Lance Corporal Catherine Arnett is a Marine Corps service member who is serving in Japan. She filed for a religious exemption to the mandatory CPT-19 vaccine, and now faces a court martial. In this episode, we talk to Lance Corporal Arnett about her fight for her religious exemption, and why she believes she should be allowed to serve in the Marine Corps. She also talks about the challenges she is facing, and how she is dealing with them. Listen to this episode to learn more about her case, and to hear from her attorney, Captain Mike McGee, who is representing her in her upcoming court martial hearing. Thanks to our sponsor, The Defender, for supporting this podcast and supporting Catherine's fight for the right to serve her country. The Defender is a non-profit organization that provides resources to support veterans and their families in their fight for equal pay for medical care, education, and support for post-recovery services. To find a list of our sponsors and show-related promo codes, go to gimlet.fm/OurAdvertisers. Our sponsor is The Defender. We look forward to hearing from you! Thank you so much for all the support you all showered in love, support, and all the love and support you've shown throughout the years. We appreciate it. Thank you for being a part of The Defender and keep fighting the fight for our community. - Thank you, everyone! - Your continued support is so appreciated and we appreciate all of the support we've shown you all. . - Our mission is to protect and support our veterans, our families, friends, family, and our fellow veterans, friends and our families. , and we're looking forward to seeing you in the future. Love you, thank you, all of you, and thank you for supporting us, and we'll keep fighting for you, coming back from this day to day, coming forward, and back again, and coming back, and keep on fighting, and keeping you back, forward, forward and forward, in the coming, and forward! . . . Thank you all of our hearts out! - Your support is truly means a lot. - KEEP y'all! - The Defender - - PRAISE YOU, Thank you and back to you're being heard and back, THANK YOU! - P.S. - PODCAST AND SUPPORTING US, EVERYONE!
00:00:30.000The last time we talked to you, your court-martial was scheduled for August, I think, 3rd and 4th, and you have now rescheduled it to August 23rd and 24th.
00:00:44.000And I just wanted to check back in with you because we We're so supportive of you, Catherine, for your courage on not only in serving our country, but also standing up for higher principles despite enormous, enormous pressures out to tell our audience what happened from the beginning.
00:01:07.000From the beginning, it all started of September 12th of 2021.
00:01:12.000Last year, whenever they were starting to round up all the unvaccinated people and tell us, hey, eventually it's going to be mandatory, so you might as well get it now.
00:01:20.000You can put in religious exemptions if you like.
00:01:23.000Lo and behold, to our discovery, a few months later, they were all getting blanket denied, stamps of Disapproval that basically had canned verbiage and everything like that.
00:02:09.000No adverse physical reactions on my body.
00:02:14.000Mentally, I suppose I was not fond of vaccines.
00:02:17.000They made me lightheaded and faint, but nothing that adversely affected my body.
00:02:24.000And what is the basis for your religious exemption?
00:02:28.000It's of the Catholic faith and with the grievance with the abortion fetal cells.
00:02:35.000The fetal cells that come from Harvested human beings.
00:02:41.000And we're not sure what part of that makes it into the vaccines, but everybody acknowledges that the vaccines are developed using those human fetal cells.
00:02:54.000At first, they told you it was going to be optional, that religious exemptions were available, and then it became clear that, yes, the applications are available, but the actual exemptions are not.
00:03:32.000So that started my separation paperwork, which I wrote up to all my higher-ups, all my commanding officers on base, as high as I could on this immediate base, that I cannot acquiesce to these separation orders because if the mandate is illegal, then, you know, any adverse consequences are therefore going to be illegal.
00:04:54.000Hostility, isolation, loneliness definitely characterizes a lot of what I'm going through right now.
00:05:00.000The hostility is a little bit more blatant, I suppose, from the officer side, from the higher-ups up there.
00:05:08.000I can imagine that they're quite upset about a little enlisted situation.
00:05:13.000A little Marine like me, challenging the 05s and above, especially on this.
00:05:19.000On the non-commissioned officer side, the enlisted, it's a little bit more friendly, but because I've been transferred from my parent squadron and temporarily assigned to a different squadron, I've essentially been...
00:05:36.000Dare I say exiled from my original point of work, my normal office, and there's not too much support from back where I originally worked.
00:05:48.000So the friends that you had in your original squadron, you don't see them anymore anyway?
00:06:23.000And sure, the cogs of justice spin slowly.
00:06:26.000But eventually, this is all going to be overturned.
00:06:29.000And I've just been trying to be retained, right, while that happens.
00:06:33.000Because the logistical side of processing out and then with all the bills that a lot of People on Capitol Hill are trying to pass with reinstating members.
00:06:41.000I'm just like, the logistics of that are going to be a nightmare.
00:06:43.000I'd just rather stay in and, you know, have leadership who could try to help me out.
00:06:48.000But yeah, that's the basis of my court-martial.
00:06:51.000It's for Article 87, missing movement, and Article 92, not getting a COVID test.
00:06:56.000But that's false because I showed up to get a COVID test, but they didn't have any safe, non-toxic alternatives.
00:07:26.000The groups on Discord, the groups on Signal and Telegram have been phenomenal.
00:07:31.000It's great to stay in touch with them, even if it is over phone.
00:07:35.000Definitely brings a sense of community with it that doesn't really exist here on this base.
00:07:41.000For people like myself, there are a few and scattered, unvaccinated active duty service members, but most of them have been discharged.
00:07:50.000But yes, keeping in touch with the people who do reach out, especially like higher enlisted and even higher up officers who reach out and are giving me messages of support in the world.
00:08:05.000As of right now, my daily duties is to show up at work.
00:08:09.000I kind of twiddle my thumbs because I have had all of my work permissions revoked by my parent, by my former parent squadron.
00:08:17.000And because there's conflict of interest with the new squadron that I'm at and the managerial squadron that oversees all operations with giving permissions to work, I've asked for my permissions back, but I pretty much should show up for accountability.
00:08:39.000And I walk around asking if anybody needs help with like the DTS or Citibank systems, but I've kind of been learning how other things operate at the new squadron that I'm at, which is interesting to learn, but I have to kind of make my own schedule with staying busy at this point because I have no official assigned duties because they've all been taken away from me.
00:09:04.000If all the civilian court stuff goes well and happens in time, I'd love to be retained.
00:09:11.000Just be reinstated to all my work permissions and work DTS and Citibank.
00:09:16.000And DTS is the defense travel system that sends uniformed personnel all over the world.
00:09:22.000Citibank is the credit card that we're contracted with.
00:09:26.000I'd love to keep doing that until I hit corporal or sergeant and I wanted to be a drill instructor.
00:09:33.000But that depends how retainment things go and how all these courts and lawfulness and stuff happens and turns out, works out for the uniformed people like myself who are unvaccinated.
00:09:46.000Prior to this crisis, did you envision an entire career in the military and the Marines?
00:09:53.000I don't think I envisioned an entire career, but I did have people ask me, like, how long are you going to stay in?
00:09:59.000Are you going to be, like, a careerist?
00:10:01.000I'd hope if I did end up doing a career in it, I would do it the right way, and I wouldn't use it for personal gain, I guess.
00:10:08.000Like, I've seen a lot of things going on here.
00:10:11.000With the vaccine and whatnot, I'd want to do it the right way and really vouch for my Marines and the people under me and stand up for the right things.
00:10:20.000I'm not sure what would have happened after drill instructor career, but again, hopefully good things happen for us.
00:10:38.000I have a capacity where I coach a lot and I love coaching and that leadership and motivation from that definitely inspires me and keeps me going.
00:10:49.000And just future prospects of standing up for the right thing now and leading future Marines to look at mandates, look at what's going on and being like, no, I don't want to acquiesce to that.
00:11:03.000I don't want to inject things into my body that I don't know what it is or just really scrutinize things from higher up and take a stand for what's right.
00:11:14.000Thank you so much for your courage and, again, for your integrity.
00:11:33.000I'm really happy to bring this update to Lance Corporal Arnett's podcast.
00:11:39.000U.S. District Judge Stephen Merida issued a blistering rebuke.
00:11:44.000The Department of Defense and the Marine Corps for refusing to grant religious accommodations requests to Marine service members.
00:11:54.000This is the very decision that Lance Corporal Arnett was waiting for, was hoping for.
00:12:01.000I think it will exceed all of our expectations.
00:12:04.000As you may know, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin maintained that the mandate was necessary for military preparedness.
00:12:14.000He ordered that non-compliance could result in discharge from the service, court-martial, and other disciplinary procedures and consequences, which is exactly what Anne Scorpio Arnett was going through during her ideal.
00:12:29.000Judge Mary Day's 48-page ruling We're good to go.
00:12:51.000Ordering the Marine Corps to refrain from enforcing against any member of the class any order, requirement, or rule to accept COVID-19 vaccinations, ordering them to separate or discharge from the Marine Corps, or to force them to get vaccinations.
00:13:12.000The class includes everybody on active duty who has filed suits or who has suffered a rejection of their religious exemption application.
00:13:24.000In his order, Judge Merida points out that there were 3,733 Marines who requested religious exemptions, accommodations, and only 11 were granted to those, and only to those who had already put in for retirement.
00:13:41.000He then asked, is it more likely than not, in nearly all 3,733 cases, that no reasonable accommodation was available?
00:13:51.000He also rebuked and chastised the Department of Defense for a policy of retribution to the Marines who had asked for religious exemptions, including charging them additional monthly rent for non-compliance, giving them two days' notice to be discharged.
00:14:11.000He said that to resort to a two-day warning of discharge and suddenly charging daily rent of more than $100 to remain in the military housing while packing one's family and searching for civilian housing suggests retribution and retaliation.
00:14:27.000Judge Perry Weathers said that when the generals refuse to comply with the Constitution, it's up to the courts to mandate that kind of compliance.
00:14:37.000Quote, when Congress acts to preserve liberty, especially to a liberty, religious liberty, historically and constitutionally fundamental to the United States, the courts, the intended preserve of liberty, must not evade or equivocate, must not, so to speak, sacrifice the fundamental must not evade or equivocate, must not, so to speak, sacrifice the fundamental right of thousands of privates to free exercise in order to gratify the preference of
00:15:04.000So congratulations to Lance Corporal Arnett and to all of the Marines who stood up for their freedom.
00:15:12.000Who stood up for our Constitution, who showed such courage in resisting this kind of tyranny.