Don't See the Picture? Color in the Pattern!

February 13, 2008

What do you think are the factors that are most like to affect the success of a CO application?  The regulations as they stand today in the United States military state that the factors are: sincerity, depth of belief, firmness of belief, source of belief, and timing of change of heart.  Interestingly enough, the courts have always held that source and timing could not be factors in and of themselves and the other factors: sincerity, depth, and firmness are virtually the same to anyone except the military.

Yet, the reality is that of all those factors usually timing and source of belief are dominate factors.  Other factors that are not suppose to matter play likelihood of success as well.  Christians tend to have an easier time of things, for example, unless another important factor or two kick in.

I was talking with a young man from Chicago.  He met with his minister prior to deploying to Iraq and prayed on the flight over.  On the flight he took Jesus as his personal Savior and when he landed He sought out a Chaplain and was baptized.  He informed his command that he was a conscientious objector and wanted to apply for discharge.

He was greeted with derision, especially since his job was in the cafeteria.  His command couldn’t understand his beef and felt he just wanted an “easy” escaped from the military.  After all, how was he participating in the war clinking off the soldiers on the clinker as they went through the line? 

To add insult to injury, during his CO hearing he was confront by the Chaplain who interviewed him.  The Chaplain had asked almost no questions during the interview and none about his beliefs.  But the Chaplain’s report stated starkly that he was not a Christian because HE LISTENED TO HIPHOP MUSIC.

He noted to the Investigating Officer that the Chaplain never asked him about the music to which he listened.   The investigating officer said, “Are you calling an Officer of the United States Army a liar?”  And when the young man stood his ground, the Investigating Officer threw him out of his own hearing.

The results were predictable.  His CO application was recommended for denial.  But he was not given a chance to refute any of the reports.  The Secretary of the Army’s office saw so many problems with the handling of his application that they sent it back to him and his commanding officer to supplement. 

He finished his rebuttal just before he left for exodus (formerly known as Christmas leave).  It was pretty clear that his command expected him not to return.

Much to their surprise, he did.  As he said “It’s not about being in Iraq.  It’s about participating in war.”
Even though his job was to count people coming in to the cafeteria, he was ordered to stand guard duty.  He pointed out that his CO application was pending and that he would not pick up a weapon, but the command insisted.  When he went to guard duty he told his fellow guards, “You may not want me out front because I am not carrying a weapon and wouldn’t shoot one if I did.”

The harassment has only increased and he found out that they had not sent the application on while he was on leave—since they were “sure” he would run.

Now there are several issues going on in this application:  Assumptions about what it means to be a Christian, what it means to be a CO, and assumptions about the integrity of officers.  Another issue, however, is race.   This young man was an African American from the Chicago projects.

When you look back at the CO stories we and others have told during this war, can you detect the pattern?  For the longest time the pattern I saw was that officers were treated better than enlisted personnel during the CO application process.  But this story, talking to this young man about Hip Hop music, opened my eyes just a bit further to reality. 

The results of CO discharge applications are not only affected by sincerity and depth, they are affected by the rank of the applicant.  They are affected by the religion of the IO and the Chaplain. 

And more horrifically, they are affected by race of the applicant.