{"id":34200,"date":"2022-03-11T18:20:27","date_gmt":"2022-03-11T18:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/03\/11\/army-approves-first-religious-exemption-for-covid-vaccine\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:42:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:42:22","slug":"army-approves-first-religious-exemption-for-covid-vaccine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2022\/03\/11\/army-approves-first-religious-exemption-for-covid-vaccine\/","title":{"rendered":"Army approves first religious exemption for COVID vaccine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Army officials announced Friday that the service has approved its first religious exemption for the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, making it the final military service to approve such an accommodation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Department of the Army has approved one religious accommodation,\u201d confirmed Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Terry Kelley in an email to Army Times. \u201cThe Army determined the service member\u2019s accommodation could be supported with no impact to mission readiness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Marine Corps approved a handful of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2022\/02\/16\/religious-exemptions-for-vaccines-given-to-marines-already-leaving-the-corps\/\" target=\"_blank\">religious exemptions for Marines<\/a> about to leave the service, and both the <a href=\"https:\/\/news.usni.org\/2022\/02\/16\/navy-approves-first-religious-covid-19-vaccine-exemption-with-conditions\" target=\"_blank\">Navy<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/your-air-force\/2022\/02\/08\/air-force-approves-first-religious-exemptions-to-covid-19-vaccine-for-9-troops\/\" target=\"_blank\">Air Force<\/a> have approved a few as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kelley said the service could not disclose any more information out of respect for the soldier\u2019s privacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"785\" height=\"499\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-11-at-12.42.37-PM.png.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-67748\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-11-at-12.42.37-PM.png.png 785w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-11-at-12.42.37-PM.png.png?resize=300,191 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-11-at-12.42.37-PM.png.png?resize=768,488 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 785px) 100vw, 785px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Army released updated COVID-19 vaccination mandate statistics on Friday, Mar. 11, 2022. (Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The vast majority of religious accommodation requests have been denied or are still awaiting decision, though, as the Army marches closer towards its goal of complete vaccination across the force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As of Thursday, Kelley said, 97% of the active duty force has been vaccinated or began the shot series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Army is also yet to discharge any troops refusing the vaccine, despite <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2022\/02\/02\/army-begins-discharges-for-covid-vaccine-refusing-soldiers\/\" target=\"_blank\">announcing last month<\/a> that discharges were beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2022\/02\/02\/army-begins-discharges-for-covid-vaccine-refusing-soldiers\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1000w_q75-4-6.jpg-6.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Army begins discharges for COVID vaccine-refusing soldiers<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The order also applies to cadets, Guard and Reserve troops who are on Title 10 active duty tours of more than 30 days.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Army National Guard and Army Reserve have not hit their vaccination deadline, which is June 30. The effective timeline for the Guard, though, could be impacted by ongoing litigation from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2022\/03\/07\/does-the-national-guard-have-to-follow-pentagon-orders-sometimes\/\">governors who argue<\/a> that the federal government cannot enforce the vaccine mandate on troops who are under state control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first religious exemption \u2014 and the continued lack of discharges \u2014 comes amid a flurry of lawsuits by members of other branches of the military who have argued that the Defense Department is not adequately considering their requests for religious accommodation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The DoD\u2019s inspector general is going to look into those claims, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.military.com\/daily-news\/2022\/03\/02\/pentagon-watchdog-investigate-militarys-covid-19-exemption-process.html\" target=\"_blank\">Military.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In some cases, judges have issued preliminary injunctions that have stopped the military from punishing certain groups of troops whose requests for accommodation have been denied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One such servicemember is a Navy destroyer\u2019s commanding officer, and the Navy is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-navy\/2022\/03\/08\/destroyer-cant-deploy-because-co-wont-get-covid-vaccine-navy-says\/\" target=\"_blank\">arguing in federal court<\/a> that they cannot deploy the warship without removing him from command.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The vast majority of accommodation requests have been denied or are still awaiting decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":60569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":70,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news","middle-column","home"],"primary_category":"your-military"}}},"categories":[67,100,23,92,12,25,70],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3376],"class_list":["post-34200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coronavirus","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-left-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-army"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"V77ZCTBMVBGUXPASBUCKV7Z3JM","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-army\/2022\/03\/11\/army-approves-first-religious-exemption-for-covid-vaccine\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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