Dingle, opponent of anthrax program, dies
By Deborah Funk
Times staff writer
Retired Air Force Reserve Lt. Col. Russell Dingle, a longtime opponent of the military’s anthrax vaccination program, died Sept. 4 at age 49 of cancer.
The East Hartford, Conn., resident was a major in the Connecticut Air National Guard in 1998 when he and another officer in his unit were tasked to provide higher headquarters with information on concerns service members had about the shots.
However, their research of government documents raised questions about the manufacturer as well as the vaccine’s effectiveness and intended purpose, and led them to conclude the vaccine was not licensed to protect against inhaled anthrax.
Dingle was forced out of the Guard but joined the Air Force Reserve.
“Russ Dingle was one of the earliest and most thoughtful ... officers to question the anthrax vaccine program,” said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., chairman of the House Government Reform Committee’s national security panel.
“He was a witness before my subcommittee and a leader in the effort to protect service members from the avoidable health risks posed by the Pentagon’s force-wide, mandatory use of an old vaccine never approved for mass prophylaxis against aerosolized bioweapons agents,” Shays said. “Connecticut and the nation have lost a talented pilot and a dedicated patriot.”
Even after anthrax was sent through the mail to members of the media and politicians in fall 2001, Dingle continued to fight the Pentagon’s program, often using the government’s own documents.
He did not oppose the need for a vaccine to protect against anthrax — just the use of this one.
“This vaccine is the benchmark of how not to do it right,” he said in a 2001 interview with Air Force Times.
Dingle was among six people who four years ago petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to classify the vaccine as unsafe, ineffective or misbranded, declare existing stockpiles “adulterated,” and revoke the vaccine license from its maker — none of which the FDA did.
A federal judge later halted the mandatory program, finding that the vaccine was being used in a way for which it was not licensed. Anthrax vaccination for military members continues, but under a voluntary program unless and until the FDA follows proper procedures to license the vaccine for protection against inhalational anthrax.
Dingle retired from the military in 2003 as a recruiter for the Air Force Academy, after serving 21 years in uniform.
Among his previous tours of duty, he served as an instructor pilot and flight commander for the Connecticut Air National Guard and as an A-10 instructor pilot at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. He flew more than 2,000 hours in the A-10 Thunderbolt II.
Times staff writer
Retired Air Force Reserve Lt. Col. Russell Dingle, a longtime opponent of the military’s anthrax vaccination program, died Sept. 4 at age 49 of cancer.
The East Hartford, Conn., resident was a major in the Connecticut Air National Guard in 1998 when he and another officer in his unit were tasked to provide higher headquarters with information on concerns service members had about the shots.
However, their research of government documents raised questions about the manufacturer as well as the vaccine’s effectiveness and intended purpose, and led them to conclude the vaccine was not licensed to protect against inhaled anthrax.
Dingle was forced out of the Guard but joined the Air Force Reserve.
“Russ Dingle was one of the earliest and most thoughtful ... officers to question the anthrax vaccine program,” said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., chairman of the House Government Reform Committee’s national security panel.
“He was a witness before my subcommittee and a leader in the effort to protect service members from the avoidable health risks posed by the Pentagon’s force-wide, mandatory use of an old vaccine never approved for mass prophylaxis against aerosolized bioweapons agents,” Shays said. “Connecticut and the nation have lost a talented pilot and a dedicated patriot.”
Even after anthrax was sent through the mail to members of the media and politicians in fall 2001, Dingle continued to fight the Pentagon’s program, often using the government’s own documents.
He did not oppose the need for a vaccine to protect against anthrax — just the use of this one.
“This vaccine is the benchmark of how not to do it right,” he said in a 2001 interview with Air Force Times.
Dingle was among six people who four years ago petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to classify the vaccine as unsafe, ineffective or misbranded, declare existing stockpiles “adulterated,” and revoke the vaccine license from its maker — none of which the FDA did.
A federal judge later halted the mandatory program, finding that the vaccine was being used in a way for which it was not licensed. Anthrax vaccination for military members continues, but under a voluntary program unless and until the FDA follows proper procedures to license the vaccine for protection against inhalational anthrax.
Dingle retired from the military in 2003 as a recruiter for the Air Force Academy, after serving 21 years in uniform.
Among his previous tours of duty, he served as an instructor pilot and flight commander for the Connecticut Air National Guard and as an A-10 instructor pilot at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. He flew more than 2,000 hours in the A-10 Thunderbolt II.
