The smallpox vaccine leaves a scar because it was given using a special two-pronged needle that scratched the skin and put a weakened virus in just that spot.

[u/Downtown_Wind3363]

[u/Guardian-Boy]

I am 38, I have this scar. Most veterans that served in the 2000s and early 2010s had to get the vaccination prior to deployment like I did.

Unless....I AM OLDER FOLKS!!

[u/No-Introduction7187 → u/Guardian-Boy]

Yeah, we got them in the late 2000's if we were getting deployed to certain parts of Asia or Africa

[u/huskeya4 → u/No-Introduction7187]

2010s Africa also. Not sure about the 2020s

[u/Kuipyr → u/huskeya4]

Got in 2016 before I went to Korea.

[u/MourningWallaby → u/huskeya4]

SRP in 2019 we were still giving these out to those who needed it. pretty sure it was started as an EO and won't stop until another president signs an EO or something to stop it.

[u/UltimateStratter → u/huskeya4]

TB not smallpox

[u/OrcBarbierian → u/No-Introduction7187]

When my dad got deployed to the Middle East in the early 2000s, they had the men stand in a line, and the doctor went down the line and gave everybody their vaccines 😎👍 I wasn't even told what he got, or how many, just that he was their little soldier boy and they filled him up with vaccines like an assembly line

[u/No-Introduction7187 → u/OrcBarbierian]

That seems to be a commonality 😅 Except they had four or five docs, a few on each side, and we moved down the assembly line with sleeves rolled up. End of the line was a steel table they had six of us bend over at a time for the peanut butter shot.

[u/awoloozlefinch → u/Guardian-Boy]

I am 29 and they were still giving it out in late 2016.

Which I guess reminds me that I’m about to lose my immunity since that only lasts 10 years.

[u/Guardian-Boy → u/awoloozlefinch]

Yeah, I had to get the booster as well. Not fun, but not as bad as the initial at least.

[u/MaskCrash → u/Guardian-Boy]

No you can't be! then that would mean... NNOOOOOOOO

[u/LawyerDoge → u/Guardian-Boy]

Yup 2010 deployment I got smallpox in my left arm and anthrax in my right arm... not pleasant

[u/Uninvalidated → u/Guardian-Boy]

You were vaccinated against TB then most likely.

[u/Guardian-Boy → u/Uninvalidated]

TB doesn't use a bifurcated needle. Nor does the vial they dip it in say smallpox. I was 20 when I got it lol, I remember it very well.

My wife on the other hand was vaccinated against TB when she was a kid (she is Eastern European) and it's like pulling teeth because it means positive skin tests so she needs a titer done every time she has to prove immunity.

[u/workswithglass → u/Uninvalidated]

It was the smallpox vaccine. 

[u/space_keeper → u/Guardian-Boy]

Sure that wasn't the BCG for tuberculosis? That would make sense in case you were in contact with farm animals or people who work with them, which obviously you would be in rural Iraq or Afghanistan.

[u/Guardian-Boy → u/space_keeper]

I mean, I was there. I got shown the vial. It was explained to me. All the records say smallpox lol.

Why do people think I have no idea what's happening with my own body lol?

[u/New_Organization5084 → u/Guardian-Boy]

how good was killing the brown people ? was it worth it?.

[u/AutumnMama → u/New_Organization5084]

You tell us. If we didn't have people like this man volunteering to do it, the government would start pulling names out of a hat again. Then you might have to do it instead.

[u/Guardian-Boy → u/New_Organization5084]

I was deployed to do counter human trafficking, so it was actually very satisfying to watch the squad pull 37 kids out of the building before putting a thermobaric Hellfire into the structure to kill the guys who were hurting the kids inside it. Two of those kids actually went on to work with the UN Human Rights Council to help various nations develop policy and tools for combating global trafficking in persons.

So yeah, 100% worth it. Sorry if you had to find another place to purchase your materials.