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President Donald Trump began his second week in office by signing a series of executive orders, including several directed at the military and personnel matters.
The first order would make reinstatement available to all service members — active and reserve — who were "discharged solely for refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and who request to be reinstated."
The EO states the vaccine mandate was "an unfair, overbroad, and completely unnecessary burden" on service members and there was a failure "to grant many of them an exemption that they should have received."
On Jan. 10, 2023, then-Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III rescinded two previous memos — Aug. 24, 2021 (active) and Nov. 30, 2021 (Guard and Reserves) — mandating all personnel under the Defense Department's authority receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
The Nov. 30, 2021, memo said Guardsmen in a Title 32 status refusing the COVID-19 vaccine wouldn’t receive pay. They also wouldn’t get credit for unexcused absences for drills, training and other duties.
The EO would permit reinstated personnel "to revert to their former rank and receive full back pay, benefits, bonus payments, or compensation."
From 2021 to 2023, about 8,000 troops — less than 1% of the military — were discharged "solely due to their COVID-19 vaccination status," according to a White House fact sheet.
The fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act made permanent the requirement that a service member receive an honorable discharge or a general discharge under honorable conditions if discharged on the sole basis of refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
It also required the rescission of the vaccine mandate. After the repeal, 43 service members sought to be reinstated.
The secretaries of defense and homeland security must now provide an update on the EO's implementation within 60 days.
The full EO is available here.
A second order — titled "Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness" — would restrict transgender troops from openly serving in the military.
It requires the Pentagon to update its medical standards to ensure they prioritize "readiness and lethality," per a White House fact sheet.
The order affords Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth 30 days to "identify all additional steps and issue guidance necessary to fully implement this order."
Trump also signed an EO Monday night titled "The Iron Dome for America" that directs Hegseth to submit plans to develop "the next-generation missile defense shield" as a defense against "ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks from peer, near-peer, and rogue adversaries."
The missile defense shield would be modeled after Israel’s Iron Dome system that has been used to intercept incoming rockets.
Trump's fourth EO would "abolish" every diversity, equity and inclusion office within DoD and the Department of Homeland Security with regard to the Coast Guard.
The Pentagon would additionally be required to conduct an internal review "of all instances of race- or sex-based discrimination based on Department of Defense DEI initiatives."
More on these Presidential Actions is available here.
White House fact sheets outlining these actions are available here.
— By Jennifer Hickey
