Former service members discharged for refusing the COVID vaccine will be expecting letters of apology from the Defense Department, along with instructions on how they can pursue returning to the service.

The DoD is also launching an outreach campaign — including emails, phone calls, website updates and social media posts — to ensure that former service members are aware of the opportunity. The effort targets both those who were forced out and those who voluntarily left the military because of the vaccine mandate.

Under the new policy, former service members who qualify for reinstatement will be eligible to receive back pay and benefits they would have earned had they remained in the service. The directive is in line with an executive order President Donald Trump signed during his first week in office to reinstate troops who were forced out for refusing the vaccine and offer them “full back pay.”

Tim Dill, who is performing the duties of the deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said the Defense Department will calculate back pay based on what a service member would have received had they not been discharged, minus any income or benefits they received during their time away from the military. Dill said the back pay consideration applies only to those who were involuntarily separated due to the vaccine mandate.

Service members forced out of the military for refusing the vaccine have been able to return since 2023, but without back pay. Fewer than 80 people out of at least 8,700 service members came back under that policy. 

Dill said “Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have publicly expressed and signed documents welcoming former service members impacted by this policy to return in a way that those former service members were not encouraged in the past.”

“I have seen some of the guidance that was received by former service members during the previous administration, and it was not at all in this tenor that President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have personally expressed — sharing their eagerness to welcome back these former service members to the military,” Dill told reporters. 

However, those opting to return would have to go through a lengthy administrative process that could take months. Service members would have to meet a number of requirements for reinstatement, including medical and fitness standards. Returning service members would also have to commit to reenlisting for at least four years. Those eligible to retire or who left voluntarily are allowed to reenlist for two years. 

The Navy has released a document that explains how the entire process and back pay would work. Sailors who are interested in returning are eligible for back pay, housing and food allowances, and bonuses they would have earned had they remained in service — minus any income, VA benefits, separation payments, TSP contributions or any DoD debts. 

The Navy will need tax returns, W-2s from each year they were out of service, pay stubs for the current year, spouse’s W-2s and military separation documents.

Dill said the goal of the new policy is to “make [service members] whole so that they would stand financially in the same position they would have stood in had they never been discharged.”

It’s unclear how many service members will opt to return even with the added incentive. Defense officials said some troops used the vaccine mandate as a chance to leave the service. 

The Army has reached out to over 1,900 soldiers, and the service said about 150 people have taken the next steps to join.  

Dill said the Defense Department doesn’t have an estimate for how much it will cost to conduct an outreach campaign or an expected cost of the back pay under this new policy.

“The last few years have been a difficult recruiting environment for the department, and it is well worth the department’s time and investment in welcoming these former service members back — service members that have contributed in the past and already have special skills and training in their background and will be at a higher level of readiness to contribute when they return. The department is glad to make that investment to welcome them back. It’s the right thing to do, and it should have been done previously. We’re happy to do that now,” Dill said.

Former members who returned to service under the previous 2023 policy are not eligible for back pay.

“We do understand that there’s a small population of service members that previously chose to return, and the department is also grateful for their decision to return. But there is not currently a mechanism that we have provided for them to put in for the same calculations that we’re doing for those that would return today,” Dill said.

Service members have until April 2026 to express interest in returning.

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