A few Good Men Want Out of the Military
Christian Conscience Meets the Marine Corps -- 5
LH: Was your civilian lawyer allowed to be present at this trial?
MP: He could have been there, but we decided not to do that. The military attorney that I did have was very competent. He was a real human being. He was one of the few Marines who was actually involved with people in that organization. During the trial, we brought up conscientious objection and the fact that I should not have been in the Marine Corps in the first place. So it should not have been considered an unauthorized absence, since my C.O. discharge had been erroneously denied. Three months before, I shouldn’t have even been in the Marine Corps. I was sentenced to a bad conduct discharge and reduction in rank to private.
LH: What is a bad conduct discharge? Who usually gets this kind of discharge?
MP: You can give somebody convicted of murder in the Marine Corps a bad conduct discharge.
LH: Murder in the Marines? You mean a Marine murdering a Marine, not, say a Marine murdering a Vietnamese?
MP: Right. Prospective employers tend to frown on bad conduct discharges. It means you’ve really been a bad boy and not even the Marine Corps wants you.
LH: But you hadn’t done anything really to merit a bad conduct discharge, had you?
MP: No. I had just left my job for three months. The Marine Corps has a good record; they have a ninety-five percent conviction rate. If you do something wrong, you’re guilty; and you go in there and just wait for the sentence.
LH: What did you expect them to give you?
MP: I could have got a year in prison, a substantial fine, forfeiture of all pay and allowances that were due to me, or a bad conduct discharge.
After the court-martial, since I had not been sentenced to confinement or anything, the jury’s opinion was, "We had better get rid of this guy as fast as we can. He’s a trouble-maker; he’s got a lot of support behind him, and if we don’t get rid of him, he’s going to influence a lot of other people." Their mistake was that with the sentence they gave me, It automatically goes up to what is the Supreme Court in the military on appeal. No other sentence would have done that except a year’s confinement. I don’t think they realized that.
About this time, my wife was talking about divorce. I had been trying to talk her out of it, but near the end of January, 1980, divorce papers arrived. I was pretty devastated by this, on top of everything else. I was still waiting for the appeal process to end, which could take up to a year or two. I was getting prepared to go to civilian federal court in North Carolina. My case was that I should have been discharged as a conscientious objector, and since I wasn’t I was being held against my will and illegally in the Marine Corps.
With a lot of support from Quaker House, I went to federal court in New Bern, North Carolina, on February 19,1980. The magistrate basically looked at my file, everything I had said, and read all the opinions of the investigating officer and the others, and saw no reason for me to be there. It seemed to him that the Marine Corps was just holding me in order to give me a bad discharge versus the honorable discharge I deserved. Two weeks later, he ordered that I immediately be discharged from the Marine Corps, with an effective date of June 18, 1979, NINE MONTHS EARLIER! (4)
Upon hearing that I had been ordered to be released from the Marine Corps immediately as a conscientious objector, I went to my squadron and told them to start typing up the paper work and to give me a check-out sheet, because I was leaving. I don’t know why they didn’t understand, but they didn’t. They ordered me back to work. I blew up. I told them I was NOT going back to work for them. So they scheduled another court- martial for me. I did a lot of yelling. I just exploded. And there were a lot of other enlisted men watching this.
My commanding officer called the general and told him what was happening. The general was opposed to the magistrate’s decision and felt it should be appealed. He consulted with the U.S. Attorney in North Carolina who represented the Marine Corps in the case, and she advised that I not be courtmartialed since I was legally a civilian as of June 18,1979. It was a sticky point, though. I was technically still going through the Marine Corps checkout procedure, so I was expected to abide by the Marine Corps regulations. The Justice Department finally decided not to appeal my case after both the U.S. Attorney and the Marine Corps legal staff recommended not to.
Then I got a message from Headquarters, Marine Corps about twenty-four hours later telling my unit that they had forty-eight hours to let me go. So a week later I was finally out. The Marine Corps works like that, they’re kind of slow.
LH: Did you do any heavy organizing those last few days?
MP: Wow, I couldn’t believe it! So many people came out of the woodwork during those last weeks wanting to know about conscientious objection. As I was checking out, people were saying, "How’d you get out?" I said, "As a conscientious objector." I talked to a large number of Marines about how to go about the conscientious objector process and where they could get support on the outside.
LH: Would you ever consider going back into any branch of the military if they didn’t place you in a combative role?
MP: I still have nightmares about that, about being forced to use violence again. There is no way that I could, with a good clear conscience, go back into the military, any branch, or support any military action that supports the military.
LH: Do you have any advice for people who are considering the military, or for those who are already in the military, as far as how to go through C.O. procedures?
MP: It takes a lot of patience and perseverance to go through something like that. It takes a lot of strength, and support from outside people is what helped me get through. I couldn’t have done it without Quaker House and the people who are backing Quaker House. They helped push me up the hill when I didn’t really want to go over the hill; I was too tired to fight.
For those people who are thinking about the military: it’s not what it appears to be on the outside. It’s like a coffin. Jesus spoke about the Pharisees in white-washed coffins and how they’re just old bones inside. From the outside looking in, the military presents a very good, attractive, interesting picture of itself. But from the inside you can see just how horribly corrupt, archaic and bad the whole situation is. You give up many rights going into the military.
You can earn much more at jobs on the outside than on the inside, doing the same kind of work. There are many hidden
clauses in military contracts. You have to obey people that you wouldn’t give two cents to on the street, and if you don’t, you can go to prison for it. You must follow orders, whether you know better than to do what they’re telling you to or not. It’s not a good place to be. The military is not an escape. You don’t escape from anything. You run right into more problems than you’re trying to escape from.
NOTES
1. Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, an agency for military and draft counseling. Booklets and literature are available on both military information for GIs and draft registration information. Send a stamped, self-addressed envelope with your request. CCCO, 630 20th Street, Oakland, CA 94612 Or at: http://www.girights.com Or call the GI Rights Hotline at: 1-800-394-9544.
2. Quaker House, a military counseling facility organized in 1969. In
1970, it was a focal point of anti-war activity in the Fayetteville area. Three days after a major anti-war rally that May, featuring Rennie Davis, Jane Fonda and other anti-war speakers, Quaker House received several threatening phone calls. Fire broke out, destroying the house, but the Quaker House directors escaped injury. Arson was suspected but never proven. At present Quaker House has a two-pronged purpose of military counseling and general peace education. Counseling services are offered to GIs on matters of conscience and during the discharge process. The center serves as an educational resource on the draft issue and has been involved in training draft counselors. Work with area churches involves the interpretation of historical Christian traditions of peacemaking. It is one of few full-time military counseling facilities in the United States and is funded primarily by donations. Quaker House, 223 Hillside Ave., Fayetteville, NC 28301. (910) 323-3912 www.quakerhouse.org
3. Director of Quaker House, 1978-1980. Bill Sholar received a C.O. discharge from the U.S. Army after six years of service in Intelligence. He had held a Top Secret security clearance when he applied for a discharge on the ground that he was a conscientious objector.
4. Park v. Barrow, 79-659-HC. Since Park had satisfied the three basic tests of a conscientious objector (i.e., that he opposed war in any form, that this opposition is based on religious training and belief, and that his objection is sincere), the burden of proof was upon the Marine Corps to show why he had been denied a conscientious objector discharge. The magistrate, C. K. McCotter, Jr., found that the facts brought forth by the Marine Corps concerning Park’s desire to file charges of fraudulent recruiting were not inconsistent with conscientious objection.
About the author:
Louise Harris is an attorney in North Carolina, and a former member of the Quaker House board.