John Whitehead's Commentary

SSgt. 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 he deserves.--Col. Felix Grieder, Commander, Dover Air Force Base (1997-1999)

To be an officer of the United States military is to uphold the highest honorable human traits: courage, loyalty, leadership and strength of character. Yet the U.S. military is now forcing some of its finest to defend themselves for upholding their basic First Amendment right to free speech. Take, for example, Technical Sergeant Jason Adkins. He is currently under siege for attempting to bring to light the wrongdoing and breach of public trust by our government and military officials that is endangering the lives of countless servicemen and women through the forced anthrax immunization program.

Throughout his military career, SSgt. Adkins has been regarded as an outstanding airman by his peers. In May of 2003, the 32-year-old flight engineer, based at Dover Air Force Base (DAFB), was on the first C-5 flown into Baghdad during the Iraq war. And Adkins and his crew have been recommended for one of the nation's highest awards of bravery--the Distinguished Flying Cross--for rescuing a crippled C-5 the size of a football field out of Baghdad with only three functioning engines. Designated one of DAFB's first-rate fliers, his perilous 14-year career comes equipped with an unblemished service record during several highly classified missions--unblemished, that is, until he began questioning whether his debilitating migraines were linked to the involuntary anthrax vaccine.

Appropriately dubbed the Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program (AVIP), the U.S. military began its mandatory anthrax inoculations for every person in uniform in May 1998, with all 2.4 million troops slated to receive the shot by 2005. But the precise ingredients of the shot still remain unclear. The first anthrax vaccine for humans was developed in the early 1950s, and the Defense Department owns the patent. The first documented human use of the vaccine in the U.S. occurred in 1954 when it was administered to mill workers, but concrete study results were never officially published. After a subsequent study was released in 1962 on its effects on the mill workers over time, the anthrax vaccine's manufacturing process was altered.

This resulted in two very different vaccines. The second was granted a patent in 1965 under an anthrax "antigen" label and in 1966 was submitted for Investigational New Drug status by the CDC. The Public Health Service (the forerunner to the FDA) licensed this altered vaccine in 1970, although efficacy testing would not be completed for another two years. But despite the lack of testing for correct vaccine components to effectively abort the existing strains of anthrax, coupled with its prolonged use, the license was granted--in essence to the first and original vaccine. In a report dated April 29, 1999, the General Accounting Office stated, "The vaccine being administered by the Defense Department is not the same as the one originally tested prior to 1970."

For SSgt. Adkins and his fellow officers at DAFB, however, flimsy FDA approvals aren't the sole problem with the AVIP program. Vaccine testing by the FDA in 2000 detected varying amounts of squalene--a fatty substance naturally found in the body that, when injected as part of a vaccine, can supercharge the immune system's potential to create antibodies by serving as an irritant. Even trace amounts of squalene break down the immune system, causing advanced rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, various neurological difficulties, memory loss and unbearable migraines. Steadily increasing amounts of squalene were detected only in the vials of vaccine sent to Delaware, turning DAFB military personnel into subjects of illegal human experiments.

From 1998 to 2004, SSgt. Adkins received a series of eight shots, six of which were tainted with squalene. In May 1999, many DAFB troops in their 20s and 30s who received the vaccine began to suffer migraines, weight loss and other degenerative ailments typically associated with old age, including SSgt. Adkins.

On Oct. 21, 2004, SSgt. Adkins was suffering the worst in a recent string of incapacitating headaches and body aches and went to see a flight surgeon. His condition had worsened during the night, and Air Force policy specifically states that if crew members are ill in any way, they must declare "safety of flight," so as not to risk the mission's success. Adkins spoke candidly about his recurring symptoms with the medical staff, fearing he might be suffering from migraines--a flag word that translates into a disqualifying medical condition for any aviator. It is also a buzzword for DAFB personnel suffering some sort of harmful reaction to the anthrax vaccination. Grounded and placed on narcotics for pain, Adkins notified his squadron that he had been placed on "Duties Not to Include Flying" status by the Flight Surgeon.

SSgt. Adkins was accused of lying to get out of duty and was immediately issued a letter of reprimand so severe that Air Force lawyers claim it could potentially kill his military career on the spot. He has undergone humiliating public punishment by his superiors and peers, intended to make an example out of him. These are examples of a harsh sentence for a first-time offender under the Air Force's policy of progressive discipline. "They're making an example of me because I complained about the migraines," Adkins told Lee Williams of The News Journal. "They associate that with the anthrax. They're scared of losing control."

With the help of The Rutherford Institute, SSgt. Adkins has filed a federal lawsuit in his ongoing fight for his constitutional right--and that of suffering fellow soldiers--to protected speech on matters of public concern. Adkins has a long fight ahead of him. Although a federal judge in Washington, DC, ruled on October 27, 2004, that the military must halt the mandatory administering of the anthrax vaccine due to improper licensing, validation of safety and effectiveness, the Pentagon has said it is prepared to appeal and will do so any day now.

If there has ever been a time in the history of this country that our military personnel need our protection, it is now. Sadly, even though our soldiers find themselves spread about the globe fighting foreign enemies, they sometimes find that they must fight to protect themselves against their own superiors as well.

ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.

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