Under Secretary of War for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata (retired US Army Brig. General and USMA 1981 grad) gave an update to the Pentagon’s work to make things right for service members and veterans impacted by the C19 vax mandate:
When we gathered warriors of conscience for a listening session this past September, @SecWar made clear that “the only way we fail is when we quit.” Since then, our @DoW_USW_PR team has not stopped working to make things right for our Service members & veterans impacted by the…
— Under Secretary of War Anthony J. Tata (@USW_PR_HONTata) April 14, 2026
FULL TEXT: When we gathered warriors of conscience for a listening session this past September, @SecWar made clear that “the only way we fail is when we quit.”
Since then, our @DoW_USW_PR team has not stopped working to make things right for our Service members & veterans impacted by the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
We have acted with urgency and resolve to return experienced warriors to the fight, offer remedies to the affected community & ensure such failures never happen again.
Today, 150+ impacted warriors are back in formation again & the number of Service members seeking reinstatement continues to grow. We look forward to welcoming back even more brave warfighters during the coming days, weeks, and months.
@DeptofWar will keep taking action to build on our efforts to-date, listed below, to facilitate reinstatements, restore honor & rebuild trust. We will not quit.
Recap:
✔️Conducted outreach to the ~8,700 Service members involuntarily discharged in writing & over the phone (twice) to apologize for this injustice and offer information on reinstatement.
✔️Organized a listening session with the affected community.
✔️Established senior-level Service contacts & dedicated communication channels to allow reinstatement applicants to have direct access to senior leaders & receive priority attention.
✔️Offered impacted warriors head-of-line privileges at MEPS & MTFs and provided them with dedicated support from experienced professionals throughout the process.
✔️Expanded service obligation options, including a 2-year active-duty/ 2-year reserve split or a 4-year reserve commitment, and offered additional incentives like duty station preference, appropriate reclassification & geographic stability during initial assignments, when possible.
✔️Further reduced the active-duty service obligation from 4 years to 2 years.
✔️Publicly honored reinstatements at the highest levels of DoW.
✔️Launched a social media series sharing good news stories of reinstatements.
✔️Started to identify & automatically upgrade inappropriate discharge characterizations for ~3,000 Service members.
✔️Expedited the correction of military records.
✔️Started to repay previously collected bonuses for those who do not wish to return to service.
✔️Shared updated discharge characterizations for ~900 Service members with the VA, enabling impacted veterans to access the GI Bill education benefits they have earned.
✔️Sponsored a comprehensive, independent, evidence-driven review of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate to identify lessons learned, offer recommendations, and enhance transparency & accountability.
✔️Extended the deadline for reinstatement by 1 year.
✔️Directed the Military Departments to reach back out to every warrior whose career was cut short under the COVID-19 vaccine mandate to inform them of recent changes & encourage them to consider reinstatement.
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