During 10 years in the cockpit of a C141 transport, Capt. Mike Pulsifer
endured engine failures, communication foulups and marathon flights,
but not until last month did he feel compelled to pursue a pilot's final
option.
He bailed out.
The 36-year-old Germantown resident joined as many as 21 other pilots in
the 164th Airlift Wing of the Tennessee Air National Guard in
resigning or requesting transfers rather than take a biological warfare
vaccine for anthrax. More than two dozen pilots chose to stay.
``I've always taken orders and followed instructions, but this has
pushed me over the edge,'' Pulsifer said.
Also pushed - but not quite to the edge - was Lt. Col. Ronald E.
Pennington, 38, one of the pilots who chose to remain with the 164th.
Harboring his own doubts about the vaccine, he agonized over the issue
before agreeing to start taking the shots.
``It was a very emotional, personal decision,'' said Pennington, who
lives in the Lakeland area. ``I went to the 11th hour with it.''
The turmoil felt by Pennington and Pulsifer has percolated for weeks
throughout not just the 164th, but some other National Guard and reserve
units across the nation. It reflects the peculiar unease that non-active
duty personnel feel over the Pentagon's 17-month-old mandatory anthrax
vaccine program.
Despite assurances from authorities that the vaccines are safe and
effective, some critics insist they're neither. For Pennington, Pulsifer
and other
pilots in the air guard, the debate has forced them to ask how much
they're willing to sacrifice for a part-time job that - for all its
intangible
appeal - pays one-tenth, or less, what they can earn flying commercially
in their civilian careers.
So far, nearly 350,000 service personnel, along with Defense Secretary
William Cohen, have at least begun the six-shot vaccination process.
The program calls for the inoculation of all servicemen and women by
2005.
The inoculations were ordered amid evidence that Iraq and other
potential adversaries had developed biological weapons that deliver
anthrax spores
to a battlefield.
Anthrax is an infectious bacterial disease that typically afflicts
livestock. While it is very treatable in people when they contract it
through skin
absorption or ingestion, the disease usually kills those who are
infected by inhaling spores.
The vaccine, licensed by the Food and Drug Administration in 1970,
contains no live anthrax, but a sterile ``filtrate'' from a strain of
anthrax that
does not cause disease.
It has been used for years among veterinarians, livestock handlers,
laboratory workers and others.
An independent civilian advisory panel reviewing vaccines declared in
1985 that there was sufficient evidence that anthrax inoculations
generally
were safe and effective.
September figures showed that among military personnel taking the
anthrax shots, 314 ``adverse event'' reports had been filed under an FDA
system for tracking vaccines.
``Yes, there have been symptoms. . .,'' Department of Defense spokesman
Jim Turner said. ``But you're talking about a very small number of
people here.''
Testifying before a Congressional committee in July, Maj. Gen. Robert G.
Claypool, a deputy assistant Defense Secretary for health affairs, said
adverse reactions to the vaccine have been no more frequent than those
from vaccines widely used among civilians.
``While we are aware of isolated, unexplained persisting systemic
conditions . . . we are not aware of any pattern of long-term side
effects from
the anthrax vaccine,'' Claypool said.
Turner said the vaccine is neither experimental nor ``investigational,''
as critics have claimed. ``It's a vaccine that's out there and has a
proven
track record.''
Still, some researchers dispute the vaccine's safety and accuse the
Pentagon of making it impossible to properly document adverse reactions.
Dr. Meryl Nass, an internist in Brunswick, Maine, who has studied
anthrax and biological warfare weapons for a decade, said her research
shows
the vaccine is producing ``unheard-of'' rates of adverse reactions.
Anywhere from 5 to 15 percent of the service personnel taking the shots.
are suffering chronic health problems, including dizziness, muscle-joint
pain and sleep disorders, she said.
``There are huge numbers of adverse effects. We're talking about very
serious medical complications,'' said Nass.
``It looks like a Russian roulette. You may be all right, but there's
probably at least a 10 percent chance you're going to have problems.''
For Nass and other critics, the vaccine raises the specter of the
so-called Gulf War syndrome. Following the 1991 conflict, thousands of
soldiers -
many of whom had received a battery of vaccines against anthrax and
other biological weapons - complained of symptoms ranging from chronic
pain and fatigue to sleep disorders.
Earlier this year, a study employing questionnaires given to 30,000 Gulf
War-era veterans identified a ``cluster of symptoms'' unique to those
serving in the conflict, said Dr. Han Kang, director of the
environmental epidemiology service with the Veterans Health
Administration.
Some researchers have suspected vaccines against chemical and biological
weapons as a possible factor in the ailments.
A medical report released this week said an experimental drug intended
to protect troops against nerve gas might have triggered the illnesses.
But a study of British Gulf War veterans found that ``servicemen who
received vaccinations against biological warfare agents were more likely
to
report long-term symptoms,'' the medical journal Lancet reported in
January.
However, Virginia Stephanakis, spokesman for the U.S. Army Surgeon
General's Office, discounts any link between anthrax vaccines, which
were given to an estimated 150,000 U.S. troops, and the Gulf War
ailments.
``There just isn't a connection there,'' she said.
Stephanakis said researchers at the Army's Medical Research Institute of
Infectious Disease at Fort Detrick, Md., have been taking the vaccine
for
decades without any unusual problems.
And she said the vaccine is needed.
``It would be almost malpractice not to use it if we knew our soldiers
were at risk,'' Stephanakis said.
Nass disagrees. Even if the vaccine is safe, she said, it doesn't
represent an effective response to the threat of biological weapons.
To begin with, anthrax isn't nearly as well-suited for battlefield use
as it is for terrorism purposes, Nass said. Also, it's impossible to
inoculate a
military force against the endless array of biological weapons.
``You can't keep up,'' she said. "They can invent new bio-weapons
quicker than you can invent vaccines for them.''
Finally, ``weaponized'' anthrax would likely be too potent for the
vaccine to ward off, she said.
That issue - the effectiveness of the vaccine - is as salient to pilots
such as Pennington as the safety concern.
Even the independent civilian panel that concluded the vaccine was safe
could not verify its effectiveness against inhalation anthrax in humans.
The evidence in that regard ``is not well documented,'' it said.
Tests on animals have been mixed. The vaccine worked well in protecting
monkeys from inhalation anthrax, but tests on guinea pigs were much
less successful.
Turner, the Defense Department spokesman, called the studies reassuring.
``The real gold standard is the primate, the monkey, and that's where
you see the protection,'' Turner said.
Many servicemen and women find themselves caught in the middle.
The Pentagon doesn't track the number of people declining the vaccine,
but the compliance rate seems to be exceptionally high, Turner said.
Among non-active-duty units, however, the program has been more
contentious.
The Memphis-based 164th, which is among the first Air National Guard
units slated for the shots, could lose up to 22, or 46 percent, of its
48
pilots, said Maj. Lamar Spencer, executive support officer.
But overall, about 85 percent of the more than 800 unit members began
the shots on schedule. Some of those who haven't begun the
inoculations aren't eligible because of medical conditions, such as
pregnancy.
The proportion of Memphis pilots leaving is similar to that at Dover Air
Force Base in Delaware, where two reserve squadrons stand to lose 42
to 48 percent of their pilots.
The choices made by Pennington and Pulsifer reflect two of the basic
alternatives presented by the vaccine program.
Pennington chose to accept the inoculation and stay. Pulsifer, in
refusing the shots, resigned from the 164th in September and requested
transfer
to an inactive ready-reserve unit, a post that doesn't pay but would
allow him to retain his officer's commission.
They have much in common. Both are FedEx pilots, and both are young
fathers. Pulsifer has a wife and 3-month-old daughter. Pennington, also
married, has boys ages 5, 7 and 9.
Differ as they might, Pennington, Pulsifer and other pilots in the 164th
voice similar love, pride and devotion to a part-time job that pays
perhaps $15,000 a year, consumes many weekends and holidays and sends
them all over the globe on sometimes-risky missions.
``I enjoy it, Number One,'' Pulsifer said. ``We do a great job. We
support a great mission.''
In addition to taking orders and taking risks, the Airlift Wing members
are accustomed to taking shots. Like most military personnel, they've
been inoculated against diseases ranging from yellow fever to typhoid.
For many, however, the uncertainties about the anthrax vaccine weighed
heavily.
``If it (the Air Guard) paid my rent, I would've gotten in line to take
the shots because I wouldn't have had a choice,'' Pulsifer said.
When the vaccine program was initially announced, Pulsifer said he had a
``wait-and-see'' attitude. He credits fellow pilot Lt. Col. Jeff
Jeffords,
who also is opting out of the 164th, with pointing out concerns about
the inoculations.
Jeffords, who testified at congressional hearings last month, said he's
heard of extensive problems with the vaccine. ``There are many people
with
chronic illness that the (Defense Department) is not acknowledging.''
A recurring concern among some air guard pilots has been the possible
effect on commercial jobs.
Pennington and Pulsifer, like Jeffords and the many other FedEx pilots
in the 164th, must pass rigorous physical exams every six months to
maintain their first-class medical certification from the Federal
Aviation Administration.
Tom Wallace, a Germantown resident who retired from the Mississippi Air
National Guard prior to the anthrax issue, said a pilot who suffers
chronic reactions from the vaccine could flunk every physical
thereafter.
``It's too much to gamble,'' Wallace said. ``They can't afford to play
with their airline careers. From the facts I've heard, I'd bail out.''
However, for Pulsifer, the concern goes beyond its possible effects on
his career.
``You ask anyone who doesn't have their health what they would give to
have it back. They'd give anything,'' he said.
Even though he's begun taking the shots, Pennington says he's troubled
by the lack of data showing the vaccine offers adequate protection.
Authorities have an obligation to prove effectiveness, he said, because
there are risks with any vaccine.
``You could take a flu shot and die,'' Pennington said. ``If you're
going to take the risk of getting a shot, you want to know it's going to
work.
There is no data proving that this shot works in humans.''
Prior to the first round of shots earlier this month, the 164th listened
to a public health officer discuss the vaccine program and address
members'
questions. Pulsifer was unswayed.
``The answers we got were very unsatisfactory.''
However, with two or three rounds of shots already administered, Spencer
said the inoculations are going well. There have been no serious
reactions reported, only the "minor or localized'' type, such as redness
or soreness where the shot was given.
Spencer said he couldn't gauge how readiness would be affected if the
number of pilots leaving remains at 22.
``Readiness is assessed, basically, on a day-to-day basis,'' Spencer
said.
But he said commanders have reviewed the schedule and commitments for
the 164th through next Sept. 30 and determined the unit will be able
to meet them.
``What I can tell you is . . . we are not going to slow down one bit.
It's business as usual, as far as we're concerned,'' Spencer said.
As the pilots leave, Pennington said he respects the decisions of those
who chose not to take the vaccine.
``They're all my friends,'' he said. ``They're the finest officers I've
ever served with.''
Pennington said taking the shots ``makes me no more loyal or patriotic
than those guys.''
Pennington said he hasn't noticed any adverse reactions to the shots so
far.
``I feel like a million bucks right now,'' he said.