Service members may lose jobs after religious exemptions for flu vax denied, fought COVID mandate

Two service members have been denied religious exemptions to the flu vaccine and are at risk of being forced out of the military after they previously fought the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

A service member in the Marine Corps and another in the Air Force are facing separation from their respective military branches after submitting Religious Accommodation Requests (RARs) for the flu shot. Both men objected to the COVID vaccine mandate under the Biden administration and ultimately kept their jobs, but they may lose them under President Trump despite the routine approval of religious exemptions for vaccines before COVID.

Marine First Lieutenant Schuyler Skipper, who has served in the military for 15 years, submitted an RAR for the flu and tetanus/diphtheria shots in December 2022. It was denied in March 2023, according to a report of misconduct reviewed by Just the News. He appealed the denial the following month, and his appeal was denied in February 2024.

"No vaccine" affects deployment

The next month, Skipper was ordered to take the vaccines “within 10 working days,” the report reads. He then filed a complaint with the Headquarters of the Marine Corps Equal Employment Opportunity office alleging religious discrimination and requested an extension to the vaccine order. Skipper’s extension request was denied in April 2024, and he was informed that he had violated a lawful order. His attorney, R. Davis Younts, told Just the News on Thursday that the religious discrimination complaint was also denied.

Last month, Skipper was recommended for separation from the Marine Corps and “is in a nondeployable status due to his refusal to obtain required vaccinations.”

Younts, who is a retired lieutenant colonel of the Air Force Reserve and former Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG) lawyer, said that if the Marine Corps continues with the separation process, then Skipper could be kicked out of the military within a few months.

Also, Skipper was a plaintiff in the first COVID vaccine mandate case that resulted in a federal injunction, Younts noted.

“It’s ironic that one of the individuals instrumental” in the COVID vaccine mandate fight is “now, a couple of years later, facing elimination from the Marines over the flu vaccine,” Younts said.

Skipper’s “RAR was improperly denied,” Younts said, as there are “certainly means to accommodate” his exemption request. Younts added that there are multiple Marines in Skipper’s organization “who have medical exemptions to the flu vaccine, and are able to deploy and perform missions without restrictions” for not having the flu shot, “so what good faith basis is there to deny an RAR under these circumstances?”

The fight over the flu vaccine comes as the latest Cleveland Clinic study of its own employees found that the shot for this flu season had a negative efficacy of 27%, meaning infection is substantially more likely with the jab than without it. The study has yet to be peer-reviewed. However, the effectiveness of flu vaccines is a tossup every year.

This study raises the “question of whether it’s a lawful order” to require military members to receive the flu vaccine, Younts said, “because to be lawful, an order must be reasonably related” to “military necessity.”

But if the “flu vaccine demonstrated that negative efficacy, I’m not sure there’s justification for military members to receive medical treatment that may hamper their ability to do the job,” he added.

Another service member facing separation from the military is Air Force Major Brennan Schilperoort, whose RAR for the flu vaccine wasn’t processed, and is facing separation from the military after 17 years of service.

Treated like criminals

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 last month that he would be placed on involuntary excess leave, which “means he goes into unpaid status” as his case is reviewed, according to Younts, who is representing him.

“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. “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.”

Schilperoort’s case is under review, and it could take several months before he hears back about whether he will be honorably discharged from the military, his lawyer said.

Younts explained 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 explained, “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, noting 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.”

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.”

Regarding both Skipper’s and Schilperoort’s cases, Younts said they are “carefully considering” filing lawsuits. He is in talks with organizations like Stand With Warriors to see if they would be able to support these cases. “We are pursuing all options, but we may have no choice” but to file lawsuits in federal court, Younts said.

Neither the Air Force nor Marine Corps responded to requests for comment on Friday.