Declaration of Air Force NCO — Air Force Officer v. Austin (M.D. Ga.)
- Date
- 2022-03-31
Summary
The Declaration of Air Force NCO, filed March 31, 2022 as Document 65-2 in Air Force Officer v. Lloyd J. Austin, III, et al., Case No. 5:22-cv-00009-TES, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, Macon Division, and made under 28 U.S.C. § 1746. The pseudonymous declarant, a non-commissioned officer in the United States Air Force Reserves, describes a service record and states religious objections to the available COVID-19 vaccines. The declaration lists the military vaccination orders at issue and states that the declarant's religious exemption request and appeal were denied, with the final denial received January 7, 2022. It states that on January 12, 2022 the declarant chose early retirement and describes anticipated effects on pay and benefits. The declaration was executed March 30, 2022 and refers to attached exhibits.
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Case 5:22-cv-00009-TES Document 65-2 Filed 03/31/22 Page 1 of 7
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF GEORGIA
MACON DIVISION
AIR FORCE OFFICER, on behalf of herself )
and all others similarly situated, )
) Case No. 5:22-cv-00009-TES
Plaintiff, )
v. )
)
LLOYD J. AUSTIN, III, in his )
official capacity as Secretary of Defense; )
FRANK KENDALL, III, in his )
official capacity as Secretary of the Air Force; and )
ROBERT I. MILLER, in his )
official capacity as Surgeon General of the )
Air Force, )
)
Defendants. )
DECLARATION OF AIR FORCE NCO
Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1746, I, Air Force NCO, under penalty of perjury declare as
follows:
1. I am over the age of eighteen and am competent to make this declaration.
2. I am a non-commissioned officer (NCO) in the United States Air Force Reserves.
3. I have served my country in the United States Air Force for more than 20 years.
4. The military has rewarded me nine medals during these years, including two Air
Force Commendation Medals and one Meritorious Service Medal, along with numerous other
awards and decorations.
5. I have never been disciplined by the Air Force, nor has there ever been cause for
the Air Force to discipline me for any reason.
6. I currently serve in an administrative role for an Air Force military readiness
program, and I am based at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia.
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7. After joining the Air Force in October 2000, I served on Active Duty before
transitioning to full-time Active Guard Reserve positions with the Air Force Reserves. I’ve been
deployed four times.
8. I have worked remotely at various times throughout my career, including during
much of the COVID-19 pandemic.
9. My Air Force career has been entirely in the interest of military readiness, unit
cohesion, good order, discipline, health, and safety.
10. I have served with distinction in duties that include being flight member and
supervisor in missions both stateside and overseas, as well as being a weapons instructor, and a
deployment manager.
11. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, I have assiduously followed all COVID-19
related precautions, including masking, social distancing, and working remotely.
12. I have consistently and fully supported and sustained Defendants’ interest in
military readiness, unit cohesion, good order, discipline, health, and safety.
13. My current professional responsibilities do not involve personal engagement in
physical operations or require extremely close proximity with other service members at all times.
14. Indeed, during the COVID-19 pandemic, I worked almost exclusively from home
in a telework environment from approximately mid-2020 until mid-2021. I have since returned to
in-person work for two to three days per week, and just recently, I was ordered to return to a full
in-person, five-day work week with the rest of my co-workers.
15. In April 2021 I took a COVID-19 antibody test and tested positive for COVID-19
antibodies.
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Case 5:22-cv-00009-TES Document 65-2 Filed 03/31/22 Page 3 of 7
16. Seven months later, in November 2021, I took another COVID-19 antibody test
and again tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies.
17. I am a member of the Christian faith, and the authoritative texts for my faith
tradition are contained in the Holy Bible. My religious conscience is formed by biblical teachings,
the advice of religious leaders, Scripture, and prayer.
18. Based on these sources, I believe Christians are to treat their bodies as a holy
temple of God to glorify and Honor him, since the Bible teaches, “My body is not my own but
one that belongs to an Almighty God,” (1 Corinthians 6:19), and, “My body is a temple for God
and His Holy Spirit to dwell. I must maintain it . . . and take care not to damage it,” (1 Corinthians
3:16-17). Thus, I believe that submitting to mRNA vaccines violates this biblical mandate since it
introduces a novel substance of unknown long-term effects into my body that takes over the
body’s natural processes and is thus impure.
19. As a Christian, I also believe that all human life is sacred from the moment of
conception, and thus I oppose abortion and all its pernicious effects. I thus also oppose the
available COVID-19 vaccines because they were developed through use of or testing on aborted
fetal cell lines. The only reason I did not expressly raise this objection in my September 2021
request for religious exemption (attached as Exhibit 1) is because my chaplain told me not to.
20. I do not oppose all vaccines. I oppose the currently available COVID-19 vaccines
for religious reasons.
21. I am aware of the following military orders that purportedly require that I submit
to COVID-19 vaccination:
a. Department of Defense’s August 24, 2021 Order (Ex. 1 to Doc. 2-2);
b. Department of Air Force’s September 3, 2021 Order (Ex. 2 to Doc. 2-2);
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c. Department of Air Force’s September 21, 2021 Order (attached as Exhibit 5);
22. I am aware of AFI 48-110 (Ex. 7 to Doc. 2-2), an Air Force Instruction.
23. The Air Force provided me and other service members with a form religious
accommodation request (Ex. 9 to Doc. 2-2).
24. I timely sought, in writing, religious exemption from the Mandates and sought
accommodation (attached as Exhibit 1 (request submitted September 23, 2021) Exhibit 3 (appeal
submitted November 1, 2021), and Exhibit 3A (supplemental information submitted November
15, 2021)).
25. Defendants’ responses to my accommodation requests are attached as Exhibit 2
(initial denial received by me no earlier than October 28, 2021) and Exhibit 4 (final denial
received by me on January 7, 2022).
26. I am aware of reported information publicly available from the Air Force,
including https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2959594/daf-covid-19-statistics-
march-29-2022/, relating to religious accommodation requests.
27. Based on information publicly available from the Air Force, including
https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2959594/daf-covid-19-statistics-march-29-
2022/, I understand that the Air Force currently recognizes at least 1,102 medical
accommodations.
28. Based on information publicly available from the Air Force, including
https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2959594/daf-covid-19-statistics-march-29-
2022/, I understand the Air Force currently recognizes at least 1,407 administrative
accommodations.
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29. Based on information publicly available from the Air Force, including
https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2959594/daf-covid-19-statistics-march-29-
2022/, I understand that at least 96.5% of Air Force service members have received COVID-19
vaccinations.
30. I am not aware of any military branch (including the Air Force, Navy, Army,
Marines, and Coast Guard) granting any religious accommodation requests to service members
not already slated for separation, and I’m aware that the Pentagon’s Inspector General is
investigating whether the military’s process for considering and denying religious
accommodation requests to COVID-19 vaccination complies with its own protocols.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/03/02/pentagon-watchdog-investigate-militarys-
covid-19-exemption-process.html.
31. After receiving the final denial of my religious accommodation requests, I was
given the following three options: (1) take the vaccine; (2) early retirement; (3) or face military
discipline for disobeying the COVID-19 vaccine mandates. On January 12, 2022, I chose early
retirement, under duress, with an effective retirement date of no later than June 1, 2022. However,
I have been told that I have been placed in a “medical hold,” meaning that I cannot begin the
process of formal separation until an “evaluation” of my current health status is complete, which I
have been informed could take “a while.”
32. Until the putative effective date of my forced early retirement in June 2022, as a
military service member I am still permitted to work from home and on base and to perform my
normal work duties, even while unvaccinated, provided I abide by any applicable alternative
COVID-19 precautions.
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33. Currently my work unit is understaffed and task-saturated, and I believe none of
the already limited personnel there is currently able or qualified to effectively take over my
position. In my opinion, this may be a significant negative impact on military readiness for
multiple years, which is especially dangerous to our national security at this war-torn time in the
world, and forcing competent and capable unvaccinated service members such as myself to
separate would exacerbate the problem.
34. As a service member in my position, I understand that service members with
approved medical accommodations are permitted to work in person, indefinitely, with no forced
early retirement or other adverse employment consequences.
35. If I had not been forced into early retirement in 2022, I understand I could have
retired in a later year with full active-duty benefits and privileges. I stand to lose several hundreds
of thousands of dollars in lost pay, not counting the value of lost benefits including medical
benefits.
36. It is more important to me to remain faithful to my Christian faith than to violate
my religiously formed conscience for the sake of work and compensation.
37. The Mandates have lowered my morale as a service member by forcing me to
choose between my faith and my livelihood. I personally know other Air Force service members
who have expressed to me that the Mandates have lowered their morale for the same reasons.
38. I have continued to maintain protocols for health and safety, and to my knowledge
I have not transmitted COVID-19 to others.
39. Based on Facebook comments that I am aware of related to the WMAZ and
WGXA news reports about Air Force Officer and this case (Docs. 48 and 49), and based on
numerous other public statements made by individuals in government or the media that are critical
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of people not taking the COVID-19 vaccine, I am concerned about serious social stigmatization
and my personal safety and security.
40. I have talked with others in the military who expressed to me that they want to
speak out in opposition to the vaccine mandates but are afraid to do so.
41. The attached exhibits are redacted to remove some personal identifiers.
I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on
March 30, 2022.
/s/Air Force NCO
Air Force NCO
7
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