Air Force Doctor Facing Court Martial

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Air Force Doctor Facing Court-Martial

Associated Press

Last Updated: May 18, 2001 at 7:12:13 p.m.

JACKSON, Miss. - An Air Force doctor facing a court-martial for disobeying an order to take the anthrax vaccine pleaded innocent Friday.

Capt. John Buck also is appealing to Senator Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., to allow him to resign from the service rather than face a military trial.

The trial will deal with Buck's refusal to take the vaccine, not with safety and health issues surrounding the drug. Buck faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

Buck, 32, claimed in a pretrial motion that the vaccine is an experimental and potentially hazardous drug unlawfully forced on soldiers.

The military, however, insists the vaccine is safe and the best weapon against biological attacks. Pressure mounted to immunize soldiers to biological agents in the wake of the Gulf War.

The Air Force's decision to move forward with the trial came a day after Lt. Col. Mark Allred, the presiding military judge, ruled that Buck disobeyed a lawful order when he refused to take the germ warfare vaccine last year before deployment to the Middle East.

Buck, an emergency room physician at Keesler Air Force Base, submitted his resignation minutes after Allred's ruling and hoped the Air Force would delay the case until military brass could act on his request. But the Air Force opted Friday to move forward.

``Since Capt. Buck ... demanded to have a court-martial hear his case, this trial remains the fairest method of dealing with this matter,'' the Air Force said in a statement.

In his letter to Lott, Buck says he needs a delay in the proceedings so military officials can review the proposed resignation.

A spokesman for Lott said Friday afternoon the senator was on his way to Mississippi and had not seen the letter.

Anthrax is a disease that typically afflicts animals, especially sheep and cattle. Dry anthrax spores, which can be put into weapons, can cause death in humans if inhaled.

Buck has become a key figure in the resistance to the mandatory anthrax program. He and a former Air Force major filed suit May 2 against the Food and Drug Administration and the Defense Department in U.S. District Court in Washington seeking to end the program.

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