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Coast Guard Wants 2021 COVID-19 Shot Mandate Declared Unlawful

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On the heels of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth calling the 2021 COVID-19 shot mandate “unlawful as implemented,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is being strongly encouraged to follow suit.

While the Department of Defense is the agency responsible for overseeing and directing the nation’s military forces, the Coast Guard is the only military service within the Department of Homeland Security.

WorldNetDaily spoke to Rocky Rogers, a Coast Guard IT Chief with more than 20 years of faithful service. Rogers fought against the now-rescinded 2021 COVID-19 shot mandate until a pre-approved retirement came to fruition in August 2022.

Mere days after the mandate, said Rogers, the Coast Guard released its first-ever religious accommodation request policy: Commandant Instruction Manual (CIM)1000.15.

“In the past, the Coast Guard had always followed Navy medical manuals, so adopting their own policy was a red flag that something was about to happen,” he told WorldNetDaily. (Read more from “Coast Guard Wants 2021 COVID-19 Shot Mandate Declared Unlawful” HERE)

Report: U.S. Coast Guard Misses Its Recruiting Target for Fourth Year in a Row

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The U.S. Coast Guard has missed its recruiting targets for the fourth fiscal year in a row, according to a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Titled, “Recruitment and Retention Challenges Persist,” the report revealed that the Coast Guard “is about 4,800 members short” of its target total force, as the branch marks the fourth year in a row it has come up short of its recruitment goals. This shortfall encompasses the branch’s active duty, reserve, and civilian workforces, according to the Coast Guard’s fiscal year 2024 congressional budget justification.

“The Coast Guard has also faced recruitment and retention issues within its cyberspace workforce, specialized forces, and marine inspectors,” the GAO report reads. “Competition with higher paying jobs in the private sector, limited opportunities for promotion, and long work hours have made it challenging to recruit and retain these personnel.”

Factors contributing to such retention issues include quality of health care and housing costs, according to the GAO. Coast Guard personnel stationed in remote locations, for example, could have trouble accessing quality medical care. Regarding housing costs, GAO found that the Department of Defense — which “determines [housing] allowances for all the services” to help service members with housing costs — has failed to rely “on quality data to set accurate allowance rates.” In other words, the agency has failed to adjust its housing allowances to match fluctuating housing costs. (Read more from “Report: U.S. Coast Guard Misses Its Recruiting Target for Fourth Year in a Row” HERE)

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Coast Guard Offering ‘Unheard Of’ Signing Perks as Recruitment Plummets

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The U.S. Coast Guard is offering up to $50,000 signing bonuses in an effort to bolster recruitment, after the number of guardsmen has plummeted, in large part due to the military’s strict COVID-19 vaccination mandate.

According to internal USCG documents obtained by Fox News Digital from October detailing fiscal year 2023 workforce planning, “Culinary Specialist,” or “CS,” level recruits could receive bonuses up to $50,000 each.

Active-duty Coast Guard Lt. Chad Coppin called the $50,000 CS-level bonuses, which would involve positions such as cooks, “absolutely unheard of.”

Coppin, who is stationed in Juneau, Alaska, and is seeking religious accommodation to the vaccine mandate, told Fox News Digital that the military is suffering from low recruitment and retainment, in large part due to its own restrictive policies, including the vax requirement.

“This means the USCG response to future disasters like Hurricane Ian will suffer, and lives will be lost due to lack of personnel, a readiness issue that the USCG is voluntarily compounding… overall, the USCG is short over 2,700 members,” Coppin said. (Read more from “Coast Guard Offering ‘Unheard Of’ Signing Perks as Recruitment Plummets” HERE)

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Coast Guard Decried for ‘Modern-Day Inquisition’ Over Alleged Guidance on COVID Vaccine Religious Exemption Requests

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Guidance allegedly issued by the U.S. Coast Guard on evaluating individuals who request an exemption from mandatory COVID-19 vaccination is being condemned as “a modern-day Inquisition.” . . .

Here are some excerpts from the draft guidance:

“It is important to provide context in the memo discussing the member’s belief. If they come to the meeting and begin by discussing concerns about safety, politics, etc., note that in the memo. Even if the member eventually states that it is a belief based on religion, note their first expression and how they moved from non-religious beliefs to religious ones. Note any comments made by the member that make it appear they are using the religious exemption as a ruse to avoid the vaccine.”

“Have the member describe how they consistently keep the tenets of their faith and demonstrate those in their daily life. Ask them to be as specific as possible. Put the specifics acts (or lack thereof) in the memo.”

“Ask what makes this refusal to be vaccinated against COVID-19 such an important part of their religion or their religious beliefs? If the member starts to speak about safety, political, or ethical concerns, as opposed to religious concerns, note that in the memo.”

(Read more from “Coast Guard Decried for ‘Modern-Day Inquisition’ Over Alleged Guidance on COVID Vaccine Religious Exemption Requests” HERE)

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Coast Guard Lieutenant Arrested, Labeled ‘Domestic Terrorist’ With Hit List of Liberal Politicians and Journalists

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A U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant who was allegedly planning numerous acts of domestic terrorism targeting liberal politicians and journalists was arrested Friday on gun and drug charges, according to court documents obtained by the George Washington University Program on Extremism.

Federal authorities have filed a motion for detention pending trial for Lt. Christopher Paul Hasson, who they say “intends to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country.”

Investigators searched his home and found more than a dozen firearms and more than a thousand rounds of ammunition in a small basement apartment in Maryland.

Hasson identified himself in his writings as a “long time White Nationalist, having been a skinhead 30 plus years ago before my time in the military.” He wrote that he “fully supports the idea of a white homeland.”

He also had a spreadsheet, created in January, with a list of media and political targets, including prominent politicians such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, and Kirsten Gillibrand, and freshman Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (Read more from “Coast Guard Lieutenant Arrested, Labeled ‘Domestic Terrorist’ With Hit List of Liberal Politicians and Journalists” HERE)

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Kodiak Man Arrested in Killings of Two Coast Guard Workers

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photo credit: jkbrooks85ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – A former coworker has been arrested for fatally shooting two U.S. Coast Guard employees last year on Kodiak Island in Alaska, federal officials said on Friday.

James Michael Wells of Kodiak will appear in federal court sometime next week in Anchorage to face charges of killing Coast Guard electricians Mate First Class James Hopkins and retired Chief Boatswain’s Mate Richard Belisle, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Hopkins and Belisle were shot dead on April 12 at the Coast Guard’s communications station on Kodiak Island, part of the large Coast Guard base complex on that Alaska island. Hopkins was an enlisted Guard member and Belisle was a civilian employee.

Wells, a civilian, worked with the victims in 2011 at a Coast Guard project on Shemya Island in the Aleutians, according to the Coast Guard.

Read more from this story HERE.

Coast Guardsman Plunges 1000 Feet to His Death in Kodiak

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A Coast Guardsman slipped on an icy trail and plunged 1,000 feet to his death while hiking a treacherous Alaskan mountain in search of its legendary vistas.

Derek Winn Russell, 20, disappeared Saturday morning after attempting to climb Mount Barometer, which is near the Coast Guard base on Kodiak Island where he was posted. Rescuers found his ice ax and skid marks 2,200 feet up the 2,450-foot mountain on Christmas Day. His body was discovered 1,000 feet below that point a few hours later.

Officials believe he slipped and fell to his death while descending the mountain, the Portland Press Herald reported.

Mr Russell, a native of Maine, was not reported missing for 36 hours because his roommates didn’t realize he hadn’t come back from his hike until Sunday night. A rescue party scoured the mountain that night, but was turned back by a snowstorm that hit the dangerous mountain.

Mount Barometer is a popular climb and in summer the trail to the summit can be attempted by casual hikers. It has become popular for its spectacular views of the remote Kodiak Island. In winter, ice and snow can make hiking treacherous and strong winds create bone-chilling temperatures.

Read more from this story HERE.

A fisherman sues the feds for acting like crooks

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Photo credit: NOAA

As raw December 1998 swept over the Atlantic off New Bedford, Mass., scallop fisherman Larry Yacubian brought around his boat, Independence, hailed by the Coast Guard. The officers who boarded his fishing vessel didn’t tell Yacubian it was a setup to coerce out of him a ruinous fine and to destroy his life so thoroughly he could never get it back.

Captain Yacubian lost his business, his boat, his license to fish — and literally the farm that had been in the family for generations — trying to exonerate himself of false accusations that he had been fishing in a prohibited area and free himself from a malicious prosecution for lies that he never told. His persecutor? The Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Two weeks ago, Captain Yacubian filed the lawsuit that may well restore his money and his life after nearly 15 years of gut-wrenching bludgeoning by the NOAA.

The Commerce Department’s inspector general reviewed the NOAA’s Asset Forfeiture Fund — where Yacubian’s $430,000 fine went — and found that “these funds were used to purchase ‘luxurious’ undercover vessels, buy 202 vehicles for a staff of 172 enforcement personnel, and take trips around the world.”

A special investigative judge concluded there is “credible evidence that money was NOAA’s motivating objective in this case.” There’s also knowledgeable belief that the NOAA’s purpose is to eradicate the fishing industry.

Read more from this story HERE.

Coast Guard cutter catches Chinese “pirate ship”, but turns over crooks to … Chinese!

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Photo credit: mikebaird

The high-seas driftnetter the U.S. Coast Guard chased across the North Pacific Ocean has been turned over to Chinese Fishery Law Enforcement.

The crew from the Hawaii-based cutter Rush, which had been patrolling Alaska waters, boarded the ship, identified as the Da Cheng, just over two weeks ago and found 30 metric tons of illegally-caught albacore tuna and six metric tons of shark and shark fin on board.

While in Kodiak, Coast Guard Admiral Robert Papp called the 177-foot gillnetter a pirate ship, prompting Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu to call for prosecution of not only the crew, but of the illegal seafood’s buyers.

High seas driftnetting has been outlawed by international treaty for 20 years. The 10-mile nets the Da Cheng and other illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing boats efficiently catch tuna, but also scoop up everything in their path. Some nets are lost and drift for years, killing thousands of fish.

Read more from this story HERE.

Welcome to Barrow, AK: Coast Guard Finally Establishes Presence in the Arctic

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Barrow, Alaska – When the United States Coast Guard arrived in this remote corner of the Arctic this month to begin its biggest patrol presence in the waters north of Alaska, only one helicopter hangar was available for rent, and it was not, to put it mildly, the Ritz. Built by someone apparently more familiar with the tropics than the tundra, the structure had sunk several feet into the permafrost, with the hangar entrance getting lower as the building sank. Squeezing two H-60 helicopters into the tiny space? Think of parallel parking a stretch limousine. And for this — the only game in town, take it or leave it — the owner demanded $60,000 a month, a price that made Coast Guard leaders gasp.

“Not perfect, but you’ve got to learn to do it somehow,” Josh Harris, a Coast Guard aircraft mechanic, said as he stood surveying his first and not entirely straight attempt at towing in an aircraft.

In the land of the midnight sun, the Coast Guard’s learning curve is steep indeed.

The effort, called Arctic Shield, began this month as a pilot project combining search and rescue responsibilities with disaster response and maritime safety enforcement. It will presumably only expand, Coast Guard officials say, as global warming melts these once ice-locked waters.

With air operations based here in the nation’s northernmost community, more than 300 miles past the Arctic Circle, the assignment is expensive, logistically complicated to supply and far from backup should things go wrong.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: Juliancolton2