On Tuesday, December 7th, 2021, the House of Representatives passed a provision of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which prevents military personnel refusing the COVID-19 vaccination to be guaranteed at least a general discharge. Under NDAA discretion, any military personnel released from service under honorable or general discharge under honorable conditions, will still be entitled to most veteran benefits.

Unfortunately for those refusing the COVID-19 vaccine and are given a general discharge under honorable conditions, the GI Bill Educational benefits are eliminated from veteran benefits. At this time, there has not been any talk of future changes regarding this, and will more than likely be the case for most U.S. troops being relieved of their military obligations.

For those of you statistics people out there, at the time of this writing, the following numbers listed below indicate the vaccination rates of the respective branches.

Navy: 340,000 sailors - 96.3% vaccinated - 2,531 exemption requests
Marine Corps: 181,200 active-duty Marines - 92% vaccinated - 2,441 exemption requests
Air Force: 326,000 airmen - 95.6% vaccinated - 1,125 refusals - 4,756 exemption request pending
Army - N/A
Coast Guard - N/A