diff --git a/public/scala/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/queue/util/VCF_BAM_utilities.scala b/public/scala/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/queue/util/VCF_BAM_utilities.scala
index 33e9adb8d..1f18858e1 100644
--- a/public/scala/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/queue/util/VCF_BAM_utilities.scala
+++ b/public/scala/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/queue/util/VCF_BAM_utilities.scala
@@ -7,13 +7,13 @@ import net.sf.samtools.SAMFileReader
 import org.broadinstitute.sting.utils.codecs.vcf.{VCFHeader, VCFCodec}
 import scala.collection.JavaConversions._
 import org.broad.tribble.{FeatureCodec, AbstractFeatureReader}
+import org.broadinstitute.sting.utils.variantcontext.VariantContext
 
 object VCF_BAM_utilities {
 
   def getSamplesFromVCF(vcfFile: File): List[String] = {
-    List();
-    // TODO -- ask khalid for help here with type error
-    //return AbstractFeatureReader.getFeatureReader(vcfFile.getPath(), new VCFCodec()).getHeader().asInstanceOf[VCFHeader].getGenotypeSamples().toList
+    val codec: FeatureCodec[VariantContext] = new VCFCodec().asInstanceOf[FeatureCodec[VariantContext]]
+    AbstractFeatureReader.getFeatureReader(vcfFile.getPath, codec).getHeader.asInstanceOf[VCFHeader].getGenotypeSamples.toList
   }
 
   def getSamplesInBAM(bam: File): List[String] = {