Thursday morning on War Room: Pandemic, Stephen K. Bannon welcomed Captain Mickey Shelton of the Tennessee National Guard to the show to discuss his letter sent to Governor Bill Lee to take action against COVID-19 vaccine mandates for guardsmen.
Bannon: Let me bring in captain Mickey Shelton from out in Tennessee. Captain Shelton, tell us what the situation is out there. You are an officer in the National Guard.
An army officer. Captain, real quickly, tell us what’s going on in Tennessee for unvaccinated patriots that serve in the army national Guard.
Shelton: Absolutely. And first I have to give a disclaimer. This is my own opinion and not of the military DOD or army National Guard There are 400 soldiers today that are going to be immediately affected and fired frankly because they don’t want to take the COVID vaccine.
And this is something we’ve tried to address with the governor, but it seems like he’s just making blanket statements and planned political theater and not doing anything about it.
Bannon: So just walker folks do it is at midnight tonight. Today’s, June 30, there was a dictate put out by the army guest Department of Defense. Every member of the armed services by midnight tonight has to be vaccinated. Is that the policy?
Shelton: Yes. So they pushed out a DOD memo a while back talking about I think it was August 24th last year and they had mandated, hey we have to get this shot.
And they just came down with some new orders saying that if you don’t get vaccinated by June 30th, you will not get paid at drill nor can you attend drill.
And this is something that with the government being as slow and inefficient as they are, sometimes it might take a while for them to get their discharge papers or DDT 14.
Bannon: So you actually had contact, I think you delivered a letter or something to Governor Lee yesterday. What was that and what are you guys asking for?
Shelton: A request letter to the governor. There were three requests on that. Those three requests were to publicly condemn firings, pledged to do everything within his power, to have General Holmes halt to discharge and file suit with other agencies and have emergency intentions.
Bannon: Did governor Lee high-five you when you delivered that? Is he 100 percent on board with you patriots?
Shelton: So he just recently made some comments before coming on air saying that they’re not going to fire anyone to my knowledge. But again I think it’s a political theater still repetitive and they are still under that memo.
We are still affected, we’re still going to be fired. But where the pushback is, we’re under Title 32, which is orders the Army National Guard is under and has the control and authority to command Tennesse’s National Guard.
But the funding comes from the federal government. So they’re holding us hostage and they’re playing politics and the governor needs to follow with the AG against the DOD to have that settled in court because it’s not just federal overreach.
And no, he didn’t give me a high five. I actually went to his office, but he wasn’t there. I guess he had something more pressing than his own Tennessee Army National Guard.
But we did an event and he did not attend the event, sadly. But we would love for him to do something and push back against the Biden administration on this in the secretary of events.
Bannon: Captain Shelton, how do people follow you on social media right now?
Shelton: We have an Instagram set up. It is GuardFreedomTN and we would love to talk to anyone who may be in another state’s National Guard and they are having similar issues.
Bannon: We’ll make sure after the show they will make sure everything is coordinated. Captain Shelton, thank you very much. Honored to have you on here. Thank you, brother.
Listen to the interview below, starting at the 34:00 minute mark.
CPT Shelton, I am equally disgusted with how the TN Army National Guard (Commander in Chief Gov Bill Lee and TAG) have handled this issue. All Political! I want to join the fight protecting my brothers and sisters at-arms. The Oath we sworn does not expire! I am not on Instagram,, Facebook, or Twitter. Please send me an email so that I can learn how to help, what to sign, or where to meet. I need to know how to reach out to you or anyone else managing the effort.
Thank you.
Francisco A. Cappas
MAJ, MP
US ARMY (Ret)