February 2, 2022 |
Wyoming’s small towns may see fewer National Guard troops filling and stacking sandbags if rivers rise over banks this spring because of the federal vaccine mandate.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who himself became infected with COVID last month despite being triple jabbed, wrote letters to seven governors—including Wyoming’s Mark Gordon—informing them that their states’ Army and Air National Guards to get the mandatory COVID-19 drug therapy or members will lose their Guard status.
Two of the letters—to the governors of Alaska and Texas—noted that the states have an ongoing lawsuit over the vaccine and that, Austin said, limited his ability to comment further on their concerns.
Governor Gordon and four other Republican governors signed a letter to the Secretary of Defense in December asserting that disciplinary directives to National Guard members serving in a state capacity “are beyond [the secretary’s] constitutional and statutory authority.”
“Under the Title 32 duty status, the Wyoming National Guard is under my command and control,” Governor Gordon said. “These directives are an overreach of the federal government’s authority.”
Texas, Oklahoma and Alaska filed lawsuits challenging the military’s vaccine mandate, but a federal judge has already rejected the Oklahoma challenge. The other three are governors from Mississippi, Iowa and Nebraska. It’s unclear whether Wyoming will join the lawsuits.
Photo courtesy Wyoming National Guard.
