April 8 (UPI) — Some 8,700 service members who were fired by the Biden administration for refusing to get COVID-19 vaccines are invited back to their former positions.
“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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in January 2023 rescinded the vaccine mandate after the military discharged thousands of soldiers, sailors, air personnel and Space Force members for not abiding the COVID-19 mandate.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Austin repealed the vaccine mandate a month after Congress enacted an $858 billion defense funding bill that included a Republican measure to end the vaccine mandate.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.
