Of 3,400 troops who’ve been involuntarily separated from service for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine, about 70 percent have received general discharges, service personnel chiefs said Wednesday. That characterization secures their veterans benefits and, in many cases, allows them to rejoin the military if they decide to get vaccinated.The remaining discharges have been honorable, officials told lawmakers during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, though they did not provide details explaining the reasoning behind choosing one characterization or the other.In the fall, as the services announced their mandatory vaccination policies, a number of Republican lawmakers pushed back with concerns that troops might be given dishonorable discharges that could strip them of veterans benefits, as well as concerns that readiness would take a hit if thousands of service members were kicked out.
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