MOST TROOPS KICKED OUT FOR VACCINE REFUSAL RECEIVED GENERAL DISCHARGES

摘要

About 3,400 troops have been involuntarily separated from service for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine, service personnel chiefs said April 27. Of those, about 70 percent have received general discharges. That characterization secures their veterans benefits and, in many cases, allows them to rejoin the military if they decide to get vaccinated. The remaining discharges have been honorable, officials told lawmakers during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, though they did not provide details explaining the reasoning behind choosing one characterization or the other. In the fall, as the services announced their mandatory vaccination policies, a number of Republican lawmakers pushed back with concerns that troops might be given dishonorable discharges that could strip them of veterans benefits, as well as concerns that readiness would take a hit if thousands of service members were kicked out. "I can tell you there are no operational impacts across the force for readiness," Marine Corps Lt. Gen. David Ottignon told lawmakers. "There's no one community that has signaled an instance where a leader, an NCO or another enlisted Marine is not present because of that."