Chris Lange, FISM News
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Unvaccinated U.S. Navy service members still awaiting religious exemption decisions on the Defense Department’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate say they have been forced to live in “deplorable” conditions as they are stuck in a state of agonized limbo with the military refusing to allow them to leave service or, allegedly, their ships in some cases.
There are currently 4,244 religious exemptions pending in the Navy, according to a class action lawsuit filed by First Liberty Institute on behalf of Navy service members who applied for religious exemptions to the mandate.
The sailors’ living conditions came to light in a June court filing in the case alleging that seamen are being forced to live on vessels with backed-up showers, toilets, and raw sewage leakage, Fox News reported.
“There is mold everywhere and the barge’s toilets back up and leak,” a sailor was quoted as saying in the suit.
Another service member said he has not been allowed to visit his pregnant wife, who is due this month, due to the pending litigation.
Service members were advised that they “could not leave the area” after submitting requests for termination from the military due to the vaccination requirement, according to another sailor.
“Because I could not leave the area, I moved onto the berthing barge for the Eisenhower,” the soldier said. “The conditions on the barge are deplorable, much like the USS George Washington, which is anchored in the same shipyard.”
‘There is mold everywhere and the barge’s toilets back up and leak. The water leaks out of the base of the toilet and collects near my rack and out into the hall. On bad days, it goes into the berthings on the other side. The leaks seem to be sewage—it smells like sewage and looks like it too.’
The sailor also said there was “some sort of worm” living in the toilet bowl water and on the floors where it had leaked.
“I have contacted mental health services multiple times,” the sailor said. “I do want—desperately—to be separated from the Navy as soon as possible, but I struggle with withdrawing my request as I feel it could signal that my religious objection was somehow not genuine, and it is.”
As of last month, almost 1,500 sailors have separated from the Navy due to the vaccine requirement.
“No service member should be punished or driven out of the military for following their faith,” Mike Berry, Director of Military Affairs for First Liberty Institute, said in a March press release.
The purge of religious service members is not just devastating to morale, but it is bringing about a measurable reduction in readiness that harms America’s national security. It’s time for our military to honor its constitutional obligations and grant religious accommodations for service members with sincere religious objections to the vaccine.
A United States Navy spokesperson did not immediately respond to FISM’s request for comment on the sailors’ living conditions.