AUGUST 17, 2026 – Master Sgt. Jessica Meinert raised her right hand and took the oath of re-enlistment into the Air Force Reserve during an emotional ceremony in the Pentagon Aug. 14. With that oath, the AFRC gets back an all-source intelligence analyst with more than 12 years of service, four years after the COVID-19 vaccination mandate took her out of uniform.
Additionally, The Department of the Air Force gains expertise to bolster its COVID Reinstatement Task Force, where she will spend the next year helping other former Airmen and Guardians make the same return she completed today. This return is the culmination of years of effort, unpaid and out of uniform. Now she gets to assist others on this same journey from the inside, before taking another position with the intelligence career field.
“It really was never a choice. It’s always been a calling to never stop,” explained Meinert. “I’m really just getting back to where I was meant to always be. I always knew deep down inside that I was going to come back, and I was going to use every lesson learned to contribute and constructively make a positive impact once I put the uniform back on.”
Meinert first enlisted in the Air Force in October 2005 and separated honorably in 2007 as an airman first class. She came back to the Air Force in June 2010, enlisting in the Reserve at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, where she served with the 91st Attack Squadron and earned her way from airman first class to technical sergeant over nine years. In 2019 she moved to the Headquarters Air Force Reserve Command Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Directorate at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, and pinned on master sergeant Feb. 1, 2020. Her discharge came June 8, 2022.
Instead of turning her back on the Service she loved and in which she had faithfully served, Meinert built a resource forum for service members affected by the vaccine mandate and became a leader and advisor in the Warrior of Conscience community. Whether someone was working to come back under the executive order or still serving and seeking relief from mandate-related career impacts, she made their problem hers.
“The thing that people needed most at the time was a supportive group,” said Meinert. “A lot of us were isolated and a little bit ostracized, and so there were a lot of hurt feelings, a deep sense of loss of trust. Finding each other and having somebody validate our thinking in those moments was a huge weight off the heart. It was nice to finally find your people.”
Executive Order 14184, signed Jan. 27, 2025, directed the military departments to offer reinstatement to service members discharged solely for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, with restored rank and back pay for those reinstated, and opened a path back for those who left voluntarily rather than take the vaccine.
May 7, 2026, the Secretary of War extended the expedited reinstatement program for one year and directed the boards for correction of military records to recognize separations driven by mandate-related adverse actions as “unjust discharges.”
“While many have rejoined the fight, our work remains unfinished,” the memo states.
Reinstatement carries a four-year service commitment, or two years for members within two years of retirement eligibility. Meinert signed up for the full four: a year with the task force, then three in the intelligence community.
“She brings a unique perspective as a senior NCO, because that’s a gap that we’ve had,” said Col. Karen Coltrin, Department of the Air Force COVID Reinstatement Task Force lead. “She has built a network and trust within the Warrior of Conscience community, and now she can leverage those to help us as the department make positive changes and ensure we rapidly reinstate these members.”
Former Airmen and Guardians who separated over the vaccine mandate, whether discharged or having left voluntarily, have until April 1, 2027, to request a return to service. To learn more about eligibility and return pathways for reinstatement eligibility, visit https://www.af.mil/COVID-Reinstatement, or email the DAF COVID Task Force at SAF.COVID.TaskForce@us.af.mil.
“It never hurts to answer the lingering question of ‘what if,’” said Meinert. “You can explore this option and everything that could bring to your life, and still say no, thank you. It’s no harm, no foul. So why not look?”
Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs