Hero punished for criticizing
vaccine
Special operations sergeant reprimanded for going
to surgeon at DAFB
By LEE WILLIAMS / The News Journal
10/31/2004
DOVER -- Jason Adkins is a hero.
On May 13, 2003, the technical sergeant was on the
first C-5 flown into Baghdad. The aircraft and the runway were blacked-out. Adkins, the
pilots and the crew wore night-vision goggles, casting a green tint on the gunfire that
filled the skyline.
His next mission was even worse.
On Jan. 8, 2004, after another C-5 had an engine
shredded by a surface-to-air missile, Adkins was picked to help fly the crippled aircraft
out of Baghdad on its three remaining engines - a bold feat even airworthiness experts
didn't know was possible with a 374,000-pound aircraft.
"We knew if [the plane] took another missile,
we'd be riding it into the dirt," he said.
C-5s don't have ejection systems or parachutes for
pilots or crew.
Adkins and the entire crew were recommended, and are
still in line, for the Distinguished Flying Cross, one of the nation's highest awards for
bravery.
Now, despite medals, special operations missions and
an unblemished service record spanning 14 years, Adkins says commanders at Dover are
making an example of him because he complained about his medical issues linked to the
anthrax vaccine. Adkins believes he's being punished to send a warning to other personnel
that they shouldn't call attention to the most controversial issue to hit the base since
the Vietnam War.
Adkins' former commander, retired Col. Felix
Grieder, is enraged that an airman of Adkins' abilities is being singled out for speaking
the truth.
"Sgt. Adkins flew two of Dover's
highest-profile special operations missions into a war zone and performed exceedingly
well," said Grieder, who commanded the 4,000 troops at Dover Air Force Base from 1997
to 1999. "Only Dover's very best fliers are selected for the special operations
missions. Since their missions are classified, their accomplishments are not widely known.
Sgt. Adkins has served our country and the Air Force well. Now, the Air Force needs to
properly address his health issues and treat him with the respect that he deserves."
Base officials declined to comment about Adkins'
situation or the uproar the vaccinations have caused at Dover.
Safety of flight
Adkins arrived at Dover in
1998. It was the fifth duty assignment for the Alabama native.
He has started a part-time landscaping business out
of his home in Smyrna, and he and his family are very involved in their church. Adkins
plans to retire in Delaware some day.
"It feels like home to us," he said.
"We love our church family and what we've made here."
Adkins got to Dover just as the anthrax vaccination
program was taking off.
Six of his eight anthrax vaccinations were tainted
with squalene, a fat-like substance linked to autoimmune disorders.
Adkins suffers memory loss, muscle and joint pain,
an occasional racing heartbeat, weight loss and severe migraines, all of which he blames
on the anthrax vaccine.
Once an avid powerlifter, Adkins weighed 252 pounds
and could bench press 425 pounds before he received his first anthrax vaccination.
"I used to own the gym," he recalled.
Now, he weighs 200 pounds and struggles to bench
press his own weight.
"I can't work out anymore because of the joint
pain," he said.
On Oct. 22, after he was hit by a
"crippling" migraine, Adkins told his squadron he was reporting to the flight
surgeon rather than flying a mission.
He didn't want his illness to endanger his crew.
Air Force policy clearly dictates that sick
personnel should not fly.
Even during a flight, if crew members become ill or
overly tired, they are encouraged to declare "safety of flight," at which point
they are relieved of their duties - no questions asked - without any fear of discipline or
repercussions.
Adkins didn't mention the link between his migraines
and the anthrax vaccine to the medical staff, but he didn't need to.
"Severe headaches," euphemisms for
migraines, are cause for grounding of pilots and crew. And like "joint pain,"
headaches have become buzzwords at Dover for personnel suffering adverse reactions to the
anthrax vaccine.
The flight surgeon prescribed Immotrex, an
antimigraine medication, for Adkins' headaches and a narcotic pain reliever that grounded
him for 20 days.
Because The News Journal has in the past month
brought heightened awareness to the anthrax controversy, Adkins believes the response from
his chain of command was immediate and unprecedented at Dover.
The chief flight engineer issued Adkins a letter of
reprimand (LOR), a potential career-killer for an Air Force sergeant. Adkins' military
lawyer says the LOR could bar Adkins from further promotion, access to specialty schools,
choice assignments or possibly even re-enlistment.
"Your actions decreased the readiness of a high
priority alert mission, caused last minute schedule disruptions and could have resulted in
loss of training or inability of DoD assets to execute the mission," the letter
states.
In addition to the written reprimand, issued
contrary to the Air Force's policy of progressive discipline, which generally dictates a
verbal warning followed by punishment that increases in severity, Adkins received 76 hours
of additional duty. That forces him to do nothing while sitting next to another flight
engineer in the base's control room - "on display" to every airman who walks by.
"They're making an example of me because I
complained about the migraines," he said. "They associate that with the anthrax.
They're scared of losing control."
Adkins can't appeal the reprimand, he can only write
a response.
He went to Capt. Josh Slomich, an Air Force lawyer,
for help.
Slomich has seen hundreds of letters of reprimand
during his time at the air base, but few like Adkins'.
"This is a pretty bad one," he said.
The letter, Slomich said, is undeserved and unfair
based on the facts.
"It's very unusual and strange he was given an
LOR for going on sick call," he said.
Slomich and one of Adkins' former supervisors
confirmed Adkins has never before been disciplined by the Air Force.
Adkins flew with Master Sgt. Dexter Joseph, the
chief special operations flight engineer, on the mission out of Baghdad. The two later
became close friends.
"We flew together all the time. We were on the
same crew," Joseph said. "I trusted him with my life then. I trust him with my
life now."
One former pilot said the reprimand will have
far-reaching effects.
Retired Lt. Col. Jay Lacklen is a former Dover C-5
pilot who blames his advanced arthritis on the six squalene-tainted anthrax vaccinations
he received at the base.
"By reprimanding Sgt. Adkins, Dover commanders
are encroaching on a sacred safety principle established by generations of military
fliers. When a crew member declares a safety of flight, he should never be challenged on
that call, if valid," Lacklen said. "To do otherwise would intimidate crews into
flying with unsafe medical conditions to avoid punishment. This would endanger the crew,
the aircraft and the mission. This is a gravely unwise sanction for a flight engineer who
did exactly as he should have."
Lacklen has spearheaded a public information
campaign about the anthrax vaccination program and has interviewed scores of fliers with
adverse reactions. But even Lacklen had never heard of a flier disciplined for going to
sick call rather than the flight line.
"Apparently, the Air Force is reprimanding him
for yielding to a condition they inflicted on him, a most unjust procedure that blames the
victim for the crime," Lacklen said.
Bunker mentality
Personnel at Dover Air Force Base don't discuss
their anthrax vaccinations openly.
"It's hush-hush," Adkins said. "We
have to go behind closed doors. It's hardly even brought up."
Dover Air Force Base has become ground zero for the
anthrax controversy. Problems began at Dover in May 1999 after some troops in their 20s
and 30s began developing illnesses normally associated with old age.
Adkins was one of them.
"Sgt. Adkins has experienced a significant
decline in his health since he started with the anthrax vaccination program at Dover Air
Force Base in late 1998," Grieder said.
Grieder, who was then commander, halted the
vaccination program, a move he said brought an end to his military career.
His decision thrust Dover into the national
spotlight.
Testing by the Food and Drug Administration detected
squalene in varying amounts in the vaccine administered at Dover. The substance was
detected in all the vaccine sent to Dover, but not in vaccine sent to other military
installations.
The Air Force and the Department of Defense have
continually stressed the safety of the vaccine, despite the claims of scores of military
personnel who say it made them ill.
On Wednesday, a federal judge in Washington, D.C.,
ordered the Pentagon to halt the mandatory anthrax vaccination program.
U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan issued
the order, calling the program "illegal." Sullivan did not rule on whether the
vaccine was dangerous, but he chided federal officials for not accepting enough public
input before they declared the vaccine safe.
Adkins, Lacklen and others say the combination of
national events and scrutiny from The News Journal has created immense pressure for senior
officers at the air base.
"Dover commanders are unjustly shooting this
anthrax messenger, Sgt. Adkins, to ensure there will be no more messengers," Lacklen
said. "This reveals an integrity collapse at Dover Air Force Base."
Neither Col. John Pray Jr., Dover's commander, nor
Command Chief Master Sgt. Stephen Maynard, the base's senior sergeant, returned calls or
e-mails seeking comment for this story.
Dover Air Force Base is subordinate to the Air
Mobility Command, located at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois.
Air Force Gen. John Handy, commander of Air Mobility
Command, was unavailable for comment.
His spokesman, Mark Voorhis, said the safety and
health of Air Force personnel are top priorities for Air Force leaders at all levels.
Voorhis hinted that Dover commanders may have gone
too far in Adkins' case, though he declined to address it specifically, citing privacy
concerns.
"It is not policy at any level to punish people
for reporting to sick call," he said.
Despite the possible violation of Air Force policy,
Voorhis said, "Wing and squadron commanders have the confidence of their senior
leaders in their ability to effectively discharge command responsibilities at their
levels."
On Thursday afternoon, after The News Journal
started investigating Adkins' story - and after Voorhis made inquiries for his boss, a
four-star general - the commanders at Dover intervened.
Adkins' entire squadron was recalled to the base for
an unannounced meeting.
"Since I'm still grounded for the headaches,
they told me I didn't need to attend," Adkins said. "They wouldn't tell me what
it was about."
The pilots and crews were ordered to go through the
base's public affairs chief, Maj. Cheryl Law, before talking to the media. They also were
ordered to avoid talking about the anthrax vaccination program, and they were told they
would be held accountable for what they say.
Law refused to disclose why the squadron was
recalled, or on whose order the recall took place, or specifically what the personnel were
told.
Lacklen pointed out that requiring the troops to go
through public affairs does not deny them access to the media, but it does force them to
publicly identify themselves before talking to reporters.
Structurally, they are filtering the soldiers' right
to free speech, he said.
"It's something they may properly do to protect
secrets," he said. "But they are doing it here to cover embarrassing
information.
"Ominously, they apparently must warn their
members not to tell the truth. The troops know nothing classified about the anthrax
program, so speaking about it to the media shouldn't be a problem, but apparently it
is," Lacklen said.
Ready to move on
Adkins does not want to remain in the Air Force, and
he will never again take another anthrax shot.
"I feel like I've been deceived and
misled," he said. "The whole program has caused a lot of harm to a lot of people
who are putting their lives on the line for this country. I am really thankful to Col.
Grieder for having the courage to step forward when no one else would.
"If someone is suffering symptoms like mine,
they need to come forward, because if you're suffering now, it's only going to get
worse."
Contact investigative reporter Lee Williams
at 324-2362 or lwilliams@delawareonline.com.
http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2004/10/31heropunishedfor.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/01/eveningnews/main603284.shtml
Military Vaccine Flattens GI, 17
MONTEREY, Tenn., March 1, 2004
Months after his paralysis hit, he was finally back at home, but he still couldn't feed
himself or put on his shoes. (CBS) Amid all the war stories that have come out of
the conflict with Iraq, Tyran Duncan's hasn't been widely told. The willing soldier
became an unwitting victim to the vaccinations he was required to take to deploy. And as
CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports, he's not the only one.
Tyran Duncan was just 17 - Number "45" at Monterey High in Tennessee - when he
signed up for the Army.
"I was excited," says Duncan. "I mean it's always been my lifelong dream to
go into the military and, you know, be a soldier."
At boot camp, he eagerly lined up for vaccinations, including flu and anthrax.
"They gave us, I'd say, seven shots . at one time," he says. First he got a
rash, then flu symptoms. "It got to where I couldn't walk at all," he
says. "I couldn't even hold my glass up with both hands to take a drink out of it.
"Basically they accused me of faking it." But Duncan wasn't faking.
Within days, he was paralyzed, on a respirator and certain he'd die, until his
grandmother who raised him came to help.
"There was nothing wrong with him when they got him," says Duncan's grandmother
Faye Harville. "It had to be the vaccines. I'll never see it another way."
Rehabilitation video chronicles his difficult fight back. At one point last January, he
weighed 96 pounds. Months after his paralysis hit, he was finally back at home, but
he still couldn't feed himself or put on his shoes. Today, he remains unsteady, and
muscle and joint pain are constant companions. Duncan's paralysis was diagnosed as
Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which is clearly listed under "adverse reactions" on
the anthrax vaccine label. But soldiers don't get to see that vaccine label when
they get their shots. And the Pentagon publicly claims there are no long-term
adverse events from the anthrax vaccine. So soldiers may end up misdiagnosed, then
discharged with serious illnesses.
Incredibly, Duncan has been listed as
"active duty" all this time, meaning the Army has yet to process his medical
case or decide on compensation. "Looking back on what I used to be and what I
am now, it's heartbreaking,"
says Duncan. But without the military career and questionable health, looking ahead
can
be even harder than looking back.
