No vax, no job for 3 AF cadets

Three Air Force Academy cadets who refused the COVID-19 vaccine will not be commissioned as military officers, but will graduate with bachelor’s degrees, the academy has said.

Academy spokesman Dean Miller said a fourth cadet who refused the vaccine until about a week ago decided to be vaccinated and will graduate from the school near Colorado Springs, Colo., and become an Air Force officer.

Miller said that while the three will get a degree “they will not be commissioned into the United States Air Force as long as they remain unvaccinated.”

He added that a decision on whether or not to require the three to reimburse the government for education costs in lieu of service will be made by the secretary of the Air Force.

As of Saturday, the Air Force is the only military academy whose cadets will not be commissioned due to vaccine refusal. All of the more than 1,000 Army cadets at the Military Academy at West Point, NY, graduated and were commissioned as officers earlier in the day and all were vaccinated.

The Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., said Saturday that none of the Navy or Marine Corps seniors there are being prevented from commissioning due to vaccine refusals.

That graduation is later this week, and the Air Force ceremony is Wednesday.

Ahead of that ceremony, the Air Force Academy Board conducted its standard review of whether this year’s class had met all graduation requirements Friday.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who is the scheduled speaker at the Air Force graduation, last year made the COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for service members, including those at the military academies, saying the vaccine is critical to maintaining military readiness and the health of the force.