Navy SEALs and other service members who refused the experimental COVID-19 shot scored a victory in a years-long court battle.

The service members filed a lawsuit due to the military COVID-19 jab mandate issued in August 2021.

Thousands in the military rejected the shot on religious grounds and had their religious accommodation requests denied multiple times.

According to the Daily Mail, service members negatively impacted by the egregious, discriminatory mandate will have their records corrected.

Per Daily Mail:

They were fired, denied trainings to advance in rank and, in some cases, even forced by the military to repay their initial signing bonuses between $4,000 and $7,000.

SEALs and other special operations warfare troops were also told they would have to pay back the cost of their training by the federal government – hundreds of thousands of dollars – and hand over their hard-earned ‘Trident’ pin.

According to the settlement first obtained by DailyMail.com, service members who quit the Navy after being ‘mistreated’ will have their records corrected.

In addition, the Navy also ‘agreed to post a statement affirming the Navy’s respect for religious service members.’

The military will provide ‘more training’ for the actual commanders who review religious accommodation requests as well as change their policy.

Lastly, the government will pay $1.5 million in attorneys’ fees that accumulated over nearly four years of litigation.

‘This has been a long and difficult journey, but the Navy SEALs never gave up,’ Danielle Runyan, senior counsel at First Liberty Institute told DailyMail.com.

“We are thrilled that those members of the Navy who were guided by their conscience and steadfast in their faith will not be penalized in their Navy careers,” Runyan said, according to Daily Mail.

“We won for our Navy SEALs and thousands of Navy service members! Danielle Runyan, the Chair of our Military Practice Group, explains our recent settlement,” First Liberty Institute wrote.

WATCH:

“Retired Navy SEAL Drew Forsberg and Senior Counsel Danielle Runyan join Fox and Friends to discuss the win in our Navy SEALs case. Thousands who requested a religious accommodation to the vaccine mandate will have their records corrected and careers protected,” First Liberty Institute noted.

WATCH:

Military.com reports:

The plaintiffs will not receive any of the compensation in either settlement, and a settlement is not an admission of guilt or wrongdoing by either party.

Between March 2020 and December 2022, the Pentagon recorded 740,942 cases of COVID-19 among troops, family members, DoD employees and contractors, and 690 deaths, including 96 service members.

Roughly 17,000 service members refused the vaccine, and more than 8,400 were discharged for their decision, including 3,717 Marines, 2,041 Navy sailors, 1,841 Army soldiers, and 834 Air Force and Space Force members.

By March 2022, when the Navy stopped discharging sailors for refusing the vaccine, the service had received 3,320 requests for religious exemptions from active-duty sailors and 864 from the Navy Reserve. None had been approved.

 

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