Sophia Galdamez, a 22 year old who had been in the academy for three years, was one of those cadets. She described her experience to The Epoch Times.
At the height of the pandemic, when the various COVID-19 vaccines were being rolled out, “cadets were told the vaccines would end the pandemic,” Galdamez said.
But the cadet, a Christian, was hesitant and skeptical about the claim.“God told me to treat my body like a temple, so I had to research what was available and what I’d be injecting into my body,” she said.
After finding out the vaccines used aborted fetal stem cell lines in their testing and development, as well as having concern about the drug’s potential side effects, Galdamez decided against getting vaccinated. This was before the Coast Guard’s adoption of the vaccine mandate in August 2021.
Although the mandate was not in effect over the summer of 2021, Galdamez noted that the “rules at the academy began to change.” Because she was unvaccinated, the cadet was required to always wear a mask, even while participating in physical fitness tests, which included push-ups, sit-ups, and a 1.5-mile run.
“All the while, my superiors told me that it would take 5 to 10 years to have a vaccine approved and mandated, but that all changed when the mandate went into effect,” Galdamez said.
Because Galdamez sought religious accommodation, she said, she began to be treated differently for opposing the vaccine.
Galdamez was a starter on the academy’s volleyball team, but she was “separated and isolated” from her team during the fall of 2021, she said. “I was often told that I should get vaccinated because I was putting other players and other cadets at risk, despite the fact that it has been proven that the vaccine does not stop the spread of COVID,” she said.
Disenrolled
In June, Galdamez was threatened with disenrollment, which she appealed. But her appeal was denied on Aug. 15.But on Aug. 18, Galdamez was called into the office of the Assistant Commandant of Cadets and was informed that she had 24 hours to vacate the campus. Even when she notified her superiors about the deferral agreement, they disregarded these claims and insisted that she complete the exit process which usually takes months to complete, Galdamez said.
Galdamez was forced to return to her home in San Diego, California, losing her ability to attend classes and play volleyball, and experience life on campus among her peers. She was not allowed to attend classes remotely. But Galdamez was thankful to have a home to go to, as she knows of other cadets who were kicked out who didn’t.
By 4 p.m. the next day on Aug. 19, she was expected to have concluded a series of time-consuming out-processing tasks while also making spur-of-the-moment arrangements to travel from New London, Connecticut, where the academy is located, to San Diego.
“I had three years’ worth of all my belongings and was left to figure out how I would get all my trunks home,” Galdamez said, adding that she also had to sell a printer to help offset the unexpected expenses of travel. On top of leaving some of her belongings behind, she has also never been reimbursed for the expenses she incurred even though cadet command had promised her and the other cadets that they would, Galdamez said.
Between Aug. 18 and Sept. 23, Galdamez considered herself to be in “limbo status.” She was unable to continue her education at the academy and since she was still a cadet, she could not pursue other avenues of education or occupation.
On Sept. 23, unvaccinated cadets were discharged from the academy. “This happened to me, despite the agreements between my lawyers and DOJ counsel that I and the other cadets would remain in the military until litigation is decided,” she said
‘Humiliated’
Dr. Elizabeth Lee Vliet, president of the Truth for Health Foundation, an Arizona-based nonprofit, told The Epoch Times that her organization “spearheaded a project to provide guidance” for service members, like Galdamez, to handle their defense.“The Coast Guard is egregiously violating constitutional rights and Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) regulations in failing to grant religious accommodation,” Vliet said. “More importantly, it is unlawful to mandate any experimental product, which includes vaccines, masks, and test kit,” she added.
According to Vliet, “forcing such experimental treatments on service members is a heinous abuse that’s unconscionable and has no legal or medical justification.”
Attorney Davis Younts, who helped all of the disenrolled Coast Guard cadets with templates for their accommodations and disenrollment responses, agreed
“The treatment of these Cadets goes beyond a violation of due process; it involves religious discrimination and violations of basic human rights,” Younts said.
He added that, “these are young men and women who are prepared to give their lives in service to their country and because of their religious faith, they are not simply being kicked out of the Academy; they were humiliated and treated like criminals.
The Coast Guard and Assistant Commandant of Cadets didn’t return requests for comment from The Epoch Times.
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