WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued an update Wednesday on the Trump administration’s efforts to rehire military personnel discharged by the Biden administration for refusing COVID-19 vaccines, detailing steps underway to ensure no blemishes on their service records remain.
Until December 2022, President Joe Biden’s Pentagon leaders imposed COVID-19 vaccine mandates on American service men and women, provoking lawsuits and threatening soldier and pilot shortages in the tens of thousands that only added to broader problems of force strength, troop morale, and public confidence. In his first month back in office, President Donald Trump issued a directive to reinstate all such members, vowing to give them back pay as well.
On April 23, Hegseth issued a directive to all senior Pentagon leaders and relevant military commanders requiring they provide additional guidance to Military Department Review Boards to “facilitate, as appropriate, the removal of adverse actions based solely on refusal to take the COVID-19 vaccine (or requesting a medical or religious/administrative accommodation), discharge upgrades for individuals involuntarily separated solely for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine whose service was characterized as less than fully honorable, and appropriate remedies for Service members who suffered a wide variety of other career setbacks resulting from their principled refusal to take the COVID-19 vaccine.”
An update on COVID-19 reinstatements. pic.twitter.com/o8GVFAlcJN
— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) April 23, 2025
“We’re doing everything we can, as quickly as we can, to reinstate those who were affected by that policy,” Hegseth told the public in a message released the same day.
“It hasn’t been perfect, and we know that. We’re having an ongoing conversation with you to get it right,” he added, “working with the White House as well. We want anyone impacted by that vaccine mandate back into the military — people of conscience, warriors of conscience — back in our formations.”
“The guidance also will facilitate the removal of adverse actions on service members solely for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine, including discharge upgrades and less than fully honorable discharges for individuals separated from refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine,” the secretary said. “We’re trying to scrub all that, clean all that up.”
In his first month back in office, Trump also set to work reversing past presidents’ politicization of the military by ordering the elimination of “Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion” (DEI) programs from the military and discharge of service members afflicted with gender confusion. The administration also banned LGBT and “Black Lives Matter” (BLM) flags from being flown at U.S. embassies and other State Department facilities and ended observation of all identity-based “cultural awareness” months, including LGBT Pride Month.
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