Current and former service members are less than pleased with a measure in the recently passed annual defense bill that requires the U.S. military to consider reinstating those who were discharged for not taking the vaccine.
The fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), passed last week by Congress and signed into law on Dec. 22, contains a provision requiring secretaries of military branches to consider reinstating former members who ask to be reinstated within two years of their separation.
But to one former service member who was removed for refusing to take the vaccine, this move does not go far enough to redress what happened to them, given that it does not force the Pentagon to reinstate service members.
“Congress misses the mark to merely suggest that the defense secretary shall consider reinstating a service member,” retired Army Maj. Charles “Chase” Spears told The Epoch Times.
Because many have moved on to new careers and more, Mr. Spears doesn’t expect many to return to service. “Since they were forced out at lightning speed, they should be allowed to voluntarily return as quickly,” he added.
Maj. Grant Smith, a physical therapist with over 13 years of service in the Army, agreed, noting that the Pentagon already has the authority to reinstate service members.
“If Congress wants them reinstated, then they’ll need to be more directive than demanding mere consideration,” Maj. Smith told The Epoch Times, emphasizing that his views do not reflect those of the Department of Defense or the Department of the Army.
Mr. Spears also took issue with this, saying the provision treated a service member’s time of involuntary separation as “a period of inactivation from active service.”
“It’s as if they’re pretending these people took a career sabbatical, and that’s not what happened,” he said, noting that these service members were forced out.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) also objected to the measures in the NDAA.
“We were told over and over again that there would be back pay and reparations and restoration of rank for those people who were improperly told that they could not express their patriotism through military service because they didn’t want to take an experimental vaccine. That is totally absent in this legislation,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said on the House floor on Dec. 14.
“So in communities like mine that are military-heavy, the 5 percent pay increase will be very welcome, but every one of our military families knows someone who now is not able to have their job, who’s seen impact to their spouses, to their marriages, to their children because of this mandate.”
The Pentagon has previously stated that it might pay former troops removed for refusing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine but hasn’t paid those former troops as of yet.
Maj. Smith said that the previous year’s NDAA didn’t allow anyone to be dishonorably discharged, so thousands received a general discharge with a service characterization that depicted serious misconduct.
Another section of this year’s NDAA requires the Pentagon to conduct a “study to evaluate rising adverse health conditions absolutely needs to be done.”
But Mr. Spears believes the result of such a study should force the Pentagon to stop “pretending” adverse health conditions are not occurring. But at the same time, he doesn’t hold hope that leadership would allow a fair and impartial scientific study to be carried out.
Officials at the Pentagon didn’t respond by press time to requests by The Epoch Times for comment.
