‘Fire their asses’: Trump’s order to reinstate with back pay isn’t enough for many service members ousted over vax mandate
President Donald Trump recently signed a series of executive orders for the military, addressing transgenderism, diversity, COVID-19 and more.
One of them offers to reinstate service members forced out of the military as a result of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s now-rescinded August 2021 vaccine mandate.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem will be tasked with ensuring both active and reserve components of the military who request reinstatement will be restored to their prior rank and provided back pay and benefits.
Fox News recently reported that, according to a White House fact sheet, “After the vaccine mandate was repealed in 2023, only 43 of the more than the 8,000 troops dismissed elected to return to service under the Biden Administration and Secretary Austin.”
According to Trump’s EO, “Federal Government redress of any wrongful dismissals is overdue.” For many, it’s a big step in the right direction, but is it enough to persuade former members of the military to return to service? This writer has personally spoken to hundreds of service members over the past three years who desire accountability for the military’s unlawful enforcement of the shot mandate.
Specifically, 10 USC §1107a codifies that servicemembers must have the right to informed consent, which was not provided to them during the Biden administration. Each should have had the option to accept or refuse the shot, but rather, most were either coerced or booted from service.
Additionally, 21 USC § 360bbb requires that products with Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) can be used only when there is no other approved drug available. Yet prior to the FDA pulling the trigger on a vaccine authorized for “emergency use only,” effective drugs including ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine were available.
Yet for many service members, the experimental injection was the their only option to remain in the military. Those who objected were uniformly denied. Many others attempting to avoid the shot were coerced. In fact, in a survey conducted by this writer in 2022 and published by the Epoch Times, “More than 72 percent of individuals serving in the U.S. military who responded to a survey said they felt ‘coerced’ into receiving a COVID-19 vaccine and/or booster after the Pentagon’s 2021 vaccine mandate.”
So, while many are thankful for Trump’s order, some former and current members of the U.S. military are also seeking accountability for the wrongs they’ve endured.
WorldNetDaily spoke to John Frankman, a former Army Captain and Special Forces Green Beret whose career was cut short because of the mandate. He is “incredibly grateful” that Trump signed the executive order to reinstate service members.
Yet, while he is thankful the order is “a little more inclusive” than he expected, he said, “it needs to be much broader.” He suggested the inclusion of “help for people to get their careers back on track, [considering] all the career losses, as well as the lost appointments, promotions and school opportunities.”
“It needs to include accountability,” Frankman added. “What hasn’t been acknowledged is that the order was illegal, that it violated religious rights, and that there are flag officers who broke the law and need to be held accountable for it.”
After all, with respect to accountability, President Trump once told Frankman, “Yeah … there would be accountability, is right. We’ll fire their asses.”
Accountability is extremely important to service members like Robert A. Green, Jr., an active duty Navy Commander and author of “Defending the Constitution Behind Enemy Lines,” who expressed his thoughts about the executive order on X. Interestingly, CDR Green is also author of the Declaration of Military Accountability, which was signed by 231 service members and veterans in an effort right the wrongs of the COVID-19 shot mandate.
While Green is thankful to President Trump for the executive order, he also admitted, “There is much work left to do.”
A big thanks to @POTUS for the order to reinstate, with full back pay, the service members kicked out solely for COVID shot refusal.
He even made provisions for the return of those who voluntarily resigned or retired to avoid the shot.
However, there is much work left to do:
— Rob Green (@RobGreen1010) January 28, 2025
Lt. Col. (ret.) Ivan Raiklin, a constitutional attorney, former Army Green Beret and advocate for service members booted over the shot took a more aggressive approach on X.
Until this “Reinstatement” order is amended to punish all involved in the implementation of the Fauci-Funded Wuhan Lab Incident that resulted in the coerced consumption of at times suicidal and in many instances self destructive unsafe and ineffective CCP-19 Emergency Use…
— Ivan Raiklin (@IvanRaiklin) January 28, 2025
WorldNetDaily also spoke to military whistleblower and retired Navy Medical Service Corps Lieutenant Ted Macie, who was also less than optimistic. Macie was forced out into retirement because of the COVID-19 shot.
The executive order, said Macie, “fails to address most of the main concerns of service members who have had to deal with this nightmare for the past four years.” He agreed that if this is “a starting point,” he appreciates the effort. “But if this is the final extent of how this administration plans to handle this travesty, you will not see the problem of recruiting and retention go away.”
“If one of the Trump administration’s intentions was to rebuild trust and fix the problems we have with recruiting and retention, and the lack of trust in leadership,” Macie added, “this executive order addresses none of that.”
Why does Macie and so many other service members feel this way? “Because there’s no accountability in this EO.” Hundreds, if not thousands of service members and veterans, desire accountability for the harms caused by Austin’s shot mandate.
Of great concern to Macie is Section 1(c) of the executive order which states: “Allow any service members who provide a written and sworn attestation that they voluntarily left the service or allowed their service to lapse according to appropriate procedures, rather than be vaccinated under the vaccine mandate, to return to service with no impact on their service status, rank, or pay.”
Macie explained, “The people that weren’t involuntarily separated, but let their contracts expire [to avoid taking the shot], they don’t get back pay?” Considering all this, the executive order is “a Band-Aid” that misses the mark on what most members of the military need to return to service as well as the accountability thousands hope to see. “What does bringing people back into the military do for accountability?” he asked.
Retired Air Force Col. John McAfee, and primary author of a proposed executive order, hopes a poll on X will help discover whether veterans will “Sign up” or “Stay out.”
For the vets affected by the COVID 19 mandate, will https://t.co/5AN1PH816g cause you to
— John S McAfee (@JohnSMcAfee) January 28, 2025
Within 60 days of the executive order, Hegseth and Noem are expected to report to President Trump on the progress of reinstatement.