Reservists criticize anthrax shots

 By Wayne Wilson

 Sacramento Bee
 Updated: March. 20, 2000 - 4:53 PM
 
 More than a dozen men and women, most of them former Air Force reservists who now pilot commercial airliners, gathered in Davis Monday to publicly condemn the military's anthrax immunization program.
 
 The Department of Defense order to inoculate all 2.4 million U.S. service members is folly, and the methods employed by commanding officers to enforce the edict, particularly at Travis Air Force Base, have been retaliatory and discriminatory, they said.
 
 "Up to 700 experienced reservists (nationwide) have quit, resigned or transferred to units not requiring the vaccine," said Mark S. Zaid, a Washington D.C. attorney who served as spokesman for the group. "And more and more will be bailing out if the program continues."
 
 Each of the retired officers at Monday's press conference -- a lieutenant colonel and several majors and captains - said they left their units after 11 to 26 years of service either solely or primarily because of their opposition to the anthrax program.
 
 Many expressed concern that their careers as civilian airline pilots would be jeopardized by the vaccine's potential side-effects.
 
 Although military officials insist the vaccine is safe and essential to the concept of force protection, skeptics contend that adverse reactions are more common than acknowledged and that the vaccine's effectiveness is unproven.
 
 Zaid claimed the adverse reaction rate is 175 times greater than the Pentagon is reporting, and he pointed out that the General Accounting Office concluded last year that its investigators were unable to determine if the vaccine being administered to military personnel is safe or effective.
 
 Many adverse reactions among fliers go unreported because pilots fear they'll be grounded, one press conference participant said.
 
 And when side effects are reported by troops who have been inoculated, the complainants are often dismissed as hypochondriacs whose ailments are "all in your head," another said.
 
 At Travis, commanding officers retaliated against anthrax resisters by repeatedly denying their transfer requests, according to Zaid.
 
 Maj. James J. Hechtl, a 16-year veteran and a member of the 301st Airlift Squadron, said that when he asked to move to a non-mobility position last year, he was told his request was "denied because it was presumed that I would refuse to take an anthrax shot."  Hechtl said that he had never been ordered to receive the anthrax vaccine but was characterized by his commanding officer as having "irreconcilable differences with the anthrax immunization program" and was denied transfer.
 
 Ramona Savoie of Davis, a veteran C-5 pilot who retired as a major in November rather than take the shots, said the squadron's senior officers used bureaucratic tactics to delay the departure of some 32 like-minded pilots until after the start of the new fiscal year.
 
 Reserve officials at Travis declined to comment on the accusations leveled at the press conference.
 
 "We weren't there and are in no position to respond," said Ronald C. Lake, deputy chief of public affairs for the 349th Air Mobility Wing.
 
 And Maj. Hechtl's allegations are part of a formal complaint that will have to be resolved in legal proceedings, Lake pointed out. >>