Servicemen who left over COVID vax can be reinstated, but must say they weren't coerced to leave

Former military members who left the service over the COVID-19 vaccine mandate have been offered the opportunity to return and receive the same rank and pay as before, but only if they claim their exit wasn’t coerced. Several say they cannot attest to that.

While President Trump has said that he wants military members who were forced out of the service over the Biden administration’s COVID vaccine mandate to be reinstated, former service members in the Air National Guard, Air Force, and Space Force are being allowed to do so only if they attest that they weren’t coerced to leave. Some former service members won’t sign the form to be reinstated because they believe they were coerced to separate from the military, according to their lawyer.

In January, Trump signed an executive order reinstating military members who were discharged for refusing to follow the Defense Department’s COVID vaccine mandate implemented by the Biden administration. The mandate began in August 2021 and was rescinded in January 2023 after Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that required the Pentagon to end it.

Required to waive claims to qualify

Last year, Trump said “there should have never been a [COVID vaccine] mandate. That should have never happened.” He also promised he “will rehire every patriot who was fired from the military with…backpay. They will get their backpay.”

Trump’s executive order explains the issues he had with the DOD mandate.

“The vaccine mandate was an unfair, overbroad, and completely unnecessary burden on our service members,” the executive order reads. “Further, the military unjustly discharged those who refused the vaccine, regardless of the years of service given to our Nation, after failing to grant many of them an exemption that they should have received. Federal Government redress of any wrongful dismissals is overdue.”

According to the executive order, both the Defense and Homeland Security secretaries may “make reinstatement available to all members of the military (active and reserve) who were discharged solely for refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and who request to be reinstated; enable those service members reinstated under this section to revert to their former rank and receive full back pay, benefits, bonus payments, or compensation; and allow any service members who provide a written and sworn attestation that they voluntarily left the service or allowed their service to lapse according to appropriate procedures, rather than be vaccinated under the vaccine mandate, to return to service with no impact on their service status, rank, or pay.”

Following Trump’s executive order, the Army told the Associated Press on Thursday that three soldiers have returned to active duty after they were discharged for not getting the COVID-19 vaccine.

All military branches are reaching out to the thousands of soldiers and service members who were removed from duty for not complying with the COVID vaccine mandate, but none of the others have reported official numbers so far, per the Associated Press.

Service members who return to the military will be required to enroll for service for at least four years, according to an April 1st memo by Jules Hurst III, who is performing the duties of defense undersecretary for personnel.

The reinstatement guidance attached to the memo reads, “The Secretaries of the Military Departments will use a broad communication strategy (social media, websites, newsletters, etc.) to publicize the opportunity for any former Service members who voluntarily left the service or allowed their service to lapse according to appropriate procedures, rather than receive the COVID-19 vaccination, to return to service with no impact on their service status, rank, or pay.”

All service members who are interested in returning to the military will need to meet all military standards, including health, fitness, and moral requirements, and will have until Feb. 28, 2026, to reenlist.

According to a form that has been sent to former Air National Guardsmen, Airmen, and Guardians to be reinstated, those signing it must affirm that they “voluntarily separated” or allowed their service to lapse, and that their "decision to separate was made freely and without coercion."

R. Davis Younts, a lawyer who represents multiple former and current service members negatively impacted by the COVID vaccine mandate, told Just the News on Thursday that the “path for those involuntarily discharged is reasonable,” unlike the guidance for those who left without being involuntarily discharged.

The guidance sent by the Air National Guard says that former members “have to sign a waiver saying they left voluntarily, were not coerced to leave,” will get their rank back, but won’t receive back pay, and will thus “not claim through the Board of Corrections or a court that they suffered any harm for getting forced out,” Younts said.

He added that while he has had “very productive meetings and conversations” with senior Pentagon officials “about a reasonable path to reinstatement,” the ideas discussed “are not yet part of the guidance being put out” in the short time the new administration has been in office.

Careers permanently destroyed, lawyer says

Younts believes that “there are some senior leaders at the Pentagon that don’t understand the full scope of the problem or its impact,” and ”that there’s a lot of bureaucratic resistance to any sort of action to provide a meaningful path to reinstatement for the majority of people who left over the COVID vaccine mandate.”

While there were 8,000-plus military members who were involuntarily discharged over the COVID vaccine mandate, there is “a huge number that were not allowed to reenlist, forced to retire early, passed over for promotions, and not allowed to complete training programs solely because of the COVID vaccine mandate,” Younts said.

“I’m optimistic that senior leadership and officials that I talked to at the Pentagon understand and are sympathetic to these concerns and want to address them, but I’m seeing a level of malicious compliance in an attempt to stop, slow roll, or make an effort to make reinstatement meaningless for most people impacted by COVID,” he added.

The number of military members who were forced out, or their careers were permanently destroyed because of the mandate, “is somewhere between 8,600 and 250,000, because the DOD said 250,000 military members weren’t vaccinated when the deadline passed,” Younts said. He said it’s unknown how many of the 250,000 eventually took the vaccine to stay in the military.

Younts, who is a retired lieutenant colonel of the Air Force Reserve and former Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG) lawyer, explained that he was “disappointed by the initial guidance, especially with the Air National Guard,” as it appears to discourage “people from coming back.”

“I talked to several clients who were forced out,” Younts said, and they “have no interest in signing the document,” but would otherwise “gladly come back in. They don’t care much about back pay, but they are not going to sign a false statement just to come back in.”

“I don’t know who’s going to sign the Air National Guard guidance,” Younts said, adding that he has “grave concerns" that not many people are going to be interested in that deal.

“If I have clients who I believe have a legitimate claim to rectify an error in justice that occurred – like they should’ve been promoted but weren’t or were not allowed to reenlist over the vaccine because of an injunction pending – I’d have a hard time advising them to sign it” since “they’re waiving a lot, saying they left voluntarily, and waiving the opportunity to be compensated for the loss of promotion and backpay,” Younts explained.

A spokesperson for the Department of the Air Force told Just the News on Friday: “In accordance with guidance from the Department of Defense Office of the Under Secretary of Defense Personnel & Readiness, individuals who voluntarily separated from service and are seeking to rejoin the Department of the Air Force must present a written statement that they chose to leave the service or allowed their service to lapse, rather than be vaccinated under the vaccine mandate. In line with this guidance, those interested in rejoining must fill out the attestation form and include it in their application to return to service."

“Airmen and Guardians are provided the form upon contacting a recruiter or can download it from this site containing additional DAF COVID-19 Reinstatement Guidance,” the spokesperson continued, including a link to the website.

The National Guard didn’t provide comment by publishing time.