Four years later, veterans still fighting to get justice for COVID vaccine crackdowns

Four years after former President Joe Biden’s Pentagon mandated the COVID-19 vaccination for all Department of Defense (DOD) personnel, veterans, and former service members are continuing to fight for justice after being terminated for refusing the vaccine.

Former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin mandated the COVID vaccine for all service members in August 2021, resulting in the termination of roughly 8,500 active-duty service members who refused the mandate. Even as President Donald Trump is offering backpay and reinstatement for active duty service members, some troops who fell through the cracks are still fighting for their rights.

Military Back Pay, a law firm specializing in seeking justice for those terminated under the COVID-19 mandates, is leading the charge on three class-action lawsuits against the government and is seeking relief for veterans who were victims of the Biden-era policy. In addition to the discharges among active-duty service members, the Army barred nearly 62,000 reservists and National Guardsmen from the service for refusing the vaccine.

Dale Saran, lead attorney for Military Back Pay, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that getting justice for all those affected is paramount to his firm’s mission.

“I get angry. I really do,” Saran told the DCNF. “I don’t think people realize what that mandate, the damage that it did. People do not appreciate the institutional level damage that did to the military, and if it’s going to be fixed, I think this is the first step.”

Chris Harkins was set to retire from a 19-year career in the U.S. Coast Guard, a job in which he earned many commendations for his service. When the COVID-19 pandemic swept over the U.S., he objected to taking the shot, seeking a religious exemption from taking the vaccine.

However, Harkins was denied the exemption, and the Coast Guard dismissed the long-time veteran on December 1, 2022, just six months before he would use the leave he saved up before his retirement in 2024, cutting his service unceremoniously short.

“The amount of effect that this had on not just myself, but my family, my children. You know, it’s hard for me to do these interviews,” Harkins told the DCNF.

Harkins is the lead plaintiff in Harkins v. United States, a case representing all former members of the Coast Guard who were terminated due to the COVID vaccine mandates.

Nick Bassen, the lead plaintiff in Bassen V. United States, was also set to retire from his long career in the Army after sustaining a major back injury on deployment in Afghanistan, leaving him partially disabled. Bassen, who achieved the rank of sergeant stationed at Fort Bragg, had already begun the process of leaving the Army when the pandemic hit.

He refused to take the vaccine, earning the ire of his commanding officer, who issued him a reprimand calling him a “danger to the force.” Instead of letting Bassen finish his retirement, the Army kicked him out of the military about a month before his scheduled retirement date, while also depriving him of his six months of transitional healthcare coverage.

Bassen was then homeless and jobless with a pregnant wife because he wouldn’t take an experimental vaccine.

“They elected to kick me out instead of letting me stay in and finish out my retirement process,” Bassen told the DCNF. “So, yeah, just like that, I was homeless, jobless, and I had a pregnant wife.”

Bassen and Harkins are just two of the more than 700 plaintiffs that Military Back Pay is representing in their various lawsuits.

Military Back Pay filed for class certification on July 9, seeking to add those who voluntarily separated from the Coast Guard due to the vaccine mandate and those who were denied a religious exemption.

Botello v. United States, the third case pertaining to National Guard and reservists, was granted a hearing on July 11 as the government seeks a pause to the proceedings.

The Federal Claims Court also put the Bassen case on pause on May 22 due to Trump’s executive order offering backpay and benefits to soldiers terminated under the COVID vaccine mandate. The case could still move forward if the plaintiffs do not get the relief they seek from the military.

All three of the lawsuits are seeking to restore any lost pay, benefits, and other compensation that was lost as a result of the terminations.

Saran told the DCNF that the rollout of the COVID vaccine in the military bore a striking resemblance to the anthrax vaccine controversy in the 2000s, where many soldiers suffered adverse reactions from the mandated vaccination.

“The military has treated the injection, the mandate of injectables, as a loyalty test, and that really has become the model for how we treat decisions about other people’s bodies,” Saran told the DCNF.

Despite the mandate being overturned in 2023 after Biden signed the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act into law, soldiers who refused the vaccine were still subject to reprisals, often hamstringing their opportunities to advance in their careers.

“Non-compliance with an order, it’s a serious thing in the military,” Saran told the DCNF. “But on the other hand, post-World War II, we’ve also said that American soldiers, as members of a volunteer force, have an obligation to disobey illegal orders, and so you can see where the conflict is here.”

The Department of Justice declined to comment.