Editor's Note: The Sentinel has released SEALs Beat Biden, a documentary that tells the story of the Navy SEALs who resisted the Biden vaccine mandate. Watch the series for free here.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday which reinstated the service members forced out of the United States military for refusing to take the COVID vaccine.
The action noted that the Defense Department under now-former President Joe Biden mandated that all service members take the COVID vaccine in the summer of 2021, an order that was rescinded in early 2023. Trump ordered that all service members, active and reserve, who were “discharged solely for refusal” to take the COVID vaccine must have the option to be reinstated under their former rank with full back pay, including bonus payments and benefits.
“The vaccine mandate was an unfair, overbroad, and completely unnecessary burden on our service members,” the executive order from Trump remarked. “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.”
Those who were not discharged but who “voluntarily left the service” rather than receive the COVID vaccine can also return “with no impact on their service status, rank, or pay” as long as they “provide a written and sworn attestation” affirming that they left because of the mandate.
Davis Younts, a constitutional attorney and now-retired Air Force JAG whose own religious accommodation request over the COVID vaccine was denied, said in remarks to The Sentinel that the order from the Trump administration was a “good first step” in handling the injustice.
“I am extremely grateful that this effort has been made a priority and that the order creates an opportunity for the tens of thousands whose careers were cut short,” Younts commented.
Younts will not return to service himself but said he is “eager to get to work to help those who are willing to serve again.” The attorney, who defended fellow service members threatened by the mandate, added that Trump should also “prioritize restoring those who were able to stay in the service but had their careers destroyed by the way they were treated for two years.”
The Sentinel has previously reported on other efforts from service members and veterans to pursue accountability over the COVID vaccine mandate, such as an open letter from hundreds of service members who vowed to hold the officials who pushed the unlawful order accountable.
Many have contended that the COVID vaccine mandate contributed to decreased recruitment in recent years, alongside leftist ideology in the military and the failed withdrawal from Afghanistan.
