The U.S. Army began discharging soldiers on Wednesday for refusing to get vaccinated months after a mandate was first introduced. “Army readiness depends on soldiers who are prepared to train, deploy, fight and win our nation’s wars,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said. “Unvaccinated soldiers present risk to the force and jeopardize readiness.” The Pentagon made the vaccine mandatory for all service members in August 2021. Across all services, at least 79 uniformed military personnel have died from COVID. The Air Force recently started discharging unvaccinated members.