US Navy Punishes Sailors for Refusing Anthrax Shots

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U.S. Navy Punishes Sailors For Refusing Anthrax Shots

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy said Friday it had punished 23 sailors

bound for the Gulf who refused compulsory anthrax shots the Defense

Department said will protect them against the deadly biological agent.

The group is the largest to refuse the vaccine, which Defense Secretary

Cohen ordered for all members of the military over a year ago.

Those who refuse the vaccine believe it has not been thoroughly tested and

could damage their health.

Lt. Cmdr. Mark Mc, a spokesman for the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, told

Reuters the 23 sailors from the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier were

demoted by one rank, given 45 days extra duty, restricted to the vessel for

45 days and ordered to pay fines equal to one month's pay.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt, which is based in Norfolk, Virginia, is due to

leave on March 26 for a six-month tour that includes time in the Gulf, a

potential anthrax zone.

``If you are going into an area where you face a potential anthrax

biological weapon, then you want to be as well-protected as possible. These

men are going to the Gulf and this is one of the reasons they had to have

it,'' said Mc.

He said aside from the 23 sailors, all 5,300 people on board the vessel were

inoculated against anthrax, an infectious disease which usually affects

livestock but can be spread to humans.

The punishment was less severe than one meted out by the Air Force in

California Wednesday when it discharged Airman First Class

Bettendorf for refusing the vaccine. In January nine Air Guard pilots from a

Connecticut A-10 squadron left the service rather than get the injection.

Refusing to have the shot amounts to refusing to follow an order which can

result in discharge from the force. Mc said the Navy felt its actions

against the sailors, who went on trial while on a training exercise off the

coast of North Carolina, was an appropriate level of punishment.

Pentagon officials estimate about 100 servicemen and women of the 218,000

who have had the first of six prescribed anthrax shots have resisted having

the injections.

Pentagon spokesman Capt. Mike Doubleday told reporters Thursday the vaccine

had been used since the 1970s and was safe.

``There are individuals who are still employed by the services, particularly

the Army, who have actually been receiving this vaccine for 25 years without

any ill effects,'' he said.

``Our belief is that service people who have any doubts about this should

talk to their chain of command, the senior NCOs, chief petty officers to

learn more about it,'' he said, adding that Cohen and other top officials

had been vaccinated.

The sole aim of the injection, he said, was to protect military staff who

may at some future time be put into a situation where anthrax was a threat.

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