EXCLUSIVE — The Coast Guard reinstated more than 50 members who were separated after refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine without an approved exemption, a Department of Homeland Security official told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday.
A three-member panel of the Coast Guard Board for Correction of Military Records voted in favor of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s recommendation on Feb. 12 to reinstate 56 people who were discharged from the organization, according to the final decision.
The 56 service members included in the group application will receive back pay and benefits and revert to their former rank, as outlined in President Donald Trump’s related executive order.
In totality, 274 members of the Coast Guard were involuntarily separated solely for refusing the vaccine, 69 of whom had already been reinstated, the ruling said. The guard’s “Return 2 Service” team contacted the remaining 205 members, though only the 56 were included in Noem’s recommendation.
“56 members of the United States Coast Guard who were kicked out of the service over the COVID-19 vaccine have finally been reinstated with back pay—this is a victory for religious, personal, and medical freedom for all Americans — both in and out of uniform,” Noem said in a statement. “The last administration’s vaccine mandates were unconstitutional, un-American, and a gross violation of personal freedom. It was no way to treat the men and women who put everything on the line to keep our country safe.”
Support and opposition for the mandate for service members were largely along party lines.
“President Trump is righting these wrongs and returning those unjustly removed members to service. This decision to reinstate these members of the Coast Guard is a major step in the right direction,” she added.
Former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin mandated all service members receive the COVID-19 vaccine on Aug. 21, 2021. That order was ultimately rescinded in January 2023 after a provision mandating it was included in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023.
Trump then issued an executive order on Jan. 27, 2025, that made reinstatement available for service members who were separated solely for refusing the vaccine without an exemption.
The Coast Guard is overseen by DHS, not the Department of War. In the other service branches, under DoW, approximately 8,700 service members were involuntarily discharged for refusing to take the vaccine without an approved exemption.
INSIDE THE COAST GUARD’S MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR MISSION TO REVITALIZE ITS AGING FACILITIES
The Pentagon is also reinstating those who meet the criteria.
More than 3,000 of those service members received less-than-honorable discharge characterizations, and War Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the military departments in December 2025 to proactively review personnel records of troops who were discharged for refusing the vaccine to facilitate discharge upgrades as needed.
