FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 2, 2000

(Dover AFB, DE) Air Force Major Sonnie Bates today waived his right to a hearing before an investigating officer looking into the charge that Major Bates failed to obey an order to take the controversial anthrax vaccination.

Major Bates declined the February 3, 2000, hearing because he believed the Air Force intended to use the hearing as an arena for defending a questionable policy rather than for its authorized legal purpose of gathering facts about the charged offense. Of the five witnesses the government intended to call to the stand, only one, the squadron commander who ordered Major Bates to take the anthrax vaccine, had knowledge of the offense charged. The other witnesses, including the veterinarian who heads the Air Force anthrax vaccine program, had no direct knowledge of the facts of the charges. Major Bates said in a letter to the Air Force declining the hearing, "I refuse to be exploited" for the purpose of allowing more service members to risk their health with this shot.

Major Bates said later, "If the Air Force wants to showcase their policy with all of the people who think the vaccine is safe, they should let me call all of the people who think it is unsafe. I know dozens of people who got seriously ill after taking the shot, including a whole bunch from right here at Dover Air Force Base. I guess they don't want to talk about that." Major Bates also noted that the government had only recently spent tax dollars to install an expensive camera and microphone system in the courtroom to use his prosecution to market the Pentagon's vaccine policy.

Major Bates' defense team had earlier filed papers with the government revealing that the prosecution was retaliatory in nature. Major Bates' lawyers noted that on October 12, 1999, he testified before Representative Dan Burton's House Committee on Government Reform concerning the numerous people at Dover Air Force Base suffering from adverse health effects related to the anthrax vaccine. On November 18, 1999, Major Bates submitted his resignation, offering to give up his exemplary 13 year career to avoid a confrontation over taking the vaccine. Instead of letting him resign, however, the Air Force ordered him to take the vaccine on December 1, 1999 and criminally charged him when he refused.

Also today, at a briefing for Capitol Hill staffers, Major General Randall West, USMC, the Secretary of Defense's point-man on the anthrax vaccine policy, stated that Major Bates should be permitted to resign.

A March 2000 trial date is anticipated.