In September 2021, an Air Force technical sergeant named Andrew Gamberzky requested a religious exemption, due to his Christian beliefs, from the military’s then-mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy.
In his written request to the Oregon Air Force National Guard, Gamberzky decried the lack of “long-term research on the impacts and effects to human health and behavior” of the COVID-19 vaccine. (Decades of vaccine history and data from more than 1 billion people who have received COVID-19 vaccines suggests limited danger from the vaccines themselves although new research on the impacts of those with Long COVID have shown its at-times devastating health impacts.) He objected to the use of any “fetal material” in its research, development and the vaccines themselves. (While historic fetal cells from the 1970s and 80s were used in the production and development of COVID-19 vaccines, the vaccines themselves don’t contain fetal cells.) He also noted that, having been injured while on duty in Afghanistan and having been previously infected with the virus, he had antibodies to the virus and would be able to “continue to serve my country well.”
Gamberzky — who, at the time, was married to Anna Paulina Luna, a self-described Republican media personality who would go on to win a congressional race in 2022 to represent Florida’s 13th district, outside Tampa — quoted three verses of Scripture and ended the letter with the name and phone number of his pastor at his family’s church in Largo, Florida.
Gamberzky ultimately resigned although it is unclear if the military formally ruled on his request. In his complaint, Gamberzky was told “by members of his squadron not to bother” pursuing the request “as they were all getting denied.” He was one of roughly 17,000 service members who refused the vaccine. More than 2 million other service members, and nearly 350,000 Defense Department civilian employees, were vaccinated.
Now, Gamberzky and Luna, a member of the House Freedom Caucus and an ardent Trump supporter, are suing the Department of Defense, the Air Force, the National Guard and the Oregon Military Department in federal court, claiming the vaccine mandate violated both their constitutional First Amendment rights and religious freedoms. They are seeking damages for Gamberzky’s lost salary, medical expenses, retirement benefits and bonus pay, along with attorneys’ fees.
The complaint, filed in late November and amended this week, also cited Luna’s “then ongoing medical treatments” and the loss of healthcare coverage to them. It’s unclear from the complaint what specific medical treatments Luna paid for, and exactly how much, but the suit alleges “thousands of dollars” in out-of-pocket medical bills. She gave birth to her first child this August.
Hellbound and Down 