Even though the Department of Defense (DOD) rescinded the COVID-19 vaccine requirement for service members at the beginning of the year, thousands of men and women could still be discharged for not applying for a vaccine exemption.

Congressman Jim Banks (R-IN) took to social media to express his disappointment with the notion.

"The Biden admin may still fire thousands of patriotic servicemembers for disobeying their partisan mandate, even though the mandate no longer exists," Banks wrote in a March 9 tweet. "Divisive and cruel!"

The COVID-19 vaccine mandate was done away with under section 525 of the James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2023. According to a letter addressed to Banks from Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, Gilbert Cisneros, as of January 10, all DOD "policies, directives, and guidelines" that implemented vaccine mandates were no longer in effect.

Cisneros' letter noted that of the 2 million service members, be it active-duty, reserves, or National Guard, 69,000 did not receive the COVID-19 vaccine. About 53,000 service members sought medical or administrative exemptions or other accommodations, while 16,000 did not seek an exemption. The letter stated that 8,100 service members were discharged for failing to adhere to the mandate requirements, of those 46% were discharged honorably while the other 54% were characterized as "general" which falls under "honorable conditions."

Cisneros' told Banks in the letter that current service members would not be discharged solely for refusing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine if they sought a religious, administrative, or medical exemption. The letter did not specify what would happen to service members that did not seek an exemption.

The letter did state that the vaccine is “no longer required” by the DOD, so exemption requests would be returned to service members who requested them without further action.