MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- Deploying Marines and sailors here are receiving their flu inoculations on schedule, and high-risk patients won't be far behind, Naval medical officials here announced Monday.

Shipments of influenza vaccine began arriving last week and more is on the way, officials said. Moreover, deploying troops already are rolling up their sleeves to get protection they need to be deemed deployment-ready.

"We've received enough vaccine to immunize the deploying active-duty population and expect to receive about 15,000 more doses during the last week of November," said Lt. Cmdr. Scott McKenzie, head of the preventive medicine department at Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton.

If the shipments arrive as scheduled, the hospital's local clinics should begin administering the vaccine to high-risk patients by the first week of December, hospital officials said.

The early shipments are earmarked for the fighting forces and are being distributed to branch medical clinics where deploying servicemembers are waiting to get their shots, said Doug Allen, the hospital's public affairs officer.

All branch medical clinics ultimately will get the vaccine, including those at Marine Corps installations in Barstow, Bridgeport and Yuma, Ariz., a hospital press release said.

The expected shipments should meet the Navy's targeted groups, McKenzie said, despite worldwide flu vaccine shortages that came to light last month.

"This should be enough vaccine to immunize all of our ... "high-risk" beneficiaries who are enrolled at the hospital or one of its clinics." McKenzie said.

The clinics will immunize only beneficiaries who meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's "high-risk" categories, McKenzie emphasized.

The categories:

- all children ages 6-23 months

- adults ages 65 and older

- people ages 2-64 with underlying chronic medical conditions

- all women who will be pregnant during the influenza season

- residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities

- children ages 6 months to 18 years on chronic aspirin therapy

- health-care workers involved in direct patient care

- out-of-home caregivers and household contacts of children 6 months and younger.

"As long as the vaccine is received as scheduled, (the hospital) and its clinics will be providing influenza immunizations to their respective enrolled beneficiaries during the first part of December," McKenzie said.

Information about the vaccination schedule will be announced during the last week of November through the media and on the hospital's Web site at www.enhcp.com, the press release said.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, battalion aid stations that serve soon-to-be-deployed troops had already begun receiving the vaccine. One of them -- 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment -- received some vaccine on Friday and began administering it Monday, said Chief Petty Officer Elio D. Zarinelli, a senior medical department representative for the battalion aid station.

Zarinelli said that despite the worldwide shortages and initial uncertainties over supply, the clinic is inoculating servicemembers at about the same time as last year.

"It's right on time," he said. "Even under normal circumstances, this is about the time we'd start. There's a window we have to do it by, and we're within that window."

The battalion is slated to deploy sometime in December.

For high-risk beneficiaries, the shots are scheduled to be administered no more than two or three weeks later than normal, Allen said. Normally, the hospital seeks to inoculate every beneficiary who comes forward, not just high-risk patients, he said.

Allen even acknowledged the possibility the hospital and its clinics may wind up with leftover vaccine, now that some beneficiaries may have gone elsewhere to get their shots.

Allen said the hospital and its clinics are receiving about 20 calls per day inquiring about whether vaccine is available.

"I don't know if that means a lot of people are out there waiting, or just a few," Allen said. "We can't really tell until (clinics start administering the shots) and we see how many people show up."

Two who won't show up are retired Gunnery Sgt. Jim Evans and his wife, Jeanne, who normally receive their prescriptions at the hospital but get primary care in Encinitas.

Their doctor's office didn't even order the vaccine because of the shortages. And with the Naval Hospital out of stock, they took shots when the could get them.

Their first opportunity came Monday in San Marcos -- and they grabbed it, even though the shots cost $20 apiece.

"We've been very concerned," Jeanne said. "Jim has had congestive heart failure before, and I'm diabetic, so it's a big concern."

"Your health is worth $20," added Jim, 80.

E-mail LaMay at lamaybe@pendleton.usmc.mil.