The Pentagon is trying to woo back to the military thousands of service members involuntarily discharged over refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccination, starting with “letters of apology” sent this week, according to the defense official overseeing the effort.
Tim Dill, the Defense Department’s acting head of personnel and readiness, told reporters Tuesday that President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are “eager to welcome back those who are impacted” by the Pentagon’s 2021 vaccine mandate.
“They never should have had to leave military service, and the department is committed to assisting them in their return,” Dill said.
He said DOD this week has begun to send letters of apology to former service members who were involuntarily separated due to their COVID-19 vaccine status, along with instructions on how they can pursue a return to service.
Other parts of the outreach campaign include emails, phone calls, websites set up on Monday with reenlistment information, and social media posts, Dill said.
The Pentagon in August 2021 required all service members, including those in the National Guard and Reserve, to receive the COVID-19 vaccine or face being ousted. Then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin argued the mandate was critical to keeping U.S. forces healthy and ready to fight, though the Pentagon dropped the rule in January 2023.
Since then, former military members dismissed from the ranks for failing to get vaccinated have had the option to be reinstated. The military branches, however, found that many of the veterans that left had moved on with their lives, with only a little over 100 of the more than 8,700 individuals ousted choosing to rejoin from January 2023 to January of this year.
But President Trump, in Jan. 27 executive order, stipulated that the booted service members could be brought back with full back pay and benefits, with an easier medical screening.
“In spite of the scientific evidence, the Biden Administration discharged healthy service members — many of whom had natural immunity and dedicated their entire lives to serving our country — for refusing the COVID vaccine,” according to a fact sheet released with the order. “Government redress of these wrongful dismissals is overdue.”
That path, however, does require a two-to-four-year military commitment with several administrative hurdles. The offer also would only be open for a year, Dill said.
And the group of roughly 100 service members who returned before the executive order was signed won’t be able to reap the back pay benefits of joining up again.
“There is not currently a mechanism that we have provided for them to put in for the same calculations that we’re doing for those that would return today,” Dill said.
For those who do pursue returning to service, “the process could take several months,” he said, citing an “administrative process that needs to happen.” That would include ensuring that those seeking to return meet medical retention standards.
And rather than receiving a large windfall of back pay, troops, airmen and sailors would be given a sum that allows them to “stand financially in the same position they would have stood in had they never been discharged.”
The number of former troops returning to the military after refusing to take the COVID-19 shot has been low. The Associated Press reported that the Army has reenlisted roughly 23 soldiers dismissed for declining the vaccine. The outlet also reported that around 400 soldiers have expressed interest in returning to the Army, with about 100 in the application process.
But Hegseth on Tuesday insisted on X that “MANY more” such individuals were “coming back soon!”
The process, however, has been murky based on which military branch people are looking to return to, with only the Navy offering a solid idea of the decision. Navy documents posted Monday said a sailor wanting to be reinstated would receive a “financial benefit.”
That figure would be reached by taking into account all basic pay, food and housing allowances and bonuses they would have received if never booted. But any dollar they’ve earned while out of the military as well as Department of Veterans’ Affairs payments or benefits given in that time would be deducted from that sum.
The final dollar amount would be offered to individuals before they make a decision to return or not. If they reenlisted, that figure would be paid out in a lump sum or quarterly payments subject to federal and state taxes, according to the Navy documents.
Sailors also must give a four-year commitment to the Navy upon being reinstated.
Dill said anyone who wants to reenlist must meet all military health and fitness standards and moral requirements, and will have to provide tax records and other paperwork. Service members have until April 1, 2026, to seek reinstatement.
