Gateway Pundit – by Julian Conradson
On Wednesday, independent journalist Liz Wheeler dropped a bombshell when she revealed a series of documents from the US Navy that expose their plans to flagrantly ignore several laws and procedures in order to DENY every single servicemembers’ request for a religious exemption to the federal Covid vaccine mandate.
Traditionally, all religious exemption requests are required to follow a strict procedure when they are received in order to fairly evaluate whether or not the request is granted, but as of right now, the Navy’s woke leadership is much more concerned with partisan politics than following the laws that are on the books.
Wheeler provided screenshots of a pre-typed ‘rejection letter’ with the corresponding commanding officer’s signature already printed on it. This letter was sent to several different members of Naval leadership as a template that could easily be updated with the letterhead and signature of the officer in charge of issuing a decision so they could quickly reject the incoming requests.
In this example, CAPT Marc Ratkus – the Commanding Officer of the Navy’s Center for Information Warfare Training (CIWT) – sent a copy of the ‘standard denial’ memo to CDR Meredith Schley, who is under his command, and instructed her to use it for “all requests” that she receives.
The template even included his letterhead and signature on it.
7/ In the denial endorsements all of her Sailors received, the letterhead and signature had been changed to make it appear that she was making the recommendation and he was merely concurring. But we know that she didn't concur, and Schley admits it. pic.twitter.com/BFMo8JFvxT
— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) October 28, 2021
To her credit, CDR Schley was apparently uncomfortable with Ratkus’ command to use the memo because she believed it was unwarranted interference and would be in direct violation of Naval procedure. According to two sworn affidavits, she had even complained to her colleagues about having to do so, but in the end, followed her orders and denied several exemption requests that she was sent to review.
From the affidavits:
“Commander Schley responded angrily at what she perceived to be interference by her ISIC Captain Marc W. Ratkus, Commanding Officer, CIWT, and his JAG, Lieutenant Jesse K. Posey.
She said, “this is just like the religious accommodations. I said I didn’t want to do this and an hour later he [Captain Marc W. Ratkus] called and directed me what to say.”
9) CDR Schley is knowingly violating policy and CAPT Ratkus is directing her to do so. This also begs the question: How high does this go? This is where it gets murky, but we have clues.
— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) October 28, 2021
It’s unclear how far up the chain of command this directive is coming from, although, the letter can be traced back to its original author, which is apparently Navy JAG officer LTJG Carlos Pagan.
Pagan reportedly works for 2-star RADM Peter Garvin, who is the commander of Naval Training and Education Command, but, as Wheeler points out, a 2-star general like Garvin should have no role in these religious exemption decisions because the chain of command for these types of requests goes directly to a 3-star CNP after being reviewed by the servicemembers’ O-6 captain.
11/ Why does this 2-star have any role here? The chain of command for religious exemption requests related to immunization goes directly from the O-6 to the 3-star CNP. So, are 2-star Garvin & his JAG Pagan involved? If so, why & to what extent?
— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) October 28, 2021
The rest is here: Gateway Pundit