By Haley Britzky | CNN
Frustration is boiling over among some members of the military community who are unhappy with the Pentagon’s process for reinstating service members discharged under the Biden administration for failing to be vaccinated for Covid-19, saying the process is too slow and the criteria for who can rejoin too narrow.
Exasperation over the process has been on full display in heated public exchanges on social media with Trump administration officials in the Pentagon.
“These folks who are trying to restore their service have been gaslit and lied to for months and months and months now by this administration,” Sam Shoemate, a former Army officer who has been outspoken about the impact of the vaccine mandate, said in a video posted to X last week.
Other critics are angry action is not being taken against military commanders up and down the chain of command who enforced the vaccine mandate when it was required.
The online conversation around the reinstatement process has prompted responses from senior Pentagon officials in recent weeks. Stuart Scheller, a senior advisor to Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata, posted on X in late July that “I get tagged every day with posts questioning when commanders at every level of the military will be thrown in jail for ‘illegally enforcing the COVID vaccine.’”
“That’s not going to happen,” Scheller said in the post. “Time to move forward.”
The tensions could come to a head on Wednesday, in a closed-door meeting being hosted at the Pentagon by the office of Personnel and Readiness with 10 individuals Scheller identified as being “a mix of voluntary/involuntary COVID separations, and who can speak about the concerns for the COVID refusal population.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is expected to briefly join the meeting, a source familiar and defense official told CNN.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that the Pentagon “remains committed to doing right by those Service members who were separated as a result of the COVID-19 vaccination mandate. We are eager to welcome them back to the force.”
“The Department and the Military Services continue to seek feedback from the men and women pursuing reinstatement, so that we can keep improving the process and expediting their return to service,” Parnell said, adding that recent guidance authorizes the military services to offer incentives like duty station preferences and “geographic stability” for those interesting in returning.
“The Department is prioritizing reinstatement cases and will continue to seek feedback and develop solutions to bring our warfighters back into service as soon as possible,” he said.
Unclear how many have rejoined
It’s unclear how many people have rejoined up until now; the Pentagon said in June that as of May, only 13 people had come back to service under the new policy, of the more than 8,000 discharged. The Defense Department did not respond to repeated requests to provide current numbers.
The Pentagon started requiring service members to be vaccinated against Covid-19 in 2021, but rescinded the requirement in 2023 after Congress required it. The requirement to remove the mandate was viewed as a win for conservative lawmakers and many service members and advocates on the right who argued that it was hindering the military’s recruitment efforts, though Pentagon officials at the time maintained there was no evidence to support the claim.
An executive order signed by President Donald Trump a week after taking office directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to reinstate all active and reserve service members who had previously been discharged, with their former ranks and with backpay.
The source familiar with the reinstatement policy told CNN implementing it was a top priority for Hegseth almost immediately upon taking office. He was briefed on efforts weekly and assigned senior staff to engage regularly on the issue to keep things moving, the source said.
But the process has proven to be more difficult, and slower, than some anticipated, and a vocal group of service members, veterans, and family members who have demanded swift action have publicly voiced frustration over the complicated process.
Shoemate’s video came the day after public infighting between many involved in advocating for reinstatement, some of whom are expecting to attend Wednesday’s meeting, and Scheller, who is involved in the reinstatement process. Scheller is a former Marine Corps officer who was discharged after being charged and found guilty under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for public comments in the wake of the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
A source familiar with the Pentagon’s reinstatement policy told CNN that much of the frustration from critics is due to a lack of understanding about the intricacies in bringing people back to service — something the source said the listening session will ideally clear up.
“For those coming back, if you don’t properly bring them back they’ll be missing out on promotion opportunities, assignments…. It’s much more complicated to put Humpty Dumpty back together again,” the source said.
A second source familiar with the listening session said the chaotic engagement around the reinstatement process appeared to be a symptom of officials trying to govern by social media and fulfill promises made before officials like Scheller were aware of the legal hurdles involved in making policy.
Social media ‘feedback loop’
The first source familiar with the policy told CNN that social media has become an “important feedback loop” for officials working on the Covid-19 reinstatement issue, and that Pentagon officials are engaged and paying attention to people’s posts. That much is clear from engagement from Tata and Scheller, and the regular presence on social media by other senior Pentagon officials to include Hegseth and his staff.
Tata responded last week to an account on X who said Wednesday’s listening session is “shrouded in gatekeeping” and that a lack of clarity about who was participating was “leaving us unable to verify if our community is properly represented.”
“The listening session is not a bureaucratic exercise,” Tata said in response. “Only way I can know is to listen, which I intend to do. I understand the skepticism. Give it a shot. I’m interested in fixing/improving the system to expedite the processing of men and women who want to come back and serve.”
Scheller has posted long updates to his own X account regarding the Covid reinstatement process — and came under fire for the post in July, in which he declared the community needed to move on from the idea that individual military commanders would be held accountable for enforcing the vaccine mandate.
The post was immediately criticized on X by people claiming the so-called deep state ran too deep in the Pentagon for true accountability, and that the new Pentagon officials under Hegseth, like Scheller, were being lied to, “steamrolled,” or given bad advice by lawyers inside the Defense Department
Last week, that apparent distrust and anger over how Scheller and others in the Pentagon were approaching the issue turned into a “dramatic spectacle on social media,” Shoemate said in his video.
“[Y]ou are a f’n coward who wants to ‘move forward,’” one account on X said of Scheller — the first in a long thread of conversation about which influencers in the anti-Covid mandate community appeared to be prioritizing cozying up to those in power over advocating for change. Multiple posts criticized Scheller’s previous comments about the need to “move forward.”
“Here lies the debate,” Scheller said in response to one post dismissing the idea of moving on from holding military commanders accountable, tagging Tata’s official account seemingly for his awareness of the exchange. “This is one of the main speakers next week.”
When another individual who said she was participating in the listening session told Scheller to “take this offline please,” he responded, “F*** that, everything you’ve done is online. Everything you’ve whispered has been offline. Sick of it.” He then told another individual to “post your payout” after she called out his comments.
Shoemate called Scheller’s public comments “deplorable,” while others responded to Scheller’s posts telling him he was being “exceptionally unhelpful” to the cause, unprofessional, and an example of what they don’t trust inside the Defense Department.
The source familiar with the Pentagon’s reinstatement policy applauded officials for holding a listening session, saying it is outside the norm for the Defense Department and “should be done more in the future.” Still, the source said, the office of Personnel and Readiness has to communicate more about the reinstatement process or fear the narrative on social media could overpower the policy work happening behind the scenes.
“They need to set expectations,” the source said of the Pentagon and the military services. “In the absence of communication, people will think up their own stuff.”
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