According to the Pentagon, the “Restoring Honor to Service Members Separated Under the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccine Mandate” memorandum, signed by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Dec. 6, 2025, orders each military department to: (1) proactively review the personnel records of former troops who were involuntarily discharged solely for refusing the COVID‑19 vaccine; (2) identify cases where those members received less‑than‑honorable discharges; and (3) upgrade those discharges when appropriate so that anyone who should have received a fully honorable discharge does so. It implements President Trump’s Executive Order 14184 on reinstating service members discharged under the COVID‑19 mandate and is paired with detailed guidance (a second memo) that explains how the services are to conduct these reviews and coordinate with existing discharge‑review and correction boards.
The memo’s automatic “restoring honor” review applies to former service members who were involuntarily separated from the armed forces solely because they refused the COVID‑19 vaccine under the now‑rescinded mandate. The broader COVID‑19 reinstatement policy also covers people who voluntarily left or allowed their service to lapse to avoid vaccination, but those individuals generally must affirmatively seek reinstatement or apply to their service’s review boards rather than being covered by the automatic record‑review described in the memo.
For former troops covered by the memo, the services are instructed to upgrade less‑than‑honorable discharges to fully honorable where warranted, which can restore access to many veterans’ benefits that depend on discharge status. Separately, under the COVID‑19 reinstatement policy, veterans who return to service will have their records corrected to show they were never discharged, receive back pay for lost basic pay and allowances (with certain offsets), regain credit toward retirement and other non‑monetary benefits, and may recover any recouped bonuses. The Department of Veterans Affairs has also said Post‑9/11 GI Bill education benefits will be restored for veterans whose discharges were solely for vaccine refusal once those discharges are corrected.
The “Restoring Honor” memorandum itself focuses on correcting records and discharge characterizations; it does not automatically put anyone back on active duty. Reinstatement to military service is handled under the separate COVID‑19 reinstatement policy created after Executive Order 14184: former service members must choose to come back and go through their service’s reinstatement process, after which—if approved—their prior discharge is removed from their record and they are treated as if they had not been separated, with associated back pay and benefits.
The memorandum was signed by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Dec. 6, 2025, and the Pentagon has already directed the services to carry out its instructions. The military departments have one calendar year to complete the proactive discharge‑record reviews ordered by the memo. For those who wish to return to service, the separate reinstatement window is open for one year and runs until April 1, 2026; applications to the normal discharge‑review and correction boards (for people who do not seek reinstatement) remain available on a continuing basis and are not tied to a fixed deadline in the memo.
For the automatic review ordered by the memo, former service members do not have to apply; the services will review eligible COVID‑vaccine‑refusal discharges on their own. Anyone who believes their record still contains an error or injustice—or who is not covered by the automatic review—can request relief through their service’s Discharge Review Board or Board for Correction of Military/Naval Records, starting at the Pentagon’s military review boards portal (milreviewbds.mil). Those seeking to come back on active duty use the COVID‑19 reinstatement process: the services are contacting eligible former members directly, and individuals with questions are told to email the dedicated inbox at osd.pentagon.ousd-p-r.mbx.c-19-reinstatement@mail.mil for help navigating reinstatement; veterans who need GI Bill or other VA benefits restored may also follow VA’s “discharge upgrade” guidance via VA.gov.
The “Restoring Honor to Service Members Separated Under the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccine Mandate” memorandum was issued and signed by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (the Cabinet official heading the Department of War/Defense), acting under the authority of President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order 14184. A companion implementation memo titled “Guidance to Restore Honor to Service Members…” was then issued by the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to tell the services how to carry it out.
The Pentagon reports that under the prior administration it involuntarily separated approximately 8,700 service members for refusing to comply with the COVID‑19 vaccine mandate, and more than 3,000 of those received less‑than‑honorable discharges. All of those involuntarily separated troops are within the core group covered by the memo’s proactive “restoring honor” review, and additional former members who voluntarily left the service to avoid vaccination may also be eligible for reinstatement or record corrections if they apply.