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Page last updated: 30 January 2003
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Reuters Health
By Claudia Parsons
Wednesday, January 29, 2003
ABOARD USS TORTUGA (Reuters) - US sailors and Marines of the amphibious assault ship USS Tortuga were inoculated against anthrax and smallpox in the Gulf Wednesday, as the military gathered its forces for a possible war against Iraq.
"It makes it very real when they start giving you vaccinations for things you hadn't even heard of before," said 22-year-old Carrie Cornell, a third class petty officer from Philadelphia, after her smallpox jab.
A medical technician administers the inoculation with a two pronged needle, jabbing the patient's shoulder 15 times to pierce the skin without going too deep.
"I've had three tattoos, and this had to be the worst," said Lance Corporal Kent Jackson, who drives an assault vehicle.
The anthrax vaccination, which is said to feel like a bee-sting, is administered three times at 2-week intervals and then again in the sixth, 12th and 18th month from the first.
"It's a little bit scary, but dying of anthrax is more scary," said Ensign Robert Cripps after his vaccination.
The inoculations are part of a range of preparations for a possible war against Iraq, which the United States accuses of concealing chemical and biological weapons.
"We're ensuring we'll be able to fight the war on terrorism," said Lieutenant Browin Richards, the Navy doctor on the Tortuga, one of three ships carrying around 2,300 Marines of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
The Marines on board the three warships could be among the first to be called upon if President George Bush launches a war.
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