Major Nancy Jaax: A Strong Female Character in a Male-Dominated Military

There are a number of characters in this book, choose one and tell us why you would want to be that person. Throughout this book we are introduced to many interesting and riveting characters but in my opinion one of the best characters in this book would have to be Major Nancy Jaax. She was a veterinarian in the Army, and her work at Fort Detrick in Maryland often took her away from her children. Consequently, she often made up batches of meals in advance so they could easily be thawed and reheated in the microwave (Preston, 1994). She and her husband, Jerry, met in college and both became veterinarians.

They eventually entered the military together as members of the Army's Veterinary Corps(Preston, 1994). They lived in Maryland with their two children, Jason and Jaime, and various pets. Nancy's work took her away from her family in other respects, as well, and she missed saying goodbye to her dying father because she felt that leaving during the decontamination mission would be a dereliction of duty (Preston, 1994). Nancy Jaax had to fight to get into the pathology group at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (Preston, 1994).

At that time, her status as a married female" made other people feel that she was unqualified for the Job and that she would panic in a dire situation. The military at that time was still a very male-oriented organization. In addition, Nancy had bad reactions to the vaccinations necessary to enter the program (Preston, 1994). She actually wanted to get into the Level 4, or the highest-risk part of the program, because there is no vaccine for those agents. Finally, Nancy's hands tended to move very quickly, and that made others nervous (Preston, 1994).

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When individuals handle sharp instruments that could be contaminated witn virus-intested b everyone wants to believe that his or ner partner is going to handle these instruments safely. Over the course of time, Nancy battled through each of these objections. She studied martial arts to control her movements, and at 5 feet, 4 inches, she could knock a 6-foot-tall man to the ground easily (Preston, 1994). Getting accepted into the program also included her standing up for herself to the colonel in charge of the program (Preston, 1994).

She proved her desire and her competency, and by the time of the outbreak at the monkey house in Reston, Nancy Jaax had been promoted to the Chief of Pathology at USAMRIID Preston, 1994). 2. In your opinion did the government react appropriately when they decided to destroy the monkeys in Reston? Why or why not? In my opinion, yes the government did react appropriately when they decided to destroy the monkeys in Reston. The monkeys at a research facility were infected with a strain of Ebola.

The military, along with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), takes on the task of entering the monkey house and destroying the animals in an attempt to keep the virus from Jumping into the human population and causing a potentially worldwide crisis (Preston, 1994). The entire facility must be treated as a Hot Zone, and hundreds of monkeys are killed. Scares abound throughout the procedure: one woman's ventilated suit runs out of battery power, a monkey thought to be unconscious wakes up on the operating table while it is being euthanized and tries to bite a soldier, and tears occur in various members' space suits

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