Delivering on yet another campaign promise, President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order that will reinstate members of the U.S. military who were ousted for standing against former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s now-rescinded August 2021 COVID-19 shot mandate.
Fox News reports that according to a White House fact sheet, “The Executive Order directs the Secretary of Defense to reinstate all members of the military (active and reserve) who were discharged for refusing the COVID vaccine and who request to be reinstated.”
American Family News spoke to John Frankman, a former Army Captain and Special Forces Green Beret who was greatly affected by the tyrannically enforced mandate. He is “incredibly grateful” for President Trump’s desire to sign an executive order that will provide an opportunity for service members to be reinstated with backpay, benefits, and an apology.
“I believe President Trump truly loves service members, and this is not only reflected in the executive order but also my personal interactions with him,” Frankman offers. “Choosing Pete Hegseth, someone who has been advocating for service members for years, as Secretary of Defense is also indicative of his love for the military.”
But according to Frankman, “much more [is] needed to repair the damage done” from the COVID vaccine mandate. “The executive order only scratches the surface of the larger negative effects that have happened [as a result of the shot],” he explains, continuing to describe those effects.
“Apart from the 8,600 who were kicked out of the military,” Frankman emphasizes, “there were potentially 80,000 more who were forced out, such as me, because of the negative job repercussions and much more we faced at the time.”
It's time for accountability
The former Army officer explains that rather than waiting to be forced out of the military, many service members chose to leave on their own terms.
“That’s the situation I, and thousands of others, found myself in,” he tells AFN. “For those who stayed in, they’ve endured bad evaluation reports, and lost out of deployments, command time, and promotions.”
Frankman continues: “A signed executive order by President Trump is an important first step and is very appreciated and necessary, but my prayer is that this is only the beginning … because the problem is much larger than just the 8,600.”
He is both hopeful and prayerful that Trump's EO ignites a conversation between the administration and those affected and opens the door to offer advice on future steps.
“Those future steps need to include reparation for all service members who've been affected,” he explains, suggesting that one solution would be the President’s Commission on Military COVID-19 and Anthrax Policies (COMCAP) – or a kind of adjudication board to help service members regain not only the opportunities lost but also welcome accountability.
“Accountability is necessary because leaders broke the law, violated religious rights, and left many service members vaccine-injured,” he argues. "[And although President Trump is] taking a good step, his team needs to continue to become more informed about the negative repercussions that took place for tens of thousands of service members.”
“I believe he'll take the right steps to fully fix the problem. This is a start – but it can't be the conclusion.”
Frankman told AFN in November he had shared his story with the president-elect and was assured by Trump "there would be accountability."
