A Coast Guard member showed proper deference to his commander in chief when President Joe Biden thanked his and his colleagues for heroic rescue work.
Aviation Survival Technician Second Class Zach Loesch spoke with President Biden in a telephone call. Biden personally thanked him and his Coast Guard colleagues for heroic search and rescue operations performed in response to Hurricane Ian.
“The President thanked him for saving lives and asked for a report on the work that continues to rescue Floridians,” White House officials said in a statement. “He also asked if they needed any additional support that he can provide to accelerate successful rescues; they indicated they have gotten what they need to execute their vital mission.”
What AST2 Loesch did not tell the president about was his impending dismissal from the service he loves because he refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Loesch is due to be discharged from the Coast Guard within 60 days, pursuant to a Biden mandate requiring all United States Armed Forces members be fully vaccinated, Loesch told Breitbart News Saturday.
The Coastie submitted a religious exemption, which was denied, according to the Breitbart report. Loesch then filed an appeal, which was also denied, he said.
“If I had asked any of the people I saved yesterday if they wanted to come with me even though I am unvaccinated,” Loesch lamented, “every single one of them would have said ‘yes.'”
Among the people and pets rescued so far by Loesch was a wheelchair-bound woman and her husband, the report noted. He reportedly kicked in a wall to reach them because the door was blocked by a couch and would not open. After freeing them, he secured her wheelchair to his body before being winched back aboard a Coast Guard helicopter.
“It just sucks that he thanked me yet the vaccine mandate is what’s kicking me out,” he said about President Biden. “I just love my job and I’m really good at it. It sucks. I feel like this is the job that I was born to do.”
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