From Draft NOtices, January-March 2007

Enlightenment at Boot Camp Leads to Discharge

The following account is from the mother of a young man who joined the Marines in 2006 and quickly got a rude awakening.

Christopher is home now. He got an early separation for failure to adapt to military life. I am so proud of him for standing up for what he believed and for his courage to recognize his mistake quickly. His experience is pretty interesting. I am trying to get him to write it down but right now he is just enjoying being home and in the throes of looking for a job. While I can’t do his story justice, I will share some things he told me that I found to be particularly disturbing.

Chris said it didn’t take long for him to know he was in the wrong place. He is a serious history buff and has been watching the History Channel since he was in elementary school. A few days into boot camp he attended a history class. The instructor asked the platoon, “How many of you in here hate history?” The entire platoon — with the exception of two, my son and another young man — raised their hands. “That’s probably because you were taught history by some liberal hippie. Here is the real story.” Chris said what followed was a one-sided view of history that could only be defined as propaganda. The scary part was that many of these young Marines bought into this view of history that included skewed numbers of battle casualties — e.g., we killed 4,000 and only lost four of our guys.

The second rude awakening was the class on rules of engagement for land warfare. The Geneva Convention was discussed; however, the overall message was that its rules could be broken as long as one didn’t get caught. Chris said the instructor actually said, “Now, you are supposed to provide medical care to an enemy soldier who is down. But if they are bleeding, there is nothing wrong with applying more force than you need to stop their bleeding.” My son was appalled by this since it seemed especially cruel. He won’t go into details but he did say it only got worse. In addition to the classes, Chris was stunned by the fact that “Kill, kill, kill” is used both as a chant during PT and as a “motivational statement.” They also chanted “Slap that bitch” and “We’re going over to get us some!” My son was struck by the prevalence of sexism and homophobia and saw how it is connected to the horrible behavior of some of our service men.

Chris was also sickened by having to force other Marines to endure “Water It.” As a punishment recruits are ordered to drink water until they throw up; they must continue to drink until they are finally allowed to stop by their drill instructor (DI). Other recruits are ordered to continue bringing water even if the recruit drinking is throwing up. It seems to be a particularly dangerous and cruel practice.

There were many other experiences that violated my son’s values. When they placed a bayonet in his hand and urged him to visualize slicing open the guts of the enemy, he realized he was a conscientious objector and could not find a single reason that would justify doing this to another human being.

Chris went to his DI and explained his concerns. He was laughed at, mashed, and sent back. He decided he would do whatever it would take to get out. He mustered all his courage and stopped obeying orders. He peacefully and quietly held his ground even when five DIs were yelling in his face. His standoff lasted about two days. The only time he almost gave in was when they threatened to mash his entire platoon. He is a kind, loyal and community-oriented man so this was almost more than he could bear.

The DI persuaded him to at least do PT and promised him that they would then send him to talk to someone about a discharge. He later overheard a conversation and discovered they were stringing him along. He decided he needed to do something pretty dramatic to show them he was serious, so during PT he made a run for it. (He had the highest PT score in the company and the fastest running time.) He had no idea where he was going but at that moment it didn’t matter to him. He was chased by a DI in a golf cart who threatened to tackle him or run him over. He then met with an officer who took a softer approach and encouraged him to keep an open mind and train for ten more days. At the end of that time, if he still wanted out they would let him go. Chris honored his end of the agreement. He kept an open mind and put everything he had into it. He trained so well that they considered making him squad leader again, which is quite unusual given his previous insubordination. (He was previously fired as squad leader because he used the word “please” to address his squad. The squad leader who punched another recruit in the mouth kept his position.)

Chris wrote me and told me that he believed he could not be a good Marine because it would require him to not think or feel and to do things that rocked his conscience. After the ninth day he knew he could not continue. He asked his DI if he could become a non-combatant and was laughed at.

At his next meeting with the officer he was honest and told him he could not in good conscience do what was required of him. The officer broke his word, blew him off and sent him back to his platoon. But Chris was determined. One of his DIs pulled him aside and inquired about the meeting he had with the officer. Chris told him what happened and that he would stop at nothing, including a hunger strike, to get out. The DI told Chris he was contaminating the rest of the platoon with his conscientious objector crap. (Chris is articulate and charismatic and while voicing his concerns was apparently resonating with others. Two more recruits from his platoon left after he did.)

The DI told Chris to go to sick hall, admit to being depressed and to somehow let it slip that he was desperate enough to do something on the rifle range. Chris felt this was pretty ironic since he had been saying for two weeks that the reason he wanted out was that he couldn’t in good conscience harm anyone. Nevertheless, Chris said the key phrase and was immediately processed out. He is home now.

His hair is much shorter and his arms quite a bit bigger from all those push-ups. But more importantly, he has a new focus. He plans to go back to school and is still considering politics. I asked him what he would do if his discharge ever became an issue. He told me this: “I will tell them the truth. I was young and enlisted for something that at the time I thought I could do. I realized that in good conscience I could not do what was required of me. As soon as this came to my awareness I did everything I needed to do to act on my values and follow my conscience. It would have been easier to stay in, to follow along, to stop thinking or feeling, but I had to stand up for what I believe in. I told them the truth and when the truth didn’t work, I played by their rules to get out.”
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SIDEBAR:

Basic Training

This story shows the essence of boot camp, from the dehumanization and physical brutality meant to create obedient soldiers, to the threats and lies used to induce cooperation and conformity. Not all young recruits can withstand the overwhelming pressure, so many remain in the military despite strong objections and serious reasons for discharge.

Military counseling, especially when combined with aggressive representation, can force recruit commanders to initiate the discharge process and take some of the pressure off the recruits during the process. Readers who become aware of recruits seeking discharge are encouraged to contact the GI Rights Hotline at 800-394-9544 or the Military Law Task Force at 415-566-3732 or 619-233-1701.

This article is from Draft NOtices, the newsletter of the Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (http://www.comdsd.org)