Three cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy who have not received the COVID-19 vaccine will not be commissioned as military officers when they graduate, the Academy said.

Academy spokesman Dean Miller said that the three seniors in question “will not be commissioned into the United States Air Force as long as they remain unvaccinated.”

However, they will still graduate with bachelor’s degrees.

After the Air Force Academy reviewed their cases, it determined they would be allowed to receive their Bachelor of Science degrees but could not be commissioned unless they agreed to the COVID-19 vaccination.

The trio will also not be allowed to attend their graduation ceremony.

A fourth cadet, who was previously among those refusing to comply with the Academy’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, has since decided to take the shot to become an officer, Miller said.

Military academies typically require students to repay the cost of their education if they leave in their junior or senior year before completing the program. The secretary for each military branch makes the final decision.

The Academy is currently debating whether the three cadets will be required to repay their educational costs. Depending on the circumstances, the costs could be as much as $200,000.

In 2015, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point ordered a cadet to pay $226,662 in tuition costs after discharging him over multiple infractions, including smuggling alcohol.

The U.S. Air Force, which is as of now the only military branch blocking cadets from being commissioned as officers for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine, has yet to decide whether to require the unvaccinated trio to pay for their education, Miller said.

The final decision is in the hands of the Air Force Secretary, Frank Kendall.

The announcement came days after Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado), whose congressional district covers Colorado Springs, where the Air Force Academy is located, protested the possibility that the four cadets might not be allowed to graduate because of vaccine refusal.

“I was extremely disappointed to hear that the United States Air Force Academy is planning to deny these four cadets the opportunity to graduate and serve our nation because of their request to uphold their tightly held religious beliefs,” Lamborn wrote in a letter to the Academy’s superintendent.

“America was founded on the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which encompasses protecting the religious rights of the individual. That includes those who put on the uniform and volunteer to serve our nation,” Lamborn added. “It is imperative that our military leaders uphold the constitutional rights of these cadets.”

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, had its graduation ceremony on Saturday. All of the more than 1,000 Army cadets who graduated will be commissioned as officers. They were all vaccinated against COVID-19.

The Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, said Saturday that none of its Navy or Marine Corps seniors are being prevented from commissioning due to vaccine refusals. That graduation is later this week.

The Air Force’s graduation ceremony was on May 25. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who made COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for all military service members and academy students last year, was featured as a keynote speaker.

“Mandatory vaccinations are familiar to all of our Service members, and mission-critical inoculation is almost as old as the U.S. military itself,” Austin said in August 2021 in a memo announcing the vaccine mandate.

Military leaders argued that troops had been mandated for decades to receive as many as 17 vaccines to remain in service, particularly those who serve overseas.

Students at military academies get a series of vaccines on their first day on campus, including for measles, mumps, and rubella, if they are not already vaccinated against those diseases. Military academy students must also receive flu shots every fall.

As of April, about 3,400 troops had been involuntarily discharged from service due to vaccination non-compliance, the Military Times reported. About 70% of them have received general discharges, with the rest receiving honorable discharges.