In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration required all troops and U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) personnel to become inoculated against the virus.

Earlier this year, Republicans in Congress unsuccessfully attempted to pass a bill to rescind the vaccine mandate and reinstate any members of the military who were separated from service due to noncompliance with the decree.

U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise), unrelenting in the fight against the requirement, recently led a letter to DOD Secretary Lloyd Austin asking him to rescind the mandate in wake of the latest easing of requirements by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“To ensure the continued safety and readiness of our country’s bravest men and women,” the letter reads, “and to reflect the most up to date guidelines released by the CDC, we request that the military immediately reverse it’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement for all military personnel and civilian contractors. We also request that those who were unfairly forced to separate from the military be given the option to be reinstated with back pay.”

Along with the letter, Moore also released a statement calling service members being terminated over the vaccine mandate a “purge of patriots.”

“With updated CDC guidance for the unvaccinated, the Department of Defense’s final fig leaf justifying its purge of patriots for refusing vaccination has been stripped away,” said Moore. “During a time of global turmoil and missed recruitment targets reaching the level of a national security crisis, the military has absolutely no justification for sacrificing readiness in favor of virtue signaling and the appeasement of this administration’s political base. The military vaccine mandate must end, and all our servicemembers so cruelly separated due to this disastrous policy must be rehired with full backpay.”

Woke Pentagon policies are purging patriots from our military and leading to recruitment shortages approaching the level of national security crisis. With the government’s own science no longer justifying a military vaccine mandate, Secretary Austin must side with servicemembers. https://t.co/0zG6PQut5Y

— Rep. Barry Moore (@RepBarryMoore) August 23, 2022

Joining Moore’s letter were U.S. Reps. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), Mary Miller (R-Ill.), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), Ben Cline (R-Va.), Randy Weber (R-Texas), Bill Posey (R-Fla.), Greg Steube (R-Fla.) and Byron Donalds (R-Fla).

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” Weekdays 9-11am on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee