For years U.S. Air Force Major Brennan Schilperoort endured discrimination, reprisal, withheld pay, and exclusion from the cockpit.
He had complained to the inspector general that his commander unlawfully issued a letter of reprimand and refused to process his December 2023 flu shot religious accommodation request.
AFN reported last week that independent reviews confirmed that Schilperoort’s letter of reprimand was “issued unlawfully, ignoring a pending religious accommodation request.” As his counsel, Younts is “encouraged by the actions of new leaders in the Pentagon and their willingness to use their positions to ensure just outcomes.”
Derek Jones is a retired Air Force fighter pilot who now serves as executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty.
"From my experience, flu shots, there are a lot of people to get religious accommodations, but in his case he had had a reaction to previous flu shots, and so he'd asked for a medical waiver. When that was denied, he opted for the religious waiver, but that was denied as well. Of course, his career is trashed, he's grounded, they dismissed him without pay, and frankly this was egregious way over carriage of justice."
Jones is pleased that the Secretary of the Air Force Inspector General has overruled the findings of subordinate inspectors.
Jones hopes that those who abused Major Schilperoort would be punished for their misconduct.
"I would suspect that he's got back pay plus interest. He probably is deserving of some updates to his flying with the Air Force or outside of the Air Force, so that he can get his flying credentials back up to speed so that if he's out of the Air Force now, he might be able to go to the airlines or something of that nature. There's a lot of undoing that has to come as a result of this."
