Defending the Constitution: Behind Enemy Lines

Book Review

“..against all enemies foreign and domestic..”

(Oath of Office and Enlistment)

Commander (CDR) Robert A. Green’s new book Defending the Constitution: Behind Enemy Lines is a vivid, firsthand account of Green’s pursuit of a religious exemption (RE) from the Department of Defense (DoD) COVID 19 vaccine mandate. Releasing on July 4, 2023, the book offers extraordinary insight through the lens of an active-duty naval officer into the bureaucratic gears which appeared to acknowledge the religious liberty rights of servicemembers, however, instead revealed that the Navy (and other service branches) had little inclination to approve a fraction of the over 20,000 RE requests that US military servicemembers submitted for consideration.

Green’s book centers upon the fact that US military servicemembers retain and can exercise religious rights and liberties while on active duty; including the right to be exempted from mandatory vaccinations. In August 2021, CDR Green prayerfully discerned that the COVID 19 vaccine mandate would be a threat to his religious liberty, and decided to request a religious exemption as outlined clearly in Navy Regulations and DoD instructions on immunizations for prevention of infectious disease. The common refrain with regards to the military and vaccines is that “you’ve taken shots before” while true, however, fails to consider that none of the previously required military vaccinations were new (to current service members), nor involved untested mRNA technology, nor were for an unknown disease and that one (or three?) were also quite dubiously approved by the FDA—and were medically considered interchangeable. The “but the military follows orders” reader should consider that RE’s are just one of three vaccine exemptions (medical and administrative are the others) and are accompanied by hundreds of other regulation exemptions to DoD instructions or their subordinate service branch regulations. Exemptions and waivers are requested and granted for an extraordinary number of military requirements daily on a temporary or permanent basis. This author requested, and was granted, an administrative vaccine exemption from the US Army in accordance with Army Regulation 40-562. The handling of RE requests appears to have been different in that a only a very small fraction of RE requests were subsequently granted (0.5% Army, Navy data unclear) earning the DoD a letter for concern from the Inspector General and rebuke from a federal court over violations of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).

As a Naval Squadron Executive Officer, CDR Green characterized his position as “behind enemy lines” where he identifies enemies of the Constitution as those who would knowingly be sworn to uphold, yet subsequently violate the First Amendment rights regarding religious liberty; even amid federal court pushback. This appropriate description included that the federal guardians of the COVID 19 narrative enjoyed interagency fire support, social media dominance via censorship and messaging, and a coordinated attack scheme which included labeling opponents of COVID 19 vaccines as “domestic extremists.” Chapter 12 “The Test Passers” chronicles the case of US Army Captain Scott Ritter who underwent unlawful detainment and intrusive mental health screening at Fort Benning, GA while trying to uphold the law and preserve his religious liberty.

Green’s book demonstrates his position as that of a “loyal dissenter,” or one who uses the legal and available routes to both uphold his religious beliefs and to serve honorably with an intact conscience. Green details multiple instances of requests, denials, appeals, and inspector general complaints which ultimately revealed that the Navy was simply not interested in hearing, nor approving, RE requests even when presented with demonstrable evidence of a sincerely held religious belief. The viceroys of the admiralty built an amazing database to catalogue RE requests, paying figleaf homage to their requirements under the First Amendment and RFRA, yet subsequently steamed like John Paul Jones towards a “damn the exemption requests, full disapproval ahead” position as the disapproval rate accelerated from 100 to 150 per day by the Navy’s Accommodation Review Team in late 2021. This was after a judge advocate general officer (JAG) indicated that the approach may expose the command to “litigation risk.” Sailors languished in a Hotel California-style limbo; they could ask for whatever exemption they wanted, they could just apparently never hope to receive one for religious reasons.  

CDR Rob Green’s audacious assertion, and those of over 20,000+ servicemembers, was to maintain the pre-vaccine mandate status quo and to not receive an injection. No money, no syringe, nor any dubiously approved FDA product needed to be expended into CDR Green’s arm to honor his courageous request. Alas, the day the DoD mandate went into effect, extraordinary resources and messaging were then expended to coerce him, and people like him to change their minds. Permanent changes of station-denied, leaves cancelled, training cancelled, returns from overseas extended, access to buildings denied, menial tasks assigned and so forth. CDR Green presents several anecdotal reports of officers standing in protest outside of their work spaces after they were deemed unworthy of entrance or locked out entirely. The sobering statistic Green cites was the 1,460 military suicides during a 33 month period vs the 96 COVID deaths attributed to infection during a longer (36 months) period both starting at 1 JAN 2020. COVID response in the military included involuntary medical incarceration, delayed training, and, according to Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch the “greatest intrusion on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country.”

Unlike the DoD Inspector General’s (IG) position following the Navy Tailhook Scandal in 1991, CDR Green’s account suggests that exposure of the Navy’s systematic denial of RE requests was unworthy of DoD IG attention specific to his case; signifying a betrayal of trust between CDR Green and the DoD IG as a neutral arbiter and further exposed that religious exemptions had little to no hope of approval across all DoD service branches. Tailhook sparked widespread transparency on military sexual harassment issues and servicemember rights to bodily autonomy (against being groped) whereas COVID 19 appears to have sparked an overt abandonment of constitutional religious liberty protection required by the department under federal law.

Military servicemembers who refused the vaccine for religious reasons are modern-day Daniels of the Bible. Daniel chose not to defile himself with the King’s food for the exact same reasons that servicemembers such as CDR Green refused the vaccine. It is uniquely American, and, in CDR Green’s case, Christian to exercise the right to refuse; it is the essence of liberty. The DoD COVID 19 policy did not accommodate religious exemptions rather, it processed the requests in accordance to DoD and branch requirements without regard to upholding the actual rights of the individuals nor the force.

Typhoon Cobra claimed nearly 800 Sailors and sunk four ships of Admiral William “Bull” Halsey’s Third Fleet in December 1944; one of the costliest and least-known naval incidents in history. A naval court of inquiry heard from 54 witnesses to gauge ADM Halsey’s actions, leadership and responsibility for the loss of the ships and crew now depicted in Halsey’s Typhoon. Involuntary discharges for COVID 19 vaccine refusal on religious grounds have now cost the Navy the more Sailors as those lost in Typhoon Cobra, and nearly 10,000 across DoD. A Sailor lost at sea, or to an involuntary discharge, costs exactly the same insofar as the personnel replacement time, training, and temporary readiness impact upon the unit. Sailors in WWII fought for the same Constitution and liberties that CDR Green and thousands others are fighting for today. Naval courts of inquiry should be convened to document the leadership decisions, personnel losses and obtain the truth regarding the failure of our service branches to uphold the Constitutional rights each of us was sworn to protect. Courageous junior enlisted servicemembers suffered in larger numbers alongside officers such as CDR Green, but who did not benefit from the organizational knowledge nor rank that CDR Green and a minority of others possessed. However, the truncation or administrative delay of these military careers, new mental health issues and the untold suicide casualties deserves official internal inquiry, external oversight and real accountability.  

Defending the Constitution is a must-read for Americans and stands as a firsthand account of the DoD COVID 19 vaccination policy effect on our people as authored by an active duty officer. CDR Green rightfully and heroically clarifies defending the Constitution as a defense of the individual rights outlined in it; and not just defense of the parchment itself. He calls for official remedy and further investigation which should echo into the hearts of all Americans to demand action. This call should include demands for real Constitutional training and education and how to identify the real, internal domestic threats to civil liberties through unrestrained federal emergency powers, censorship, and discrimination against religious beliefs. Constitutional training should displace other erosive and anti-American social and cultural training at all levels of our service branches including our war colleges.

Purchase at: Barnes & Noble or Amazon

Colonel Theodore (Ted) Croy PhD, PT

Dr. Croy retired in 2022 after 27 years of Army service as a physical therapist and as the Dean of the Graduate School of the US Army MEDCoE at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston TX and has five combat deployments. He served for eight years in the US Navy Reserve as a Seabee and Hospital Corpsman prior to joining the Army. He is an adjunct professor with Liberty University, George Washington University and research consultant with George Mason University. Ted lives near Waco TX.