Sailors Punished Over Anthrax Shots

Twenty-nine sailors aboard the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt have been punished for refusing to accept anthrax vaccine shots, the Navy announced Thursday, in the latest sign of resistance in the ranks to what Pentagon officials believe is a low-risk preventive measure.

The Navy said that the 29 service members on the Norfolk-based nuclear carrier have been demoted, fined, jailed for up to 45 days or given extra duty for refusing to undergo the mandatory round of six injections to protect them from the deadly biological warfare agent.

Since the Pentagon began administering the injections last year, about 100 military service members have refused orders to take shots that the Pentagon considers necessary because of the increasing chance of a germ-warfare attack.

Among those refusing are 10 Marines from the Marine Corps base at Twentynine Palms, Calif., and 12 airmen from Travis Air Force Base, near Vacaville, Calif.

Defense officials insisted that the number is small, especially when compared with the 218,000 troops who have consented to take the injections. Yet, with rumors about alleged dangers of the vaccine swirling on the Internet, the issue has become increasingly troublesome for military officials.

Defense Chief Defends Program

Defense Secretary William S. Cohen, on a trip to the Persian Gulf this week, defended the program to military personnel in that theater by pointing to U.S. intelligence that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is even now at work on germ weapons he could use against them.

“If you were not protected against that, I would be derelict in my duties sending you out in an environment in which you weren’t properly protected,” Cohen told airmen at Al Jaber Air Base in Kuwait, adding that he himself already has received five injections.

Anthrax is a disease that normally preys on livestock but can be used as a biological warfare agent capable of killing thousands of soldiers or civilians. It is considered one of the most deadly biological warfare agents ever developed.

Officials said that the vaccine has been in use since 1970, including by Special Forces troops, and has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Of the 38 troops who have had reactions to the vaccine, only one was seemingly serious: a sailor on the destroyer John S. McCain who suffered temporary paralysis after receiving a shot. Most other reactions have been limited to swelling or redness of the arm or brief flu-like symptoms, according to Jim Turner, a Pentagon spokesman.

But some troops have been skeptical, in part because of their memories of other widespread maladies blamed, rightly or wrongly, on an uncaring military hierarchy.

These include radiation illnesses from nuclear testing in the 1940s and 1950s, illnesses attributed to herbicide “Agent Orange” in the Vietnam War era and “Gulf War Illness,” a still unexplained ailment linked to various afflictions experienced by thousands of veterans of the 1991 war with Iraq.

“They’ve developed a distrust for the government,” said one military official, who asked to remain unidentified.

Although the Pentagon and the FDA steadfastly deny it, reports on the Internet assert that troops can suffer sterility, birth defects and even cancer many years after taking the shots.

Officials said that those who refuse the vaccine will be discharged from the military. Whether they receive an honorable discharge, which generally would preserve their benefits, or a dishonorable discharge, depends on their record and how they behave, officials said.

The refusals on the Roosevelt came to light only after a sailor sent an anonymous e-mail message to the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot newspaper. Officials said that 38 sailors initially balked at the shots but some changed their minds.

A sailor told the newspaper: “I was given nothing to explain what I was taking so I did my own research and found disturbing reports. We are scared.”

But military officials insisted that they have been offering to brief troops who are concerned at length and in detail.

The first service member to be discharged was Marine Pvt. Rafal Zelek, from the Corps’ Twentynine Palms base, who, on March 4, was demoted, ordered confined for 30 days and given a bad conduct discharge for refusing to accept the shot.

Travis AFB Airman Is Discharged

Nine other Marines at the base face special courts-martial for refusing the injections. About two dozen other Marines on Okinawa face punishment for their refusal, officials said.

On Wednesday, Air Force authorities at Travis Air Force Base discharged Airman Jeffrey A. Bettendorf under “other than honorable conditions” for his refusal.

Maj. Mike Halbig, a spokesman for the 7,200-airman base, said that officials counseled Bettendorf at length about the shots and gave him two opportunities to comply. But Bettendorf, who until then had a good service record, refused direct orders twice.

Eleven other reservists at the base, including 10 pilots of KC-10 refueling aircraft, and one enlisted flight engineer, have submitted paperwork seeking to retire from the service, partly or entirely because of their desire to avoid the shots.

A spokeswoman, Air Force Capt. Tanya Daniels, said that most of these 11 reservists already were unhappy with the service because of the necessity to travel far from their civilian jobs and families.

The mother of a sailor from Santa Monica called The Times this week to seek information about the shots and expressed fear that military authorities could not be trusted.

“I’m just beside myself,” said the woman, who asked to remain unidentified. “My son has found all this stuff on the Internet. And I don’t know what to believe.”