The Defense Department announced the start of a new process to reinstate service members dismissed from the military after refusing the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021.
Tim Dill, performing the duties of deputy under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, told reporters in a press briefing Tuesday that the military would soon send “letters of apology” to the more than 8,700 service members who were involuntarily separated, as well as instructions for how to reenlist through emails, calls, website information and social media posts.
Service members who voluntarily separated as a result of the 2021 vaccine mandate for all military personnel would also be receiving correspondence from the military encouraging them to return.
“The department is eager to welcome back those who were impacted by that vaccine mandate,” Hill said. “They never should’ve had to leave military service and the department is committed to assisting them in their return.”
The new guidelines follow President Donald Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order ordering the reinstatement of service members who separated from the military after forgoing the COVID-19 vaccine.
“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,” a fact sheet released with the executive order said. “Government redress of these wrongful dismissals is overdue.”
The Pentagon last week formally increased the new minimum service commitment from two to four years for those discharged for refusing a lawful order to take the vaccine, The Associated Press reported.
According to AP, a Feb. 7 memo sent to the secretaries of the military services said troops would be required to sign up for two years. But a memo signed April 1 by Jules Hurst III, who is doing the job of defense undersecretary for personnel, said “reinstatement will not be afforded to those who are unwilling or unable to return to active service or active status, as applicable, for four years.”
The offer for reenlistment would be good for a year and extend until April 1, 2026, Hill said, and the administrative process for returning individuals would likely span several months.
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Though the DOD rescinded the COVID-19 vaccination mandate in 2023, Hill said the new guidelines were different in several ways.
Service members who involuntarily separated would be granted the opportunity to receive back pay for the time they otherwise would’ve been in the military, Hill said. It would include base pay, allowance for housing and subsistence and potentially medical benefits. The back pay calculation would also factor in other forms of compensation a service member received while out of service, including salary and health care.
These benefits would only apply to service members who seek to return under the new Trump administration guidelines and would not retroactively apply to those who had returned after the 2023 rescission, a number Hill estimated at under 80 service members.
“It’s also something we can seek to address but there is not currently a mechanism,” he said.
An exact calculation of back pay cost for the Defense Department was not available yet, said Hill.
“How can the department make them whole so that they would stand financially in the same position they would’ve stood in had they never been discharged?” he said.
Trump and Hegseth signed documents encouraging service members to return in a way that employed a different “tenor” than the guidance previously provided by the Biden administration to service members after the 2023 rescission of the vaccination mandate, Hill said.
Returning service members would also be assessed for medical retention standards — a test to determine whether someone who’s already been serving in the military is fit to continue — rather than traditional accession standards, which encompass a much higher level of scrutiny used to determine whether an individual prior to military experience is fit to join the military.
The Army has reenlisted more than 23 soldiers who were discharged for refusing the vaccine as of Monday, the AP reported. None of the other services had completed reenlistments yet, but all are reaching out to former troops.
According to Army spokesman Christopher Surridge, about 400 soldiers have inquired so far about the reenlistment program, the AP reported. Of those, about 100 are in the application process. The Army did not have estimates on how much it has given the soldiers in total back pay.
As of Friday, 472 Marines have had indicated interest in learning more about returning. The Navy said about a half dozen sailors had so far expressed interest or sought more information, and the Air Force said it had not yet gotten any feedback from service members, according to AP.
The Associated Press’ Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.
Riley Ceder is a reporter at Military Times, where he covers breaking news, criminal justice, investigations, and cyber. He previously worked as an investigative practicum student at The Washington Post, where he contributed to the Abused by the Badge investigation.
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