C-5 pilot refused shots, became target

DOVER -- When a federal judge recently halted the military's mandatory anthrax vaccine program, Air Force Reserve Capt. Paul Staquet assumed his troubles had ended.

He was wrong.

The day the judge ruled, Staquet, a 33-year-old C-5 Galaxy pilot assigned to Dover Air Force Base, received a letter in the mail from his commanding officer. "I have initiated administrative separation actions against you," the letter stated.

In other words, Staquet's military career is over, and no federal judge or a ruling that the anthrax vaccine program be suspended will exonerate any military personnel in trouble for resisting the Defense Department's controversial vaccination program. Even at Dover, where tainted vaccine has heightened fears that the shots attack human immune systems.

Staquet is facing a bad-conduct discharge at a later date for refusing to submit to all six anthrax vaccinations - a sanction likely to destroy his military career and damage his future civilian career.

Staquet says he was targeted by his superiors the instant he refused the vaccine.

"It's punitive," Staquet said. "It's all because of the anthrax vaccinations. I know the science. The shot is not safe! More