Troops fired over Biden’s Covid vax mandate to get honorable discharge: Sec of War
“The Department is committed to ensuring that everyone who should have received a fully honorable discharge receives one…”
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“The Department is committed to ensuring that everyone who should have received a fully honorable discharge receives one…”
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has ordered that the Pentagon actively identify records of service members who were fired from the military over their refusal to take the Covid-19 vaccine during the Biden administration in order to restore honor to those servicemembers who were marked with "general discharge.”
In a memorandum from Hegseth on December 6, he stated that there has been steady progress to help those fired be restored to service since he “directed an effort to reinstate individuals who were involuntarily discharged or voluntarily left Military Service to avoid the Department's unfair, overbroad, and unnecessary coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine mandate.”
To increase that effort to restore and upgrade those less-than-honorable discharges, Hegseth has directed “a proactive review of personnel records, to identify individuals who were involuntarily discharged solely for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine and facilitate appropriate discharge upgrades.”
Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell, said of the effort, “Under the previous administration, the Department involuntarily separated approximately 8,700 Service members for failing to comply with the Department’s since-rescinded COVID-19 vaccination mandate. Of those, more than 3,000 received less than honorable discharge characterizations. The military departments have been directed to complete their respective proactive reviews within one calendar year. Former service members won't need to do anything; the Department will look into the potential upgrades on its own.”
Those service members fired for refusing the vaccine can also go to the military board review website if they believe their “records reflect an error or injustice.”
"The Department is committed to ensuring that everyone who should have received a fully honorable discharge receives one and continues to right wrongs and restore confidence in, and honor to our fighting force,” Parnell added.
The Trump administration has reinstated thousands of military members who were fired from the military under the Biden administration for refusing the vaccine mandate. However, some records have not been corrected. An executive order Trump signed in November also reinstates GI benefits for the veterans who were discharged because of the vaccine order.
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