Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., is pressing the Pentagon on its efforts to reinstate military troops fired by the Biden administration for forgoing the Covid shot, the senator revealed Thursday.
In his Tuesday letter, the Wisconsin Republican asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to provide an update on what the Defense Department is doing to return service members booted for not getting the experimental jab under President Biden.
As The Federalist previously reported, the mandate was announced by then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in August 2021, and — while ultimately repealed by Congress — resulted in the dismissal of roughly 8,700 troops from the service. Reporting in recent years and statements issued by Hegseth have called the legality of the mandate into question.
“This dismissal of thousands of brave men and women from the military was a despicable act that damaged our armed forces,” Johnson wrote.
The senator specifically highlighted concerns raised in a recent Daily Caller report, which found that, even though “President Donald Trump is offering backpay and reinstatement for active duty service members, some troops who fell through the cracks are still fighting for their rights.”
Upon taking office, Trump signed an executive order enabling troops kicked out of the service because of the mandate to be reinstated, with the option to “revert to their former rank and receive full back pay, benefits, bonus payments, or compensation.” Hegseth signed a memo expediting the president’s directive in February, and a separate edict in April providing additional guidance to agency officials to fast-track the reinstatement of affected troops.
“We all know that the previous administration issued unlawful orders on mandatory vaccines, on an experimental vaccine — Covid-19,” Hegseth said in an April video message. “We want anyone impacted by that vaccine mandate back into the military — people of conscience, warriors of conscience — back in our formations.”
Citing Hegseth’s prior commitments to follow through on such a task, Johnson said he has “no doubt that [Hegseth is] committed to assisting our service members.” In concluding his letter, the senator requested the defense secretary to “carefully review [the Caller] article and provide a briefing to [his] office by August 19, 2025, regarding DoD’s efforts to apologize, reinstate, and provide back pay to the service members who were terminated after refusing to take the COVID-19 injection.”
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood