The Conscientious Objector

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SixTGunr
V.I.P. Member
Posts: 196
(4/13/02 12:47:05 am)
The Conscientious Objector
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Never under estimate the imagination of your platoon leader. I remember one day we were being briefed prior to going out on a search and destroy patrol in the Phu Loc area. We were in the rear where it was (at times) safe to be huddled together and the platoon sargeant was laying out all the details of what was going to be taking place for the next several days. We NEVER went outside the perimeter until we were all exactly sure what was gonna go down and what each and everyones primary and secondary functions were to be.

He was going through his routine "We're gonna kick some ass today" speech when suddenly one of them itty-bitty guys (that we had recently acquired into our outfit) in the back row raises his hand in a gesture as to gain the platoon leaders attention so that he may ask a question. Sarge yells out "Go ahead son" ..... This little "turd" in a squeaky little voice (don't ask me HOW in the world he made it through boot camp) draws the attention of the entire gathering as he begins explaining that he is a C.O. (or conscientious objector if you will) and that he does not believe in the taking of lives.

I honestly don't remember what his exact reasons were at this time and it may have had something to do with his religious beliefs but in any case he began emphasizing that he simply cannot go out with us and take part in a search and destroy mission of any kind and that he felt he could not take another humans life. Needless to say we were all somewhat dumbfounded and were trying to figure out how he had made it half way around the world and ending up in this $h*thole if he was in fact one of them non believers. Now don't get me wrong here cause I ain't got nothin' against any man or woman who stands up for what they believe in whether it be religious in nature or whatever and neither did the platoon sargeant.

Anyhow ..... The little guy speaks his piece and theres complete silence amongst the crowd as we all look to our leader to see whats gonna come next. I remember him standing there with his hands on his hips and his head cocked to one side as he stared at this little feller for a few minutes before he spoke.

"Private" he says ..... "I want you to take your little ass down to supply and tell then to issue you about 500 rounds of blank ammo and some extra mags".

The little fella is looking at him with one of them dumbfounded looks on his face during a few more seconds of silence after which the platoon leader continues with .....

"These brave men are about to disembark on a mission and you young man will be right along their side ..... If you feel that strongly about not being able to take anothers life then you will not be burdened with the thought of killing another human being because you will be firing blanks. If you do not wish to kill the enemy then you will at least be beside your brothers in the heat of battle and you can at the very least scare the **** out of them with gunfire".

What a plan!

The little fella just stood silent for a moment without moving and after a bit the platoon leader looked at him and said ... Well? Get moving private .....

Shorty replied with one of them "If its all the same to you sarge, I'll stay with what I have" and the platoon leader continued with his briefing......

YUP! Thats EXACTLY the way the case of the C.O. went down that day and it was never brought up again. Because of this however he was not to be completely trusted in combat and without that trust he was one that you could never fully depend on. He was KIA at a later date .....

"What more can I say ..... I was at the wrong place at the wrong time"

high2fly
*Senior Chief Of Staff*
Posts: 869
(4/13/02 7:10:10 am)
Re: The Conscientious Objector
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Guns, that is a story I really want to remember ---. May I make a request to you. Send that story to Tom Brokaw along with an intro of yourself . Tom's address is as follows:
Tom Brokaw
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, N.Y. 10112
Be sure to mark you letter appropriately so as not to scare anyone after the anthrax business. I don't have their addresses but if I may suggest, a copy to Tom Hanks and Steven Speilberg. All three of the individuals have been very active for the troops of the WWII periods. Yup Gunner, that is a memorable story worthy of recognition for the manner in which you told it. wilborn

hope6970
*VMBB Staff*
Posts: 985
(4/14/02 11:42:30 pm)
Re: The Conscientious Objector
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Interesting subject guys,
wasn't a lot of them helping the medics in the field or were medics? I can't remember but it seem if I remember right, that is what they volunteered to do. They wouldn't carry a weapon but would be in positions where they would be cooks, supply or what have you as long as they were not asked to take a life.

Please correct me if I am wrong. Perhaps too many years have slipped by. - Hope


BTW, has anyone seen Comanche6 around? Haven't seen him around for sometime now. And no, he wasn't a Conscientious Objector....lol

Edited by: hope6970 at: 4/15/02 12:48:23 am

high2fly
*Senior Chief Of Staff*
Posts: 876
(4/15/02 6:51:12 am)
Re: The Conscientious Objector
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You are right Hope--lot's of the CO's did participate as medics---our navy hospital corpsman may have been some of them, however if they were, they wore their sidearms when they discovered the other side didn't always honor the status. I'm going to add a story here about Doc Schnell---I think he was a CO originally--noone ever held it against him and he made his 'bones' over near the Rock Pile that day of the ambush. BTW, Comanche Six has not been around---or Grunt, or -------. I hope they are all well. We shouldn't ever complain about the Arabs and the Jews not getting along---we Veterans and their friends don't always set the highest standards on the subject. Wilborn

high2fly
*Senior Chief Of Staff*
Posts: 877
(4/15/02 6:56:24 am)
Re: The Conscientious Objector
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HEY DOC--WHAT?S UP??
You could sense the tension and the anxiety in the air--you could feel it on your skin--in your
bowels--- that scrotum twisting sensation that things needed to be structured and that
someone needed to get-in-charge of this cluster jerk?.
This was the third time, in as many days, that this group of mixed service troops had boarded
the large military aircraft. If those transiting personnel were observant enough, they could tell
it was the same aircraft, the same flight crew, the same lashed down cargo, and mostly the
same people that had boarded each of the three previous days. One could pick out those
personnel who had probably been to Vietnam before, and were returning from R&R or
emergency leaves from stateside. Whatever the reason, those were the people who seemed
more willing to accept the ?hurry-up and wait? SNAFU, whereby others including myself, were
anxious to get this show on the road--to get to the final destination, be it good, bad, or ugly.
It was early January, 1968, and this C-130 flight that was originating at the DaNang Air Base,
was heading up north with stops at Phu Bai and on further north to Dong Ha. The TET Offensive
was raging across the length and breadth of the northern areas known as I Corps. There was
an expression coined and repeated by most of the troops, ?BEANS AND BULLETS IN--BODIES
OUT?. I remember my shock and concern that first day upon arriving in DaNang, when I had
seen many silver bright caskets waiting for shipment out. I was told later that the color of the
tags that flipped and jerked in the breeze, meant something or other. It was a foreboding and
a sobering event for everyone. Someone attempted an ill-timed joke about the caskets and a
crisp, ?knock it off you ass-hole? sounded loud and clear so that everyone, regardless of rank
or rate could hear the remark and keep a civil tongue in their head.
I noticed the heavy set navyman again today as I had on the other days. He was dressed in
Navy green utilities every time I had seen him on the previous days. He wore collor devices
denoting he was a petty officer second class, and the medical caduceous device of a navy
hospital corpsmen. I was attired in my service dress khaki uniform. This day the big, rotund
corpsman spoke to me with a friendly ?good morning Senior Chief---where are you bound
for?? I returned the man?s friendly salutation and remarked I was heading for DongHa to join
up with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion Five. ?Well Senior, what do ya know---that?s my
outfit?, he exclaimed excitedly, ?I been down here to DaNang to observe a religious ceremony
and now I?m trying to get back---ya sure look young to be a Senior Chief?. The big man had a
good sense of timng, even though I felt he was just stroking the dog.
Suddenly I could feel the throttling up of the aircrafts engines and sense the foward movement
of the large craft. More power applied and faster movement foward. The flight crew buckled
themselves into the webbed harness seats and now the big ungainly 130 was bolting ahead,
almost like a horse out of the gate. Perhaps this would be a real and true, go-for-it today.
Maybe the up country bombardment and hostilities had lifted so we could get where we were
going. I looked over at my newly introduced shipmate and he looked back but it was as if he
didn?t see me. Could it be this big fellow was frightened of flying. The tower must have given
this much delayed ?bird? the thumbs- up high sign, for without any hesitation, the big aircraft
seemed to leap abruptly from fast taxi mode to real fast ?bend you over in your seat? takeoff,
and in no time, the large craft was airborne.
The pilot masterfully swung the ponderous plane out over the South China Sea and I heard
some one of the crew mention to escape possible ground fire. I knew sure as hell now, that
these were words and phrases that I would have to begin using in my conversation. Within
hours however, other words would come to be used and would take on a whole new
meaning of their own for me. ?INCOMING? screamed from deep in the bowels through a
throat that was so constricted with fear, that it would be hard to breathe. Or the statement of
fact, ?HOLY ****, THAT WAS CLOSE?, sounded as if a joke when repeated to a buddy later, but
when that statement was uttered during a rocket attack, you wanted the whole world to know
just how close!!! ?SUMBITCH IS STILL HOTTER THAN A FIRECRACKER? as you flick the fragmented
hunk of sharpnel away from you--a possible keepsake that you shouldn?t have glombed onto
so quickly--- your fingers seared by that ugly shard that had it hit you---well that?s all they would
have written and then they?d have sent your saddle home.
I think it was called Camp Evans, but not sure, and it was at Phu Bai where it was almost just a
?slow down and jump out? for the troops getting off there. The C-130 continued on to Dong
Ha where I believe that was just to be a turn-around also. When we all deplaned, it was like a
Chinese fire-drill and there was not much encouragement to look back. We had been told
not to worry about our seabags and duffels as that gear would be transported for us at our
various camps.
During the TET OFFENSIVE, which continued for most of the deployment, I would be assigned
as the S-2 Senior Chief (Intell & Training) for the battalion. The Corpsman, who I and everyone
else called Doc, and who had ridden the plane with me up from DaNang, would come
around to my office a lot. My S-2 yeoman, Jimmy Walker and Doc were good friends, both
being from California. Jimmy was from Bakersfield and Doc was from Brentwood. Doc was
Jewish and Jimmy was Southern Baptist, however their differences turned out to be their
strenghts. Jimmy was a classic, ?squared-away? American bluejacket with everything fitting
and looking nice, whereby Doc was extremely overweight and physically uncoordinated to a
laughable degree. On the Doc?s green utilitiy uniforms, the laundry had to sew a big v-shaped
gussett into the waist of Doc?s trousers---actually the Doc was pear-shaped---he had overly
large feet and walked with his feet splayed out at a 45 degree angle--kinda made slapping
noises on the deck when he took steps. Doc used to bring stuff over to the S-2 and share it with
us--things his Mother had sent--mostly things with Hebrew labels on them---and he?d go by the
galley and get thermos jugs full of ?panther-piss? --that?s what he called the Kool Aid.
I had been aboard about three months when Doc ?made-his-bones? out near the Rock Pile
and Camp Carrol near CaLu. Doc had been assigned as the corpsman for a convoy of
materials and supplies offloaded at the Cua Viet River wharf and being transported overland.
I wasn?t there to observe the ambush, but the AAR?s filled in the details and were eventually
used as documentations to get Doc awarded the Bronze Star for bravery under fire. One little
Steelworker striker that was wounded by B-40 frags, told and retold the story of Doc and how
Doc had been like a man possessed as he worked the wounded and even directed
counter-fire. The more often Daniel?s told the story about Doc, the more profound the facts of
the combat action. But isn?t that the way legends become as they do---you hear them often
enough, and though you weren?t there to eye-ball them, you record them in your minds eye
and legends they stay.
Doc, you may have not cut a very military figure in your doctored-up up uniform, but you sure
made a story for the Seabees to often repeat about you. What the hell did you ever do with
your life Doc---do you recall those times also--everytime you swig that red ?panther-piss? Doc,
do you think about those days so long ago---lots of us have tried to forget, but we can?t ever
put it all away---if we don?t think about it when we are awake, it sure comes galloping through
our troubled dreams. Wilborn sends

Edited by: high2fly at: 4/16/02 3:45:36 pm

hope6970
*VMBB Staff*
Posts: 990
(4/16/02 12:12:24 am)
Re: The Conscientious Objector
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And there walked a Man of many worths.

Thanks for the story Chief. I guess we can never decide a person by their size, attitude, looks or beliefs. - Hope

106RR196LIB
V.I.P. Member
Posts: 222
(4/22/02 1:58:46 am)
Re: The Conscientious Objector
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SixT -- great story!
We had a CO medic in Delta,4/31,196thLIB. He was opposed to killing EXCEPT to defend a patient. This guy took a lot of flack for being a CO. He was also African American and a very good medic. He had courage and he would go in under fire for any guy. We all thought he would fight when things got tough. He didn't, he went his whole combat tour (6months) without firing except to defend patients. He would crawl over to you and lay down fire from his CAR15 as long as you were taking fire. He would not participate in our normal killing at all.

We had a second alleged CO who was captured alive in 68. He failed to announce that he was a CO until he was assigned to a line outfit! He had little credibility. He was held with other guys but played the CO role in concentration camp.
He was released early for propaganda reasons. His release coordinated with the Jane Fonda racial campaign. She made announcements for NVA tryingto get the bloods to turncoat. They didn't, but she tried.