Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the reinstatement of 8,700 service members who were “pushed out” during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Biden-era mandate was meant to protect the health of the force.
Department of Defense works to reinstate over 8,000 service members
Hegseth spoke on Wednesday, April 23, in front of U.S. Army War College families, students and staff at the Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania.
“Service members were involuntarily separated for not taking an experimental COVID-19 vaccine,” he said. “Others were more informally pushed out or decided to get out.”
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Hegseth said thousands of members who left the Army received letters from the government, explaining they want them back, even calling them “warriors of conscience.”
“Our Personnel and Readiness Department is working in real time to make that process more and more efficient, more and more direct every single day,” Hegseth said during the visit.
At the beginning of April, the Department of Defense said there’s an extensive effort underway to reconnect with dismissed troops. The department explained they are emailing, calling and using social media in order to reach everyone impacted by the mandate. The DOD said the offer for reinstatement will stay open for a year, which should give everyone time to accept or decline.
President Trump signs executive order to bring troops back
The announcement follows President Donald Trump’s executive order in January that directs the secretary of defense to reinstate all members discharged for refusing the vaccine. The White House stated that the Biden administration wrongfully dismissed troops who were healthy and had natural immunity.
The order states, “Those who are reinstated will receive their former rank and full back pay with benefits.”
Biden-era mandate resulted in troops being dismissed
In 2021, former President Joe Biden and former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin implemented a mandate for all service members in line with the FDA giving full approval for COVID-19 vaccines. At the time, Austin argued that many deployed troops must get vaccines as part of their service, which protects the health of the force.
The Department of Defense offered the vaccines on a voluntary basis, with 73% of members receiving the shot by August 2021. The mandate led to the discharge of more than 8,000 troops over the next two years due to their refusal.
Archived Department of Defense data shows that 453,456 American military members contracted COVID-19 during the pandemic, with 96 dying from the disease. The DOD reported more than 8.9 million total vaccine doses administered to more than 2 million service members.
Biden officials later repealed the mandate with the passage of a $858 billion defense spending bill in 2022. The Department of Defense officially removed the mandate in 2023 after receiving 30 days to repeal it. The Trump administration reported that fewer than 50 service members returned to the U.S. military under the Biden Administration despite the mandate no longer being in place.