The Oklahoma National Guard has rejected the Defense Department's requirement for all service members to receive the coronavirus vaccine and will allow personnel to sidestep the policy with no repercussions. Brig. Gen. Thomas Mancino, appointed this week ... as adjutant of the state's roughly 8,200 National Guard soldiers and airmen, on Thursday notified those under his command that they are not required to receive the vaccine and won't be punished if they decline it. It's an extraordinary refusal of Pentagon policy by the general and follows Stitt's written request to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin seeking suspension of the requirement for Guard personnel in the state. Resistance to vaccine mandates has intensified in recent weeks, with multiple GOP governors filing suit to stop the requirement for federal contractors and a Friday court ruling temporarily halting the administration's directive that private businesses employing more than 100 workers require inoculation or impose onerous testing guidelines. Oklahoma's objection to the Pentagon's directive would appear to open another pathway for states to challenge the president's orders. Mancino's new policy walks a line between a state's military orders ... and federal military orders. For now, it appears that Oklahoma Guard members can refuse the vaccine, but that they would be subject to the requirement if they are put on active duty for a federally mandated assignment such as an overseas deployment.