West Point Reinstates Travel Ban on Unvaxxed Cadets AFTER Military Mandate Repealed

The U.S. military COVID-19 vaccine mandate has been lifted and Congress is considering legislation to compensate service members fired for vaccination status, but West Point refuses to acknowledge it. The U.S. Military Academy actually reinstated its travel ban on unvaccinated cadets after the military mandate was lifted, according to military attorney R. Davis Younts and Just the News. At this point, West Point is just playing power games.

The military has still not begun to treat unvaccinated service members equally, however. ”Despite the lifting of the vaccine mandate, unvaccinated military members are still facing repercussions, including denial of benefits, ineligibility for promotion and/or deployment, and potentially diminished employment prospects for those already discharged,” Just the News said. West Point’s reinstatement of restrictions after the vaccine mandate’s strike-down is particularly direct and open coercion.

I reported here back on Nov. 11 that West Point’s Veterans’ Day present to unvaccinated cadets was to give them a 10-hour ultimatum the day before (Nov. 10) to decide to get the COVID-19 vaccine or leave campus. The West Point developmental counseling form threatened, “Failure to obey this order may result in punitive or adverse administrative action,” including being forced to leave the military with either an honorable or dishonorable discharge. The 10-hour ultimatum was a denial of an appeal of the original vaccine exemption requests from unvaccinated cadets. And although the appeals were officially denied Nov. 2, cadets were only informed Nov. 10 with the 10-hour deadline — just before a three-day weekend. This while all COVID-19 vaccines available to the military were only emergency use authorized, not FDA approved. All of which indicates that West Point isn’t interested in health; it’s interested in coercing cadets into following an unjust order regardless of how right or wrong it is.