Secretary of War Pete Hegseth swore Air Force Brig. Gen. Melissa S. Cunningham back into uniform at the Pentagon on Thursday, four years after she was forced to retire for declining the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, according to the Department of War’s Pentagon News service.
“Today, @SECWAR reinstated Brigadier General Melissa Cunningham. She was forced to retire after declining the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. We will not stop righting the wrongs of the Biden administration,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a post on X announcing the ceremony.
Today, @SECWAR reinstated Brigadier General Melissa Cunningham.
She was forced to retire after declining the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
We will not stop righting the wrongs of the Biden administration. pic.twitter.com/J2zFtTktEx
— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellASW) October 23, 2026
Cunningham, a 1996 Air Force Academy graduate with 26 years of service, was forced to retire in August 2022 after declining the then-mandatory shot, Pentagon News reported. The Rothman Report noted that her medical and religious exemption requests had been denied. STARRS, the veterans group whose general counsel represented her, described her as the highest-ranking Air Force officer pushed out over the mandate.
“A warrior of conscience”
Hegseth praised Cunningham during the swearing-in, according to Pentagon News. “Not only did you take a private stand in a very principled way as a warrior of conscience, but you led the way for others,” he told her, adding that she “stood courageously” beside her principles and her faith, which he said “is exactly, precisely, the kind of person we want to be bringing back.”
Hegseth also acknowledged the reinstatement effort has been slow, Pentagon News reported. “Those of you that have been here know [the reinstatement process] has not been an easy one, and it’s not been a smooth one,” he said, adding that “the only way we lose is if we quit.”
After taking the oath, Cunningham thanked God, President Trump and Hegseth, and urged other troops who were separated over the mandate to apply to come back, according to Pentagon News. “We need leaders, those courageous warriors [of] moral conscience, to return,” she said. “I am so fired up to be back.”
What she gets back
According to STARRS, the Air Force Board for Correction of Military Records signed off on her case on July 13, 2026, granting reinstatement at the rank of brigadier general, full back pay, credit for missed service time, corrected records, an extended mandatory retirement date and consideration for promotion to major general. STARRS general counsel Mike Rose said the case was clear-cut but that the Air Force delayed it for nearly a year, until a STARRS delegation met with Pentagon officials and wrote to Air Force Secretary Troy Meink, the group said.
Thousands more were forced out
The reinstatement push traces back to Executive Order 14184, which President Trump signed in January 2025 and which ordered the secretaries of war and homeland security to reinstate troops discharged solely for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine who ask to return, according to Pentagon News.
Between 8,000 and 8,700 service members were involuntarily discharged or separated for refusing the vaccine between August 2021 and January 2023, and roughly 230 have returned to active duty since the order was signed, the department said. Hegseth extended the reinstatement window in March, Pentagon News reported, and the Rothman Report said the new deadline is April 1, 2027, with the service obligation for returning troops cut from four years to two.
For the troops who lost careers over the then-mandatory shot, Cunningham’s return is the most senior example yet of the department making good on that promise. The open question is how many of the thousands still outside the ranks will take the offer before the window closes.
Sources
Sources cited
- https://www.war.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4632503/hegseth-swears-in-air-force-general-after-vaccine-mandated-early-retirement/
- https://therothmanreport.com/politics/hegseth-reinstates-general-melissa-cunningham-vaccine-mandate/
- https://starrs.us/starrs-helps-usaf-brig-general-and-usafa-grad-get-reinstated/
Sources
- Original post: Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellASW) on X, Oct 23, 2026
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