COLORADO SPRINGS, CO - MAY 26: Members of the United States Air Force Academy Class of 2021 salute during their graduation ceremony at Falcon Stadium on May 26, 2021 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Photo by Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images) WASHINGTON - Three cadets at the U.S.
Air Force Academy who have refused the COVID-19 vaccine will not be commissioned as military officers but will graduate with bachelor's degrees, the academy said Saturday.Academy spokesman Dean Miller said that a fourth cadet who had refused the vaccine until about a week ago, decided to be vaccinated and will graduate and become an Air Force officer.In a statement, Miller said that while the three will get a degree "they will not be commissioned into the United States Air Force as long as they remain unvaccinated." He added that a decision on whether to require the three to reimburse the United States for education costs in lieu of service will be made by the secretary of the Air Force.As of Saturday, the Air Force is the only military academy, so far, where cadets are not being commissioned due to vaccine refusal.
All of the more than 1,000 Army cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, graduated and were commissioned as officers earlier in the day and all were vaccinated.RELATED: CDC recommends resuming indoor masking in high COVID areasThe Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, said Saturday that none of the Navy or Marine Corps seniors there are being prevented from commissioning due to vaccine refusals.
That graduation is later this week, and the Air Force ceremony is Wednesday in Colorado. Ahead of that ceremony, the U.S. Air Force Academy Board conducted its standard review of whether this year's class had met all graduation.