"We're committed to doing right by those who were affected by the [Defense] Department's former COVID-19 vaccination policy," Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell said Monday in a prepared statement.
"For the roughly 8,700 service members who were separated solely for refusing the vaccine, this is an opportunity to return to service," Parnell said. "We want them to know the door is open."
He said the Defense Department on Monday began reaching out to those fired for not getting vaccinated against COVID-19 and providing them with information showing how they could seek reinstatement.
"Their service mattered then, and it still matters now," Parnell said. "We're ready to welcome them back!"
The Pentagon in October 2021 ordered all civilian employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by Nov. 22, 2021, or be fired.
The vaccine mandate for civilian employees came two months after the Defense Department ordered all military members to be vaccinated.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in January 2023 rescinded the vaccine mandate after the military discharged thousands of soldiers, sailors, air personnel and Space Force members for not abiding the COVID-19 mandate.
About 96% of active and reserve military members were vaccinated against COVID-19 when Austin ended the mandate, but thousands had been discharged for non-compliance.
Some unvaccinated service members were allowed to remain on duty if they obtained vaccine mandate exemptions based on their respective religious, administrative or medical situations.
Austin repealed the vaccine mandate a month after Congress enacted an $858 billion defense funding bill that included a Republican measure to end the vaccine mandate.
Austin ordered any negative information due to the vaccine mandate be removed from respective former service members' records.
US offers back pay if troops dismissed under Covid mandate return
Washington (AFP) April 8, 2025 -
The United States is offering back pay to troops who return to the military after being dismissed or leaving due to the Covid-19 vaccine mandate, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
More than 8,700 military personnel were discharged for refusing to comply with the mandate, which was lifted in January 2023, but figures are not available for those who left by choice.
"The back pay calculation would look at the pay and entitlements they would have received," Pentagon official Tim Dill told reporters.
"That would include things like base pay, allowance for housing, allowance for subsistence, and it could also include medical benefits."
The mandate was put in place during the pandemic to help protect troops from the disease but was lifted at the demand of Republican lawmakers.
Republicans insisted Covid-19 prevention measures infringed on personal freedom and threatened to hold up the 2023 defense spending bill if it did not require an end to the mandate, but a proposal for back pay was not included in the legislation.
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