been fully vaccinated as of Sept. 27. Seventeen national guardsmen have died, said Christina Mundy, a Guard Bureau spokeswoman.
Joint Base San Antonio reported that 129,096 COVID-19 shots had been administered here as of Thursday. The 37th Training Wing at JBSA-Lackland, which oversees basic training for all Air Force recruits, said nearly 9 of 10 of them had been immunized; it expects to reach nearly 100 percent when the squadron that arrived late last month graduates in seven weeks.
COVID-19 has forced the armed services to change the way members are recruited and trained. The Marines sent new recruits to a staging area for 14 days while medical teams assessed whether they had symptoms of the virus. At Lackland, Air Force recruits enter a similar two-week period of isolation when starting instruction.
Such precautions have paid dividends: Just 2,919 recruits have tested positive for COVID-19 since March 2020, and only five spent time in the hospital. None have died. Over that time, 51,602 airmen graduated from basic training at Lackland, spokeswoman Annette Crawford said.