By Reni Winter
The Sun Herald
January 12, 2001
KEESLER AFB -An Air Force investigator will take up to five days to decide whether the government has enough evidence against Capt. John Buck to court-martial him for refusing to take the anthrax vaccine.
If he is found guilty, Buck, an emergency room doctor at Keesler Medical Center and the first doctor to refuse the vaccine, could face up to five years in prison.
But that is a price he is willing to pay because he believes the military's mandatory anthrax vaccine program goes against the principles of good medicine he has sworn to uphold.
"The possibility of going to prison is a reality," Buck said Thursday after the Article 32 investigation, the equivalent of a grand jury. "But I feel I'm not willing to compromise my principles for a short period of time in prison."
On Oct. 18, Buck refused to take the anthrax vaccine when he was told to do so before deploying to the Middle East. He was charged with Article 90 of the Military Code of Conduct, "willfully disobeying a lawful command of a senior commissioned officer."
On Thursday, Lt. Col. James Flanary, a military judge with the Air Force Legal Services Agency at Bowling AFB in Washington, D.C., heard testimony for and against Buck and received 20 documents in Buck's case - four against him and 16 on his behalf.
At the request of Brig. Gen. Ted Mercer, commander of the 81st Training Wing at Keesler, Flanary came to Keesler from Washington to function as the investigating officer in the case.
Buck's commanding officer, Col. Richard Griffith, a family practice physician and Air Force flight surgeon, filed the initial charge against the captain, who is in line for a promotion to major. While testifying against Buck, Griffith also spoke at length on his behalf.
"When he refused the order, his attitude was very respectful," said Griffith, commander of the 81st Medical Group at Keesler. "He wanted me to clearly understand his point of view. He said, 'I'm not trying to be a problem, but this is what I believe.'
"I believe he is very sincere, that he believes what he is doing is right, and that his motives are altruistic, that he wants to do what is right for other individuals as well as himself. I do not believe he is trying to subvert the mission (of the military), but is just strong in his conviction that this is the right thing to do."
For more than a decade, the Department of Defense has considered the Middle East a high risk area for biological warfare. Military officials also believe that anthrax is the biological weapon of choice by America's enemies.
Testimony from Staff Sgt. Tina Mauro, unit deployment manager for medical readiness at Keesler Medical Center, revealed that while Buck was initially chosen for the deployment team, he would not have eventually gone to the Middle East. After she had been told to find a captain for the three-member medical team, she was then told to find someone with a higher rank to fill his spot.
"That's an interesting point that was brought up today," Buck said. "If I would have received the shot, I wouldn't have gone (to the Middle East) anyway."
Buck, and other opponents to the mandatory vaccine program, object for several reasons. He has treated patients who have had adverse reactions to the vaccine. The form of anthrax the vaccine is designed to prevent is not the form that defense officials believe would be used as a weapon against American troops. They say the only laboratory that manufactures the vaccine has had numerous bad reports from the Food and Drug Administration.
On Nov. 2, the Defense Department announced a cutback in the number of military personnel who would be required to take the vaccine and revealed preliminary plans to improve the anthrax vaccination program. Among the proposed improvements is the construction of a government-run laboratory to manufacture the vaccine.
But in the meantime, the mandatory requirements will still be enforced.
"That's the crux of the argument," said Buck, who is still working at Keesler's hospital. "How we've come to these crossroads is that the military sees this as a military operation and a military objective. In their attempt to achieve military objectives, they are compromising the practice of medicine. Medicine is founded on three things - science, trust and patients' rights. I feel the mandatory nature of the program violates all three of those."
After Flanary reviews the evidence and testimony presented Thursday, he will make a recommendation to Mercer on whether the government should proceed with the court-martial.
Mercer will then make a recommendation to his commanding officer, Maj. Gen. John Regni. Regni will make the final decision, probably within two weeks.
Reni Winter can be reached at 896-0538 or at rbwinter@sunherald.com
Source: http://web.sunherald.com/content/biloxi/2001/01/12/pageone/3381831_01122001.htm