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'Enough Is Enough': Veterans and Service Members Demand Accountability From DoD

Spencer Brown
Spencer Brown  |  January 02, 2024 9:30 AM

Saying that "all internal efforts to rectify recent criminal activity within the Armed forces" have been "exhausted," more than 200 military veterans and service members signed and published a "Declaration of Military Accountability" on January 1 over the Department of Defense's its enactment and enforcement of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Invoking the Declaration of Independence in a declaration of their own, the current and former members of the U.S. military state that America has reached a point in its history where it is "necessary to admonish the lawless, encourage the fainthearted, and strengthen the weak" as the "affairs of our nation are now steeped in avaricious corruption and our once stalwart institutions, including the Dept of Defense, are failing to fulfill the moral obligations upon which they were founded."

Unlike the Declaration of Independence, the signers of the Declaration of Military Accountability "seek no separation" as the patriots of 1776 did from Great Britain, "but through this letter and the efforts we pledge herein, we pursue restoration through accountability."

On the Pentagon's enactment of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, the declaration states that "military leaders broke the law, trampled constitutional rights, denied informed consent, permitted unwilling medical experimentation, and suppressed the free exercise of religion," actions that meant "[s]ervice members and families were significantly harmed."

"Their suffering continues to be felt financially, emotionally, and physically," the declaration emphasizes of those affected by the DoD's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. "Some service members became part of our ever-growing veteran homeless population, some developed debilitating vaccine injuries, and some even lost their lives."

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Despite these outcomes, the declaration says "military leaders are continuing to ignore our communications regarding these injuries and the laws that were broken," calling the DoD's silence "an apparent attempt to avoid accountability."

Naming a list of military leaders who "enabled lawlessness and the unwilling experimentation on service members" including "GEN Milley, ADM Grady, GEN McConville, ADM Gilday, ADM Lescher, Gen Brown, Gen Berger, Gen Smith, VADM Kilby, VADM Nowell, VADM Fuller, LTG Martin, Lt Gen Davis, MG Edmonson, GEN Williams, ADM Fagan, VADM Buck, Lt Gen Clark, MG Francis, LTG Dingle, Lt Gen Miller, RADM Gillingham, and numerous others," the declaration emphasizes that they "betrayed the trust of service members and the American people."

"Their actions caused irreparable harm to the Armed Forces and the institutions for which we have fought and bled," the current and former members of the military say. "These leaders refused to resign or take any other action to hold themselves accountable, nor have they attempted to repair the harm their policies and actions have caused."

Due to this lack of accountability, the 231 signatories to the declaration state their intention to "do everything morally permissible and legally possible to hold our own leadership accountable" because they "as service members and veterans...feel particularly responsible for the DoD and, in according with our oaths...will make every effort to demonstrate by example how an institution can put its own house in order."

Signing "on behalf of hundreds of thousands of service members and the American people, while appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for guidance and purity of intention, mutually pledge to each other that we will do everything in our power, through lawful word and action, to hold accountable military leaders who failed to follow the law when their leadership and moral courage was most desperately needed," the declaration explains. 

The action that will follow from the declaration, it explains, includes running for Congress and seeking appointments within the executive branch while those in active service "will continue to put fulfilling our oaths ahead of striving for rank or position."

In addition, the declaration pledges that those who have the legal authority to do so will "recall from retirement the military leaders who broke the law and will convene courts-martial for the crimes they committed." Those who become lawmakers will "introduce legislation to remove all retirement income for the military leaders who were criminally complicit, and we will ensure none serve in or retire from the Senior Executive Service."

Emphasizing that fulfilling their oaths to the Constitution requires "persistent vigilance," the declaration's signers also pledge to "train those who come after us to fulfill their duty in achieving this accountability and safeguarding against such leadership failures hereafter."

"While all good things come to an end, we refuse to allow our nation to go quietly into the depths of decadence and decay," the veterans and service members declare. "We promise to exhaust all moral, ethical, and legal means to restore the rule of law and will begin by attempting to hold senior military leaders accountable" in addition to fighting to enforce the Constitution and "put an end to the two-tiered justice system."

"May future generations see our efforts and, God willing, may they also be recipients of the great gift of liberty that we have had the honor of safeguarding," the Declaration concludes.