SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — President Donald Trump promised Monday during his inaugural address to reinstate military members who lost their jobs for refusing to get the COVID vaccine.
The military members were “unjustly expelled” and would get full back pay and be reinstated later this week, Trump said to a loud round of applause.
Over 8,000 troops were kicked out of the military for refusing to get the vaccine during the pandemic.
In 2022, a group of Navy SEALs and other service members made national headlines for successfully fighting the vaccine mandate.
“So many service members were deeply affected by this. I mean, you can imagine having your family's life essentially put on hold because of the vaccine mandate and because of your desire to respect your own religious beliefs,” said David Hacker, senior counsel at the First Liberty Institute.
The nonprofit conservative organization got an injunction for 35 Navy SEALs and Special Warfare Operators who were fighting the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate based on religious grounds. Some of the military members were from San Diego.
Hacker, who is from El Cajon, said the troops his group represented were at risk of losing their jobs and had been threatened and later punished for refusing the shot.
“We had individuals in our class who were ordered to go around the base and pick lint out of Velcro.”
After First Liberty sued the government in 2021, a court extended the injunction to over 4,000 sailors who filed religious accommodation requests in response to the Navy’s vaccine mandate.
“There were far more service members who unfortunately, you know, were dismissed or fired before we were able to go into court and get that injunction and so, you know, that's what makes President Trump's statement this morning so impactful,” Hacker said.
