Keeping Faith, Losing Job

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January 19, 2004
Monday, January 19, 2004
By DEAN BAKER, Columbian staff writer

With his five little children hugging and kissing him and his wife beaming beside him, Erick Enz looks like a winner, five months after being drummed out of the Marine Corps.

The trim, smiling Enz, 33, said he's sure he did God's will by refusing to take an anthrax shot as ordered by the Marines before his unit shipped out for Iraq. The Enz family is devout, attending Rehoboth Jewish Messianic Church in Vancouver.

The price for his belief in God and his action backing it up was high, Enz said. But worth it.

He was convicted of disobeying an order and was dismissed from the Marines and sentenced to seven months in prison. He served just 25 days in the brig under a pretrial agreement. He was left without income and without a job, facing a future as a felon, unable to vote or hold federal office.

His case is on appeal and his conscience is clear, said Enz, who returned to Vancouver, WA, with his family in August from Camp Lejeune, N.C. He hopes to be reinstated as a Marine aviator and to have the felon status lifted. But he isn't counting on it.

"Either way, it won't stand in the way of what God has for my wife and I," he said. "Even though things may not seem fair, I know things have worked out the way they are supposed to. If things change in the future, that would be great. But if they don't, I'm still moving forward."

The military says nearly 700,000 soldiers have received the anthrax vaccine since June 2002 prior to service in Iraq. The Associated Press reported that in 2002 the federal government surveyed 1,253 soldiers who received anthrax vaccinations and found 84 percent suffered minor reactions, with 24 percent having major multiple "systemic" reactions, more than 100 times higher than the estimate of the manufacturer.

Enz wasn't alone in refusing the shot. Dozens of soldiers refused out of safety concerns, and many have been court-martialed, forced out of the military or imprisoned.

Washington lawyer Mark S. Zaid has filed suit challenging the use of the vaccine, arguing that research on it is incomplete.

Not health issue

But Enz said it wasn't the safety of the shot that made him act. Through prayer, he came to believe that God didn't want him to take the shot, he said, although he didn't understand why.

"I wasn't afraid of the shot," he said. "I've taken lots of shots. It wasn't that I doubted the value of the shot. It was just that God told me not to do it." He said God earlier had improved his poor vision to make it possible for him to become a Marine aviator, so he was a committed believer in prayer and conscience.

In federal court, however, the Marines refused to allow the divine intervention defense. They simply court-martialed Enz and convicted him for disobeying an order.

As a result, he lost his career. He had entered the Marines in 1990 and served in the Gulf War. After a few years out, he joined again. He was a first lieutenant and CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter pilot and up for promotion to captain.

He insists he still is technically a Marine, although "dismissed" from the service. His case is on appeal, and he said he is on "appellate leave" without pay.

Regardless of terminology and legal technicalities, he was out of the military and in limbo last summer. Folks back home in Clark County and Portland read about his case and began writing him and sending money.

"The Marine Corps quit paying me, but God took care of us, provided for us. We were able to take care of all of our bills. We were never late," he said. "One person gave us a check for $5,000." He declined to name the person and said quite a few supporters were anonymous.

"It wasn't just one person," said his wife, Keelee. "It was many people."

"God told us that he would take care of us, and he did," said Enz, who has a correspondence degree in theology from Christian Life School and an associate's degree at Clark College. He also attended Portland State University, where he played football.

Today, Enz supports Keelee, 28, and their children by working as a regional distribution manager for Airgas, a Portland-based gas and welding supply company. He supervises distribution in Oregon, Washington and Alaska.

Their children are Joshua, 8; Matthew, 7; Rachel, 5; Annamarie, 2, and Caleb, 10 months. Keelee's father, Larry Sapp, lives in Vancouver. So does Enz's father, Dan Enz.

"It motivates me to see him stand up so strongly for what he believes in," said Enz's 1991 Gulf War Marine buddy, Lance Powlison, 33, of Canby, Ore. "I think it's commendable, and I think his wife is pretty amazing to support him through all of this. Maybe they can't let him get back in the Marines, but taking away the felony would be a nice thing."

"He's a fine young man, isn't he?" said Enz's attorney, Marine Maj. Stephen Newman at Camp Lejeune.

No traction

Newman added, however, he doesn't believe Enz will gain any advantage in his appeal from recent court decisions questioning the government's use of the anthrax vaccine. He said Enz faces a long wait to find out how his case comes out on appeal.

In December, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in Washington, D.C., gave Enz hope temporarily by issuing an injunction blocking mandatory anthrax inoculations. The judge said the drug was experimental and "being used for an unapproved purpose."

But then on Jan. 7, Judge Sullivan reversed himself and lifted the injunction and again allowed the inoculations for all U.S. service members, except six unnamed plaintiffs in the Zaid lawsuit challenging the legality of use of the vaccine.

The legal machinations won't have any effect on Enz's case, Newman said. "It appears this was a lawful order," an order which no Marine can disobey, he said.

"But if the Marine Corps called me back, I would love to serve," Enz said. "That's why I went in the Marine Corps. I love my country. And I love being a helicopter pilot. I'd go back in a heartbeat. I told them before this happened that my bags were packed and I was ready to go to Iraq, without the vaccine, but they wouldn't allow it."

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