Our Service Members, Fired for Not Taking the Covid Vaccine, Deserve Better

By Colonel Thomas L. “Buzz” Rempfer, Special to The Kennedy Beacon

In late April, Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth signed a memorandum seeking greater clarity about the DOD’s process of reinstating service members fired for not taking the Covid vaccine.

He is right to ask for such clarity. It is high time we help our brothers and sisters in the military, who were victims of unfair mandates.

And where is the media in all this? Are they disinterested due to a cultural disconnect, a lack of understanding of how important medical freedom is for our military?

Curiously, calls for the secretaries’ firing and anonymous attacks preceded Peter Hesgeth’s pronouncement, as if to block him from declaring the mandate unlawful. Being generous, the media and our elected representatives potentially did not understand the profound significance of the defense secretaries’ declaration and the implications for our troops.

In my opinion, every senior military official across almost three decades would have preferred to see the Pentagon’s Chief removed before he could make the historic declaration. Every official at every level of the chain of command cringed to witness the outing of the unlawfulness of the order that too many had eagerly executed. Fortunately, our president was savvy to the schism, backing up the secretary.

For over thirty years I observed legislative, judicial, and executive level government actions related to Defense Department mandates of unapproved medical products. Fortunately, our nation’s laws prohibit mandates of investigational or emergency use authorized countermeasures, but cross-government oversight often fell quiet in the shadow of imposing military imperatives, allowing the Pentagon to execute patently illegal mandates.

Four significant exceptions to failed government oversight occurred. First, the legislative branch found the military anthrax vaccine program inconsistent with the law in 2000. Second, the judicial branch ruled that mandate was illegal and “not substantially justified” from 1997 to 2005. Third, the legislative branch rescinded the Pentagon’s COVID vaccine mandate in 2023. Finally, the executive branch’s Defense Secretary Hegseth declared the 2021 military COVID vaccine mandate was “unlawful.” Gratefully, the system worked, albeit not timely or in unison.

Though the legacy media was principally AWOL on the significance of Hegseth’s declaration, the good news is the historical account, and military corrections boards will digest its importance. They must, because the Defense Secretary ordered the recission of adverse personnel actions, the upgrading of discharges, and broad remedies to address “career setbacks.” Thanks to the rare and bold actions of President Trump and Secretary of Defense Hegseth, our troops will be ‘made whole’ in the interest of fairness and justice.

Another top priority is caring for the troops who fell ill due to the unlawful mandate. Simultaneously, accountability and sanctions against those responsible for the vindictive implementation of the unlawful mandate are Defense Secretary Hegseth’s and his convening authorities’ job.

I wish the officials luck in determining the appropriate levels of institutional accountability for willfully blind coordinated lawbreaking.

As these momentous tasks are underway, it is only fair and fitting to also fix anthrax-era injustices by expunging adverse personnel actions and upgrading all discharges to fully honorable. These are zero cost corrections. It is important to note that President Trump's White House attempted this task in 2018, to do the right thing for our wrongfully discharged anthrax-era Veterans unjustly punished over the patently illegal anthrax vaccine mandate.

Unfortunately, the Pentagon obscured and undermined Trump’s first term effort, while President Biden’s Pentagon later halted corrections even though the Courts and Congress had found the mandate unlawful. The Pentagon never published the memo and there was zero outreach. It is time to take care of this unfinished business, so hopefully President Trump or Defense Secretary Hegseth will exercise their executive authority in the interest of civilian control of the military and justice for our troops who actually complied with their Oaths.

It is worth noting that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., at the helm of the Department of Health and Human Services, who was crucial in this fight, could face similar challenges as he considers removing the ineffective COVID mandate for children due to serious safety signals. Hopefully, the President will demonstrate the same fortitude by protecting Kennedy and the American public. Based on Hegseth’s treatment, Kennedy, too, can expect diversionary attacks.

The reforms instituted by courageous appointees like Hegseth and Kennedy threaten every layer of the media, political forces on both sides of the aisle, the pharmaceutical industry, and the deep state bureaucrats who failed to uphold their Oaths. Both men will require the resolute ‘high cover’ of President Trump.

In the meantime, I am grateful to witness courageous admissions and corrective actions by our duly elected leaders and their appointees. They are long overdue, but will remedy injustices spanning decades, and their precedents will shield our troops far into the future.

Colonel Thomas L. “Buzz” Rempfer, a contributor to The Kennedy Beacon, is the author of Unyielding: Marathons Against Illegal Mandates