BELLEVUE- Three current or former Offutt airmen who have refused the COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds asked a federal district court judge in Omaha to stop the Air Force from discharging or otherwise punishing them.

Capt. Ian McGee, an RC-135 instructor pilot with the Offutt-based 55th Wing, said he applied for a religious exemption eight months ago but hasn’t received a response from his chain of command. He expects it to be denied, as the Air Force has denied nearly all of the more than 7,800 airmen who have applied for them under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, known as RFRA.

McGee said he would give up his nine-year military career rather than be injected with a vaccine tested with cell lines taken many years ago from aborted fetuses.

“It goes against my sincerely held religious beliefs as a born-again Christian,” McGee testified.

The three airmen are part of a larger group of 36 — including active-duty, National Guard and reserves — who filed suit in U.S. District Court in Nebraska in March seeking to overturn the mandate issued by the Pentagon last August. They argue it is a violation of their First Amendment rights.

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