Horowitz: NOAA fires unjabbed ‘hurricane hunters’ despite court injunction

Republicans care only about Ukraine and act as if COVID fascism is over, but the reality is that the lives of many Americans are being destroyed because of the continued immoral Pfizer passport mandate on the military and government workers. Republicans used the fact that recent court orders have enjoined some of the mandates as an excuse for not fighting them in the upcoming omnibus bill; however, a source inside the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tells Blaze Media that highly technical hurricane scientists are being fired this week with little time left to replace these unique scientists. This person spoke to TheBlaze anonymously because she is not authorized to speak to the media.

To begin with, all federal workers without the jabs are still being subjected to harassment, discrimination, and a weekly testing requirement regardless of their prior infection status, and despite the fact that vaccinated individuals have higher case rates. Now, despite the fact that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to remove the injunction on the direct injection mandate on the federal workplace, workers for NOAA are being terminated this week.

The veteran scientist for NOAA provided TheBlaze with a copy of one termination notice of a hurricane hunter. The source has told TheBlaze that at least four individuals have received this letter.

The letter makes it clear that the employee was terminated for “failure to follow supervisory instruction” in getting the shots. Even though the employee submitted a copy of the appeals court decision, the supervisor uses the excuse of the subordinate not following orders as pretext for the termination. “I find that the instruction become [sic] vaccinated was clear with an established due date, and you had a duty to follow this instruction, and failed to do so,” wrote the supervisor in the notice of proposed removal. “This directly undermines the good order and morale of the workforce; I must have faith and confidence that you will follow instructions issued to you.” The termination was effective Monday.

The fact that some government agencies feel they can continue the illegal mandates underscores just how much destruction these policies continue to cause, despite the focus on Ukraine (as if COVID tyranny is over). The workers who were terminated were all highly qualified professionals who fly on a P3 aircraft during hurricane surveillance missions, including pilots, navigators, meteorologists, and engineers. Just how rare are these people? “The person who shared their termination information with me said that they had to open his job advertisement four times before he was hired because they were not getting qualified candidates,” said the source within the organization. “Not only do you have to have the experience/degree requirements, but you need to pass an FAA Aerospace Medical Physical, AND of course you need to be willing to fly through a hurricane. These are very specialized positions.”

The fired employees work for the Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) in Lakeland, Florida, which is run by the NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO). AOC runs nine aircraft, but three are the designated "hurricane hunters" – two Lockheed WP-3D Orions and one Gulfstream IV-SP. The other aircraft are primarily used for environmental monitoring.

My source within the agency warns that it takes months to find replacements for these jobs and once the new employees are onboarded, fully training them will take two years. “Of the engineering group at the AOC, for example, there are only eight total employees: chief engineer, deputy chief, three aerospace engineers, and three electronics engineers. Two of the three electronics engineers are being terminated. How can the AOC fly successful hurricane hunter missions if 2/3 of the electronics engineers are terminated, and it can take FOUR job advertisements just to get ONE position filled?”

The veteran NOAA scientist further expressed concern that the loss of skilled and experienced employees responsible for collecting “measurements from hurricane hunter missions to get critical data into computer models to predict hurricane intensity, movement, and inland impacts such as rainfall, tornado potential, and winds will jeopardize public safety, plain and simple.”

“If there are staffing shortages, hurricane prediction will suffer, whether NOAA admits it or not,” she added. “If NOAA says that these terminations won't affect the mission, that's flat-out wrong, and they are relying on the strong work ethic of those left behind (NOAA scientists are incredibly dedicated) to pick up the pieces. This means remaining employees will be required to work additional hours under additional stress to fulfill the mission, jeopardizing their safety and the quality of their work.”

NOAA’s AOC human resources seems to be relying on a separate federal regulation under 5 CFR § 339.205, which potentially gives them the power to mandate vaccines on federal workers, which is not part of the current litigation, even though the spirit of the court injunction should still apply. Indeed, in a new job posting from AOC in Lakeland, the office makes it clear that the current mandate is unenforceable as long as the injunction is in place.

What is particularly absurd is that these same people were going on mission flights together throughout the pandemic. To suddenly require this outdated shot when the government has essentially declared the pandemic over reeks of political posturing rather than any regard for public health.

Two years after the infamous two weeks to flatten the curve, we are still suffering the damage of policies that flattened the workforce, economy, and health of so many Americans.