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Stars and Stripes: GAO: Hundreds Leaving
Because of Anthrax Shots
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GAO: Hundreds Leaving Because of Anthrax Shots
Oct 13, 2000
Emily Kelley
GAO: Hundreds Leaving Because of Anthrax Shots
Approximately 260 National Guard and Air Force Reserve pilots
have left the military because of the Pentagon’s mandatory
Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program (AVIP), according to a General
Accounting Office (GAO) report released Oct. 11.
As a result, more than a billion dollars in training costs is
being lost, the report says.
Eighteen percent of Guard and Reserve pilots reportedly plan to
leave the military in the next six months. In an anonymous GAO
survey, 61 percent of those pilots said the vaccine program was
the main reason for their planned departure.
The day before the GAO report was released, Pentagon officials
dismissed the notion that many airmen are leaving because of the
vaccine program.
“I’m sure you can find some individuals who have left the Guard and Reserve rather than proceed with their anthrax vaccination, but I don’t think we’ve considered [it as having] a significant impact,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said Oct. 10.
‘A Serious Problem’
But Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., at an Oct. 11 hearing of the House
Government Reform Committee, which he chairs, criticized the DoD’s
response over the past several months to complaints from service
members and lawmakers.
“Whether the Defense Department wants to admit it or not,
with a potential loss of 43 percent of our Guard and Reserve pilots
and aircrew members, we have a serious problem,” Burton said.
“The written testimony provided by the Defense Department is a regurgitation of previous statements and completely ignores the topic of this hearing-readiness and retention,” he said.
“They state that men and women who choose to serve their
country do so in the knowledge that service is an honor. They
go on to state that failure to provide protection against anthrax
would be a dereliction of duty. Was the Department’s failure
to provide functional masks and suits a dereliction of duty? Is
the Department’s failure to fully inform the troops of the
risks and benefits of the vaccine prior to vaccination a dereliction
of duty?” he asked.
Witnesses testified that many pilots are leaving before scheduled
vaccinations for fear that adverse health effects might harm their
chances of landing lucrative commercial pilot jobs. Some Reservists
who also work as commercial pilots have reported symptoms including
chills, dizziness and fevers that they attribute to the anthrax
vaccine and which have necessitated sick leave, it was testified..
Moratorium Demanded
The witnesses, citing negative effects on troop morale and retention,
called for an immediate AVIP moratorium.
“I believe it simply boils down to one word-trust,”
said Lt. Col. Pat Ross (USAF-ret.), a 16-year veteran fighter
pilot and squadron commander. “They feel they can no longer
trust the leadership when they say that the vaccine is safe and
effective. They feel they can no longer trust...that if they should
become ill due to the vaccine that they will be taken care of
by the country they are prepared to give their life for.”
In a six- to eight-month period in 1999, Ross testified, he
lost almost 50 percent of the his unit’s combat pilots because
of the AVIP. Guardsmen and women refusing the shots have endured
“ongoing punishment and coercion,” he said.
Intimidation and punishment for refusing the shots is widespread,
according to Lt. Col. Tom Heemstra (USAF-ret.), a former commander
of the 163rd Fighter Squadron at the Fort Wayne Air Force Base,
Tenn. He described own experience after refusing to take the vaccine.
“They threatened to put one of my outstanding pilots in jail,
as well as punishing me by a forced resignation as a commander
and an illegal grounding, damaging my personal file and performance
reports, and forcing me into retirement now against my wishes
and in direct contrast to the official documents of the Headquarters
Air Reserve Personnel Center,” Heemstra said.
Cragin Promise
Heemstra was referring, he said, to a promise by Assistant Secretary
of Defense Charles Cragin at an earlier Government Reform hearing
on the AVIP that soldiers would not be intimidated or coerced
to participate in the program. If the exodus continues at its
current rate, the DoD could lose some 2,100 pilots, Heemstra said.
A possible AVIP alternative, suggested Stephen Porter, president
and CEO of Virtual Drug Development, Inc., which funds pharmaceutical
research, is a rapidly deployable prophylactic antibiotic, similar
to tetracycline, that could be ingested on the battlefield after
exposure to anthrax.
Such a drug, however, would take up to four years to develop,
Porter said.
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Last revised: March 2004