TL;DR, June 26 -- The Pentagon on Wednesday ordered all military branches to reinstate mandatory flu vaccinations for recruits, reversing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's April decision to make the shots optional. The reversal follows a weekslong flu outbreak at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio that has sickened 275 recruits and killed trainee Keon McDaniel on June 16. Only 40 percent of trainees accepted the voluntary vaccine, compared with 100 percent under the 1945 mandate Hegseth removed.

SAN ANTONIO - In his sixth week of Basic Military Training at Joint Base San Antonio, a trainee named Keon McDaniel experienced a medical emergency on June 12. He was transported to Brooke Army Medical Center, where he died four days later. He...