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WASHINGTON – U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Tuesday that the Pentagon will not fund National Guard troops who refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
The Pentagon made the vaccine mandatory for all service members in August and the vast majority of active-duty troops have received at least one dose.
Austin’s move, which was laid out in a memo seen by Reuters, comes a day after he rejected a request by the Oklahoma governor to exempt National Guard troops from a military wide vaccine mandate.
The deadline for National Guard troops varies by the different services they are in.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Mark Porter)
