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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/05/nyregion/05DRUM.html?pagewanted=print&position=top

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April 5, 2003

Court-Martial for Refusing Anthrax Shot

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

 

FORT DRUM, N.Y., March 4 — The Army has court-martialed a soldier from the 10th Mountain Division for refusing to be vaccinated against anthrax and influenza, officials at Fort Drum said today.

Pvt. Rhonda Hazley, 36, a mechanic with 514th Maintenance Company, was convicted March 21 of disobeying the orders of an officer and a noncommissioned officer, said Col. Robert Caslen, the division's chief of staff.

The court martial reduced her rank to private. She also was ordered to serve 14 days confinement.

"This is a force-protection issue," Colonel Caslen said. "We expect service members to comply with administration of all mandatory vaccines. Service members who do not comply with these measures endanger their own health and place both their unit and mission accomplishment at risk."

Private Hazley, of East Dublin, Ga., refused the vaccine because she is breast-feeding her child, her friend Stephanie Ingram told WWTI-TV, a local television station. Private Hazley joined the Army in April 1999 and was assigned to Fort Drum six months later.

A reservist at Fort Drum, Kamila Iwanowska, 26, from New York City, also faces a special court martial for refusing to receive the anthrax vaccine, The Watertown Daily Times reported today.

A Fort Drum spokesman, Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, confirmed that Ms. Iwanowska refused the vaccine, but he could not say whether disciplinary proceedings had been brought against her.

Ms. Iwanowska, a recently naturalized Polish immigrant, objected because she feared that the vaccination could have adverse effects on her ability to have a baby, her lawyer, Lionel Hector, said.

"She's not opposed to going to Iraq," Mr. Hector said. "She's willing to do her job. She is just adamantly opposed to this particular vaccination."
 


 

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