In 2020, Samuel Sell successfully fulfilled the requirements of Wright State University’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program in Ohio to become a commissioned officer in the U.S. Air Force. Shortly after, he was selected to participate in an experimental pilot training group at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. But the prestigious opportunity would soon be pulled from under his feet, and he would be detained, handcuffed and facing court-martial – because of his Christian beliefs.
What happened? When Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s now-rescinded 2021 COVID-19 military vaccine mandate began to roll out, the young lieutenant refused to consent to any unapproved product with only an Emergency Use Authorization, while also requesting a religious accommodation as a Christian. Only EUA products were being offered, and nearly all requests for religious accommodation were being denied across all branches of military service.
Even before the mandate, Sell shared his views with classmates that the vaccine wasn’t necessary for those who had acquired natural immunity after recovering from COVID-19 – “natural immunity” being one of the most fundamental and universally recognized realities of Immunology.
As he continued to refuse the shot and encourage others to do the same, Sell said, “My commander called me in to his office and basically told me that I was under an extensive investigation.” For what, Sell remains unsure, but saying he felt like he was “under a microscope” would be an understatement, he told WND.
“Because I aligned myself with the group that did not want to go along [with the mandate], I was the subject of a lot of harassment and negative feedback,” he said. “I stood my ground, but was told that my career was basically over.”
Sell was offered the opportunity to voluntarily separate from the Air Force, and while it remained a “ludicrous idea” to separate for refusing an unapproved EUA product, he submitted the application.
While others were being discharged, to his surprise Sell was told it was not in the best interest of the Air Force to have him separate over the mandate. At that point, he told WND, “I felt completely abandoned by my leaders, with no logic to any of this, not knowing what would be thrown at me next.”
With apprehension about the unknown and mounting levels of stress, he said, “I requested leave from my command that night and was issued leave approval over text, wanting to go see my family and talk about everything I had been inundated with.” After leaving San Antonio early the next morning, his military leave was rescinded: “I was intercepted at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, told that I was AWOL, and then detained in isolation at Luke Air Force Base,” he told WND, adding that “there were no other detainees around and I was completely isolated.”
As a Christian, Sell sought comfort from God and requested a Bible. For three days, his requests were ignored. “As a second lieutenant that swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing: being denied the religious freedom of having access to a Holy Bible.”
Sell was flown back to San Antonio in handcuffs and threatened with facing a court-martial for being AWOL, although charges were dropped by his command shortly thereafter. “To say I was left unscathed from this experience would be false, but in April of 2022, I was able to be discharged under honorable conditions,” he told WND.
Sell said he learned something of grave importance through his experience. “The degradation of the military is an utmost concern to me,”: he explained. Not only are moral failures on the rise, he said, but a lack of knowledge about the Constitution also plagues the U.S. Armed Forces.
Citing the Bible, he pointed out that God says. “My people perish for a lack of knowledge,” according to Hosea 4:6. Considering the protections to religious freedom granted by the Constitution, Sell likens his time of detainment and the withholding of access to the Bible as “a type of tactic that would be used in communist China.”
“I vocalized that their actions were unconstitutional and pleaded for them to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States that they actually swore to do, and I was ignored,” Sell lamented.
“What’s happening in the military, which is a small sample of the overall culture in America, is a huge shift to anti-constitutional values being instilled in service members,” Sell warned. “And sadly, it’s eroding morale and it’s eroding our military.”
For this reason, Sell is developing an endeavor with other like-minded individuals to help educate service members and churches across America about the experiences of military personnel, the importance of adhering to the Constitution and more, while also encouraging everyone to get out and vote in every election with Christian values in mind.
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