National Guard who refuse to get vaccinated could lose funding- Pentagon chief

U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin attends a NATO Defence Ministers meeting at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, October 21, 2021. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol

WASHINGTON, Nov 30 (Reuters) – 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

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