The new commander of the Oklahoma National Guard has declared the organization will not enforce the Defense Department\u2019s COVID-19 vaccine mandate on its troops, according to local media outlets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Army Brig. Gen. Thomas Mancino was announced as the state\u2019s new adjutant general Wednesday, though he has not yet been confirmed by the state Senate, according to a press release from Gov. Kevin Stitt\u2019s office<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Nov. 2, Stitt formally requested that DoD not enforce the mandate on the state\u2019s Army and Air National Guard members. In the letter, which his office posted online, he said that 10% of the state\u2019s troops had refused the vaccine and that the mandate was \u201cirresponsible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Defense Department is aware of the Mancino memo and Stitt\u2019s letter and \u201cwill respond to the governor appropriately,\u201d Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He did not elaborate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat said, Secretary Austin believes a vaccinated force is a more ready force,\u201d said Kirby. \u201cThat is why he has ordered mandatory vaccines for the total force, and that includes our National Guard, who contribute significantly to national missions at home and abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The state\u2019s former top general, Army Maj. Gen. Michael Thompson told local reporters Thursday<\/a> that he learned who his replacement was via social media. He was previously scheduled to transfer command to Mancino on Jan. 15, 2022, according to the Oklahoman<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The day after taking the reins from Thompson, Mancino issued a policy memo declaring that the state would not enforce the mandate on its troops when they are under state control. The move is an apparent rejection of DoD\u2019s orders to discipline and ultimately discharge servicemembers<\/a> who reject the vaccine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo Oklahoma Guardsman will be required to take the COVID-19 Vaccine,\u201d Mancino says in the Thursday memo, which states that Stitt is the force\u2019s \u201clawful Commander in Chief\u201d when not mobilized by the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although National Guard troops do belong to their governors when not mobilized by the Pentagon, federal requirements often supersede any state uses of the Guard, as senior leaders often emphasize. That\u2019s because the vast majority of Guard funding, training and equipment comes from the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not yet clear whether the order will jeopardize that funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Title 32, the section of the U.S. Code that pertains to the National Guard, includes a section<\/a> specifying that states that do not comply with Title 32 regulations forfeit their federal funding for the Guard. It\u2019s not clear, though, whether the vaccine mandate meets that legal threshold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an email to Army Times, Stitt\u2019s top spokesperson, Charlie Hannema, argued that the \u201conly way Oklahoma would \u2018forfeit\u2019 any federal funding for failing to comply with Title 32 would be to ignore the lawful order of the dually elected civilian authority, i.e. The Governor of Oklahoma.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Air Force Maj. Matthew Murphy, a National Guard Bureau spokesperson, told Stars & Stripes<\/a> that the issue of the vaccine mandate was a \u201clegal gray area that would have to be reviewed by our lawyers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is where the difference between Title 32 and Title 10 becomes a real becomes an issue,\u201d Murphy told Stars & Stripes. \u201cIn most instances, the guardsmen are in their Title 32 capacity, which means they\u2019re on state duty. In order to be federalized, they have to be on Title 10.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n