What does the COVID vaccine do to those in the military? According to a former Navy SEAL training commander, it can literally cause seamen to drop out of training due to fatigue.
In an interview published Tuesday, Capt. Brad Geary talked about the damage President Joe Biden’s military vaccine mandate wrought upon the Armed Forces, including a lack of readiness for those who have to do significant physical exertion.
To put this into context: In February 2022, a Navy SEAL trainee under Geary’s command, Kyle Mullen, died during the notorious “hell week” — another name for Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL, or BUD/S, a period of intense training during the SEAL selection process.
According a Wednesday report in the Asbury Park Press, Mullen’s death has been blamed on untreated pneumonia, and Geary, who oversaw the training for SEALs candidates, including Mullen, is one of the officers facing administrative hearings that could end in a discharge other than honorable and the loss of all benefits.
Mullen’s mother blames Geary and others within the Navy SEAL community. Geary, however, has some other theories, not necessarily involving the vaccine. Those are somewhat ancillary to this — but, quite notably, several reports indicate that performance-enhancing drugs were found in Mullen’s vehicle and numerous conversations on his phone indicated that he had bought the substances, according to a U.S. Navy report into his death obtained by the Military Times.
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However, in the interview, Geary did look at increased attrition rates during the classes active during the COVID pandemic, including the one Mullen was in. Far from being a matter relating to those prescribing the training, he said the one variable they could put their finger on was the vaccine itself and when it was administered.
In a nearly six-hour appearance on “The Shawn Ryan Show,” Geary talked about unprecedented numbers of trainees in BUD/S who quit in Classes 351-353, which Mullen was in, vs. Class 350, which came before him but well into the pandemic.
During the latter part of the interview, he talked about the variables they attempted to isolate to account for the discrepancy.
“The only thing that changed between Class 350 and Class 351 — and this can be controversial — the mandatory COVID vaccine,” he said.
Do you think the vax compromised America’s military preparedness?
“It’s the only variable that changed. Now, let me qualify that with — I do not want to get into the politicized debate about all the things that happened during COVID.
“However, what both sides of the aisle have absolutely agreed upon is that the vaccine produces fatigue, as does the virus. Sometimes long fatigue. It happens.
“Having had the … virus both times and the vaccine, I can tell you, yeah, it produces a lot of fatigue in me, as well.”
Geary went on to say that, during the intake for Class 350, the vaccine mandate came down just one week before hell week started.
“So we said, ‘No, no, no, we’re going to waive that. That’s way too close. It’s way too much risk. We don’t know what’s going to happen.’ So we let them do it after hell week. So 351 was the very first class that we then gave the COVID vaccine to as they started first phase right beforehand.
Geary said that “the attrition data for Classes 351, 352 — which is where Kyle died — and 353 show that the majority of the attrition happened within the first 48 to 72 hours of those classes, which is another anomaly that was different from everything we’d seen in the past.”
“It kind of makes sense when you think about the fact that these guys were just really fatigued,” he continued. “You gave them a shot that fatigued them and then expected them to perform in some of the most difficult training … and then we acted surprised when they all quit.”
He also talked about a class — he couldn’t remember which it was — where “over 100 people quit within 72 hours.”
“The helmets had lined the corner,” Geary said. “We weren’t even done with week one. I brought in a Ph.D because I was losing my mind. I’m like, you need to help me, like, what is going on?
“He said, ‘Brad, I’m telling you — I’ve looked at this stuff for 14 years, I’ve studied every single soft branch and selection assessment and training. When this kind of things happens, it’s usually [training] cadre running amok.’
“I was like, come, look, please. Tell me. Tell me I’m taking crazy pills. He’s like, ‘I’m bringing my bias with me, just so you know.’ I said, bring your bias.
“He walked away and said, ‘It’s not your cadre.’”
In the report commissioned by the U.S. Navy into Mullen’s death, investigators found the primary reason for “heightened attrition” between BUD/S Classes 350 and 355 to be “COVID-19, which started in 2020, decreasing candidate preparedness. The Department of Defense determined it to be one of the deadliest threats our Nation had ever faced.”
The vaccine, for obvious reasons, isn’t listed among the seven reasons, which included “[i]ntensity creep” and “[g]enerational differences, with candidates being physically better prepared and with higher emotional intelligence but less familiar with physical discomfort,” among others.
However, as Geary noted, both the vaccine and COVID can produce weakness and fatigue. If the vaccine was administered shortly before hell week — if not right before — it could still cause lingering weakness in individuals the same way that COVID or another virus would.
That fact, of course, isn’t going to be discussed as the investigation into the officers responsible for Navy SEAL training is conducted. Nor is it going to take into account the compromise to readiness the vaccine mandate caused — roughly 3,400 troops involuntarily separated as of an April 2022 Military Times report and 8,000 before the policy was rescinded in January 2023, per CNN, most with just a general discharge. This all as military recruiters continue to miss their enlistment goals.
It isn’t to say that the shot caused Kyle Mullen’s death, of course; that’s a much more complicated matter. It is accurate to say, however, that the jab and the mandate have compromised our military readiness. We’ve thrown people out and worn people down in the name of — well, what, precisely?
It’s something President Biden won’t ever have to answer for, too, unless former President Donald Trump wins again. The U.S. government no longer talks with such ardor about the COVID vaccines. The military mandate was quietly ended over a year and a half ago with little fanfare. Few if any MSNBC prime-time hosts will talk in hushed voices about the dangers the “unvaxxed” pose for America. Everyone seems to have agreed this was useless.
But, indeed, it was less than useless. It was damaging, both to the national fabric and to, among other things, our military readiness.
Don’t believe me, though. Believe someone who was there.
