Pilot facing separation suffered religious discrimination on vax exemption request: Air Force says

The Air Force found that a pilot who faced separation from the military for requesting a religious exemption to the flu vaccine was discriminated against for his religion and should not have been reprimanded.

Major Brennan Schilperoort, who has served in the Air Force for 17 years and was a whistleblower over the COVID-19 vaccine, can now request the military branch give him backpay and restore his flight status after he was reprimanded when his Religious Accommodation Request (RAR) wasn’t processed.

Schilperoort was recommended for separation in October by a Board of Inquiry, which investigated the decision he made in December 2023 to not take the flu vaccine. Following the Board of Inquiry, Schilperoort was given 2.5 duty days’ notice in March that he would be placed on involuntary excess leave, which “means he goes into unpaid status” as his case is reviewed, his attorney, R. Davis Younts, previously told Just the News.

Pilot caught up in USAF process on RAR

“In over 22 years of doing this, I’ve never seen a case where someone is in this stage of the process he’s in and is put on involuntary excess leave,” Younts said in April. “The only time I’ve seen it is when someone is convicted at a court-martial or in federal prison, and the military is going to discharge them because of a federal conviction. He’s available to work, has no reason to not fly, and no misconduct pending.”

Younts added that Schilperoort’s RAR for the flu shot wasn’t processed by the Air Force because the RAR he submitted the prior year wasn’t denied until after the flu season ended. When he submitted another RAR for last year's flu season, the Air Force “refused to process” it because “they said it took so long for the military to process the last one, that if he submits another and it takes the same length to process, then he’ll never get” the vaccine, Younts said. He added that the Air Force’s reasoning is “absurd” since it’s “their process.”

Also, Schilperoort “was a whistleblower over the COVID” vaccine, Younts said, “and he was vocal, appropriately, to the chain of command,” and was a “conscientious objector to the COVID vaccine.”

“From my perspective, it looks like a pattern of denial – that the Department of Defense has learned nothing from what happened during COVID,” Younts said, adding that “there are some within the DOD and military branches that continue to seek retribution against those who objected to the COVID vaccine” as they “continue to disregard the Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act with vaccines.”

Allowing refusal for jab was not controversial before COVID

Younts noted that before COVID, military members’ RARs for the flu vaccine were accepted. “It was fairly common, not controversial, and medical exemptions were very common, too,” he said. “Part of my frustration as an attorney over COVID, was that pre-COVID, RARs to vaccines were not rare or unreasonable. People in the military prior to COVID had religious accommodations for all vaccines, so it was not unheard of.”

On Aug. 27, Air Force Review Board Agency Director Troy J. McIntosh found that Schilperoort “was discriminated against on the basis of religion when his commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Willie W. Lloyd, issued Appellant a Letter of Reprimand, on January 5, [2024] for failure to comply with an order to take the influenza vaccine,” according to documents reviewed by Just the News.

“Lieutenant Colonel Lloyd issued the Letter of Reprimand knowing Appellant [Schilperoort] had submitted a religious accommodation request which was not acted upon, and Appellant had expressed sincerely held religious beliefs objecting to the influenza vaccine,” McIntosh continued. “Appellant was temporarily exempted from the influenza vaccination immunization compliance while his December 27, 2023, religious accommodation request was pending.”

McIntosh substantiated Schilperoort’s equal opportunity complaint regarding religious discrimination.

Two weeks earlier, on Aug. 13, Air Force Inspector General Lt. Gen. Stephen L. Davis said that after reviewing Schilperoort’s case, he recommended the pilot “petition the Air Force Board for Correction of Military Records (AFBCMR) for redress,” according to documents reviewed by Just the News.

Request not properly processed, I.G. says

Davis found that Schilperoort’s December 2023 “RAR was not processed as required” and that the January 2024 Letter of Reprimand (LOR) “improperly included information that you failed to receive the 2022 influenza vaccine … as it was no longer available when your 8 Dec 22 RAR appeal was finally denied on 28 Sep 23.”

The public affairs office for Little Rock Air Force Base, where Schilperoort is based, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Younts told Just the News on Tuesday that Schilperoort still has to go to the AFBCMR, but now that the Inspector General and the Air Force Review Board Agency director “said the LOR for not getting the flu shot was unlawful,” which was “the only basis for finding misconduct in separation board,” there is no longer any “basis to separate him.”

This “opens the door for relief” from the AFBCMR for Schilperoort to “get backpay” and have his “flying status restored,” Younts said.

“This is going to have a huge impact on a lot of other people in the Air Force,” Younts said, as there are several members of the military branch he has spoken to who are “in the same situation,” where they are not allowed to submit RARs for vaccines or able to get them processed.