(Washington) Nearly three months after the US Navy, the US Army announced Wednesday that it will begin to discharge soldiers who refuse mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 to civilian life.
Posted yesterday at 5:24 p.m.
“Unvaccinated soldiers pose a risk to our armed forces and compromise our level of readiness,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said in a statement.
“We will begin the process of dismissing soldiers who refuse compulsory vaccination and who are not awaiting a final decision on a possible exemption,” she added in a press release.
More than 3,000 soldiers could thus be returned to civilian life, according to the statement from the Army, which had 482,000 soldiers in active service at the end of 2021.
As of January 26, six high-ranking officers – including two battalion commanders – had been removed from their posts for refusing to impose the COVID-19 vaccine, and 3,073 soldiers had received a written “reprimand” for refusing to to get vaccinated.
The US Navy announced in mid-October that it would discharge sailors refusing the vaccine to civilian life. She announced on Wednesday that she had already fired 118 and the Marine Corps, which is under the authority of the Navy, has expelled more than 300.
More than 5,000 American sailors are still not vaccinated and therefore risk deportation, the US Navy said in a statement.
Of all the branches of the US military, the Navy has taken the strongest action against COVID-19, due to the danger posed by overcrowding aboard warships, including submarines.
According to the Pentagon, some 97% of the roughly 1.4 million US service members on active duty have received at least one dose.