War Department Reevaluates Discharge Characterizations for COVID Vaccine Refusal

For service members involuntarily discharged solely for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine, the War Department has ordered a reevaluation of their discharge status to see who might be eligible for an upgrade to an honorable discharge.

Between Aug. 24, 2021, and Jan. 10, 2023, over 8,000 service members were involuntarily discharged from the military for refusing to take the vaccine.

Most of those service members received an honorable discharge, but over 4,000 had their service characterized as general (under honorable conditions). That's one step below honorable, and that discharge characterization meant they were ineligible to use GI Bill educational benefits for themselves or a family member. While nearly 900 veterans have already had their discharge characterizations upgraded, over 3,000 remain to be reviewed.

In a Dec. 6 memorandum, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ordered the military services to provide relief to those service members who received a general discharge but might have deserved an honorable one.

"It is unconscionable that thousands of former service members who held true to their personal and religious convictions were not just separated, but separated with general [discharges], rather than honorable discharge characterizations," Hegseth wrote. "While many have applied for and received relief from our military department review boards, I believe the onus is on us to make this right."

Now, Hegseth said, the services will uncover all those who received a general discharge rather than an honorable one - and fix them, where appropriate. Former service members won't need to do anything; the department will look into the potential upgrades on its own.

"I hereby direct a proactive review of personnel records to identify individuals who were involuntarily discharged solely for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine and facilitate appropriate discharge upgrades," Hegseth wrote.

The secretary directed each of the military services to identify individuals who were discharged and eligible to have their records reviewed. Those eligible are former service members who were involuntarily separated solely for refusing to be vaccinated under the department's COVID-19 vaccine mandate and who received a general discharge characterization.

After those service members are identified, their records will be reviewed by each service member's respective discharge review board.

Part of the review process will be to determine if service members were given a general discharge, rather than an honorable discharge, solely for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine. In some cases, boards may find that a service member's discharge was characterized as general due to other issues, such as having misconduct in their records. While these service members may not receive relief through the proactive review, the department encourages them to apply to the review boards directly and provide any new evidence that may support a discharge upgrade.

Finally, every former service member whose record is upgraded will be notified by U.S. postal mail.

Some service members have already asked for an upgrade. Those applications will continue and be expedited to ensure that they are completed alongside the new cases considered as part of the proactive review.

"Together, we will continue to right the wrongs of the past and restore confidence in, and honor to, our fighting force," Hegseth said.

Prior to this latest departmental effort, discharge characterizations for about 900 service members were upgraded from general to honorable.