Don’t blemish the Air Force Academy graduation to honor a pandemic our country has left in the past. Don’t negate the hard work and sacrifice of cadets who have invested years working themselves into and through a rigorous academic and military academy to serve our country as Air Force officers. Let them graduate and serve with honor.

The Academy commencement is a major and traditional annual celebration in Colorado, especially for those living in or visiting the Pikes Peak region. Leading up to this year’s event on May 25, we can expect the Air Force Thunderbirds to drive enthusiasm once again as F-16 pilots practice death-defying maneuvers along the Front Range in preparation for the graduation air show.

Though graduates cross the stage on May 25, the celebration begins Wednesday with a free graduation concert by the Cadet Orchestra at Arnold Hall Ballroom. Other events, including a parade, continue from Saturday through the graduation. The featured speaker will be Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

We celebrate because the Academy – among the world’s more elite institutions of higher education – churns out men and women of high caliber who are taught to risk their lives to keep this country free. They will keep us free from foreign enemies bent on threatening a country founded to uphold individual freedom. They will fight for freedom of speech, property rights, the individual right to self-defense, national sovereignty, freedom of association, freedom of religion, and all other liberties that make our country a place people from around the globe break into.

Sadly, the Academy may not allow four seniors to graduate because they have refused COVID-19 vaccines. They sought religious exemptions that were denied. In addition to losing their diplomas and commissions, the Air Force wants each to pay $200,000 for tuition. If this doesn’t change, an annual week of celebration will seem bittersweet. The Air Force will punish four cadets for standing on principles and religious convictions protected by the First Amendment.

Department of Defense instruction 1300.17, effective Sept. 1, 2020, protects the religious liberties of cadets. It says:

“Pursuant to the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment… Service members have the right to observe the tenets of their religion or to observe no religion at all… the DoD Components will accommodate individual expressions of sincerely held beliefs (conscience, moral principles, or religious beliefs) which do not have an adverse impact on military readiness, unit cohesion, good order and discipline, or health and safety. A Service member’s expression of such beliefs may not, in so far as practicable, be used as the basis of any adverse personnel action, discrimination, or denial of promotion, schooling, training, or assignment.”

Keywords in this are “which do not have an adverse impact” on readiness, cohesion, order and discipline.

It’s hard to believe four of 1,000-plus senior cadets could interfere with Air Force readiness or the other stated concerns. The Department of Defense reported 31 Covid-19-related deaths in 2020 and 2021, among all military personnel, out of 228,661 infections. That means during the worst phases of the pandemic we had a death rate of 0.01% among personnel diagnosed with Covid. Furthermore, none of the Covid vaccines prevents the spread of Covid.

“We are certainly right now in this country out of the pandemic phase,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor, on April 27… “if you’re saying, ‘Are we out of the pandemic phase in this country?’ – we are.”

Fauci tepidly walked back the statement on April 28 after caving to pressure from those who hope the pandemic never ends.

A March 14 article in Scientific American explained pandemics have historically ended when most humans “declare them at an end.” That happened long ago in this country. People are returning to concerts and sporting events in droves, and they aren’t wearing masks. We have achieved herd immunity through vaccinations and the natural immunity that comes from incurring and surviving the disease.

The military expressly respects the “right” of service members “to observe the tenets of their religion or to observe no religion at all.” It forbids using religious conviction as a basis to deny “schooling, training, or assignment.” By all statistical considerations, four unvaccinated young officers will do us more good than harm. Don’t ruin their futures because they stand on principle. Lift the pall from the 2022 commencement. Let them graduate and obtain the degrees and commissions they have earned.

Colorado Springs Gazette editorial board