Introduction

Understanding Coscientious Objection

CO Process in the Military

Your Application

Your Place in History

CCW's Comprehensive Guide on Military Conscientious Objection

Understanding “CO” in U.S. Law

The co application process

 Answering the essential questions

The Written Application

The CO applicant is required to answer essay questions about their life and beliefs.   It’s probably more writing than you normally do.  Remember: You’re trying to convince the military to release you after they’ve spent thousands of dollars training you.  You will need to write more than seven paragraphs to convince them!

There is no official form to fill out for a CO application, although those in the Army begin the process by submitting DA Form 4187.

The regulations for each branch contain a list of questions in an appendix or attachment: "Required Information to be Submitted by CO Applicants."

You will be expected to answer over twenty questions.  Many of the questions are not very relevant, such as every place you ever lived, every place you ever worked, and every school you attended.  Do your best to answer these questions, but don’t get bogged down on them!  (So what if you can’t remember your address from when you were in 5th grade?)

There are six questions that relate to your beliefs and get to the heart of your CO application. Save your energy and time for them.  They can be summarized by these three questions:

What do you believe (about participation in war)?

How did your beliefs develop (what events, factors influenced you to believe this)?

How does your life reflect those beliefs (or how do your beliefs influence decisions or choices you make daily)?

Proving what can’t be proven

It’s very difficult to prove what you believe.  By definition, a belief is something that can't be proven.  Yet someone applying for CO status is expected to establish that they are sincere in their beliefs.  How can you do that?

Look at the three questions above.  As you describe events that occurred in your life that caused you to change, and as you write about how your beliefs affect choices you make in your life, presumably your sincerity will shine through.

What you want to do is create a written record that clearly shows what you believe and how you came to those beliefs.  You are not trying to convince military officers to agree with you--they probably won’t.  But you are trying to convince them that you sincerely believe this! Ideally you are trying to describe a scenario in which someone who doesn't even know you can read the documents and maybe think, "If I had been in his (or her) shoes, it's possible I might have had the same response and come to the same conclusion about war." Or at least, “I can see how that caused him/her to come to that belief about war.”  (Each of the six questions are treated in depth later on in A Close Look at Your CO Application on page 16.

You absolutely want to include testimony from others who know you and are willing to speak on your behalf.  They could be people in your unit with whom you have had conversations about your beliefs.

You may want to include testimony from people who were present when events occurred that influenced you and caused you to change.  Their description of the event and/or the effect it had on you can be pivotal.

Counseling Statements

Shortly after you submit your written application, you should receive several written documents called “counseling statements.”

One of them concerns potential loss of veterans benefits.  It may appear that you will lose all your veterans benefits if you apply for CO discharge, but that is not the case.

If you refuse orders while your CO claim is pending, then you could lose some of your benefits.  However, if you comply with all orders given while your claim is pending, you remain eligible for all the benefits for which you would otherwise qualify (based on your length of service and characterization of discharge) except for the “right” to re-enlist.

The Investigation

Your commander will appoint an Investigating Officer (IO), someone of the rank O-3 or above who is not in your direct chain of command.  The IO should get all of the written material you have submitted in support of your claim, and then conduct an investigation.

The IO may interview your commanding officer and others in your unit to learn more about you.  The IO may even call or email members of your family or your minister if you identify your religious upbringing as a significant factor in shaping your beliefs.

The IO may contact those who have written your letters of support.

The IO hearing.  You should have a hearing with the IO.  (A hearing is not required, and on occasion you may be asked to sign a paper indicating that you’ve agreed to waive your hearing.  Do not waive your hearing.)

At the hearing, the IO is supposed to ask questions about your beliefs, about your statements in your written application, and anything else that seems appropriate based on what was discovered in the investigation.

But before your IO hearing, you will have two interviews:

• A psychiatrist or mental health specialist will determine if you are fit to go through the CO discharge process. They will be looking to see if your application is really the result of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), or some other emotional or mental issue.
• Even if you’re not religious, a military chaplain is supposed to look at the basis of your claim and make some determination about your sincerity.

You should be very familiar with your CO application when you go to your interviews.  In fact, it’s best to have a copy of it with you at all the interviews or hearings.

The chaplain interview.   The required interview with the chaplain is often a major obstacle for the CO applicant.  If you are not religious, or have a spiritual orientation that is not Christian or Jewish, the chaplain may be totally clueless about your spirituality or ethical framework.  Yet the chaplain is required to “submit a written opinion as to the nature and basis of the applicant’s claim, and as to the applicant’s sincerity and depth of conviction.”

Even if you are of the same religion as the chaplain conducting this evaluation, the chaplain is someone who has reconciled his or her faith with their military service.  So you will be expressing an understanding of the faith that is different than the chaplain’s own understanding.

Sometimes the chaplain has suggested that the CO is simply immature in their faith or misunderstanding it.

Sometimes the chaplain will engage in a theological debate with the CO applicant--which is patently unfair.  The chaplain often has a Masters degree in theology and the CO applicant may have little more than a high school education and is still trying to sort out the details of what they believe, but they know in their gut that their participation in war is wrong.  Because the CO regulation says that one’s objection to participation in war must be “firm” and “fixed” , chaplains sometimes write that it is not firm and fixed because it is still new for the applicant and he or she is still trying to sort it all out.

Be aware that the chaplain’s interview is important! Put your best foot forward.  And be aware that the chaplain’s report carries a lot of weight.  More than a handful of CO applications have been denied because of something said in the chaplain’s report.

Biases often permeate military culture.  Christian fundamentalism, often equating military service with serving God, runs throughout the military.  This is more prevalent at some locations than at others.

Racial and class bias are also present.  One may be told that since they are from the projects in a violent urban area, they couldn’t possibly be a conscientious objector.  One CO was told that because he listens to hip-hop music, he couldn’t be a Christian.

Since the military system is hierarchical, officers are likely to be treated better, and more fairly, than enlisted personnel.  Even though the regulations are clear that a decision should be based on whether the applicant qualifies rather than whether he or she has skills needed by the military, we have observed that when the military has invested a lot to train or educate the person, they are reluctant to let them go.  If this is you, you’ve got to do a better job on your application.

The IO will have the written reports from the psychiatrist and the chaplain.  It is important for you to write up a detailed, accurate account of each of these interviews from your perspective immediately after the interview while it’s fresh on your mind.  This may be useful later for establishing an accurate record.

You can submit your accounts of these interviews to be included in your CO packet.  Your summary may also be useful later in writing rebuttals, if necessary, or if your case ends up in court.

The Investigating Officer (IO).   Most likely, the IO will have never done a CO investigation.  He or she has probably never seriously considered the CO process before being assigned as your IO.

Often IOs are looking at the regulations and trying to figure out the proper thing to do.

They also may come from a cultural perspective that suggests, “Nobody really believes this nonsense.  It's just something some people make up to get out of their responsibilities.”

They often have no appreciation for the struggles and soul searching you have gone through to get to your present position.  So they may come across as callous or prejudiced against you.  Often they are just that - but sometimes they are not!

In an ideal world, the hearing would be your opportunity to point to the strengths of your application and why you should be granted CO status.  This would be the IO's chance to ask questions about anything that seems ambiguous or unclear.  The Army regulations explain it this way: “The hearing is to provide the person the chance to establish, by ‘clear and convincing evidence,’ that he or she is a conscientious objector as defined by this regulation.  The investigating officer’s recommendation must be based on fact.” In reality, the IO is often looking for a reason to deny your application.

You need to put your best foot forward at the interview.  You need to clearly say what you believe.   And you need to be careful not to let the IO’s questions lead you into speculating about things you don't know or don’t believe.  If you don’t have an answer to a question, say so!

Even though the courts have said that you can't pick and choose your wars and be a CO under U.S.  law, they have also said that what you must object to is real wars that happen now.  This means that you are not required to transport yourself back into history or into some future hypothetical world and speculate about how you would respond.  You exist in this time and place in history, and wars in the current situation are what you are faced with and know.  For example, had you grown up in the '30's during the rise of Hitler, you would not be the person you are now.  In reality, you do not know how you would have responded to that war, even if you think you do know.

Similarly, it doesn’t matter how you might react to war in some future, hypothetical world in which no one gets hurt or killed fighting wars.  The Supreme Court has said,

"Unwillingness to deny the possibility of a change of mind in some future, hypothetical circumstances may be no more than humble good sense, and casts no doubt on the [person’s] present sincerity of belief."

In your interviews, and other encounters with military officers throughout the process, some military personnel who have fought in a war might ask you how you would have responded to situations they encountered.  They may recall their fears of Communism or anger at Bin Laden and suppose that a moral and patriotic person would fight against these evils.  So, despite the fact that you are not legally required to know what you would have done in hypothetical situations, be prepared to answer these kinds of questions.  A thoughtful “I don't know”,  perhaps with an explanation, is preferable to an answer that appears evasive or one that comes across as insincere.

What are you able to do personally if called to fight in a real war? No matter what questions the IO may ask, always try to bring the discussion back to this.   To be a CO means that the real you - the person who is living in this time and this place - has come to the conclusion that you cannot participate in war.  What your parents did and what your God might require you to do in a divine intervention from outside ordinary history is irrelevant; your personal participation in real wars that could happen now is the real issue.

At your IO hearing you can bring an advisor and witnesses to testify on your behalf.   A good advisor can make all the difference in the world because, by engaging the IO in conversation, they may have a significant impact on how the hearing goes (good or bad).

Your witnesses can likewise make a big difference.

You may make a recording or transcription of the hearing at your expense provided you give a copy of it to the IO. This is generally a good idea, but it’s best to discuss this with the IO before the hearing so he or she is not caught off guard or intimidated by the recorder.  That way an accurate account of what was said can be part of the record, avoiding the proverbial he said/she said problems.  You can submit the written transcript of the hearing to be included in your packet that goes up through the chain of command.

The IO will write a report describing the interview and other information he or she has discovered.  “In the absence of a verbatim record, the investigating officer will summarize the testimony of witnesses and permit the applicant or the applicant's adviser to examine the summaries and note for the record their differences with the investigating officer's summary.”    The IO will also make a recommendation as to whether or not your application should be approved.

 Review & Rebuttal

At this point your entire CO file comes to you for you to review and, if necessary, you can submit a rebuttal.  But you must act quickly because you will have a maximum of five to fifteen days for submitting your rebuttal, depending on your branch of service.

The rebuttal is an important step in the process.  You need to look at the record and see if anything is wrong.  Even if the IO recommends approval, if they misstate the facts in the case you need to submit a response to correct the record.

You should especially look for things that may have been taken out of context or interpreted in ways you did not intend when you said or wrote them.  When your packet goes up the chain of command for final approval all they will have is the written record.  If inaccuracies are in the record, that could affect their decision.

You may also add additional information if it seems necessary to clarify something in the record.

After your review and any rebuttal, your application then goes to the Judge Advocate General (JAG) for a review to ensure everything is complete and legally “sufficient.”  Then it goes up the chain of command, ultimately reaching the Secretarial level.

The Secretary of each branch of the military has a CO Review Board, made up of military officers who will not have met you. The Board decides whether or not to recognize you as a CO based on the written record.
The DoD Instruction allows for the Secretary of the Department to delegate decision-making authority.

As your claim works its way up the chain of command, at every step along the way, officers in the chain submit their recommendations as to whether your claim should be approved.

The regulations state that any time something negative is added to your packet, it is supposed to come back to you with an opportunity for you to submit a rebuttal.

Often those up the chain add negative comments and you aren’t even aware that it has happened, so you don’t have the opportunity to submit a rebuttal.

How long does all this take? The CO application is not an easy or quick way out of the military.

The 2007 GAO Report stated that, on average, it took seven months for a conscientious objector claim to be processed.

While the Army regulations state that the process should take less than 90 days (180 days for reservists), according to our observations, it almost always takes at least a year.  Eighteen months is common, and sometimes it takes 2 or 3 years.

You may be able to speed up the process by asking -- politely but persistently —“Where’s my application now?”

While your claim is pending

As your application moves up the chain you remain a member of the military.   You are required to follow all legal orders or you may face disciplinary action.

Regulations state that the command should accommodate your beliefs as much as possible. In the Army, you cannot be required to continue in weapons training.    If there are jobs in your unit that are more in line with your conscience, you can point this out to your command and request a reassignment.  But it is up to the command to reassign you, and their primary concern is the military mission - not accommodating your conscience.

Conscientious objectors have had a wide variety of experiences during this period.  Some have had commands that genuinely tried to work with them to find assignments that accommodate the CO’s beliefs.  Others have had commands that deliberately gave them orders that were a problem for them: If the CO obeys the order, the command can suggest that they aren't serious about their CO beliefs; if they disobey, they could be court-martialed.  Most COs have experiences that are between these extremes.  Many, at some point in the process, are faced with the dilemma that their conscience conflicts with their duties.

It is important for you to understand that the military cannot legitimately turn down your CO application simply because you did what the law requires and followed orders.  In fact, the regulations explicitly state that you must continue to obey orders while your claim is pending. However, you will have to live with your conscience, and many conscientious objectors find they must refuse orders and face the consequences.
It is important to know that if you do disobey orders, you could face disciplinary action and your conscientious objection is not an acceptable defense.  If you are court-martialed, processing on your CO claim could be suspended.  And if you receive a punitive discharge, that will end the processing on your CO application.

Harassment. How others in your unit treat you while your claim is pending varies widely.

Some COs receive quite a bit of respect for taking a conscientious and unpopular stand, and you may even meet others on your base who tell you quietly they wish they had the courage to do what you are doing.  But many are harassed and ostracized and often feel quite lonely.  You may have to look deep within yourself for the strength to deal with life on the military base while your claim is pending.

If you are harassed, treated unfairly, verbally abused, or worse, you do have recourse.  The command is supposed to maintain order within the unit, so you should approach the command about the problem.
If your commander fails to stop the abusive treatment you are receiving, you can file a complaint against your commander.  Contact the Center for help if this happens.

Keeping the process moving. We’ve said that the CO process takes months, even years. 
Sometimes a command just sits on the paperwork and does not forward it up the chain of command.
Sometimes they don’t even assign an IO in a timely manner which delays the IO investigation and the rest of the process.  This has especially been a problem when the CO is stationed in a war zone.  The command can (somewhat legitimately) claim they have more important things to worry about.

When this happens, if friendly reminders and questions about where the packet is don’t work, it may be necessary to file an Article 138 complaint , or even get a member of Congress to put pressure on the command.

In combat situations, it may be most difficult to remain connected to your support networks.  Email and cell phones have helped a lot - but it may still be difficult.  If you contact the Center, we will do all we can to help you pressure your command.

The Decision

Your command will be informed of the decision before you are, and often they will tell you before you get the official notification in writing.

Sometimes they give false information to mess with your mind.  And sometimes they wait weeks after getting the decision before telling you a decision has been made.

Approval.  If your claim is approved, you will be discharged unless you applied for 1-A-O.

Those who are classified 1-A-O “shall be assigned to non-combatant duty.  .  .  or discharged from military service or released from active duty at the discretion of the Secretary of the Military Department concerned.”

Denial & your options.  If your claim is turned down, regulations require that you be told why.

There is no appeal within the military since the denial came from the highest level.

You do have a few options, however:

• Remain in the military as before you filed your CO application, although this is generally not an acceptable option for COs
• Seek discharge on other grounds
• Submit a new CO application (which requires that you start over with new grounds or new evidence)
• Refuse orders and face possible court-martial
• File a writ of habeas corpus—in essence, appeal the denial to the civilian courts.

There are a number of factors to consider when deciding which option to pursue, such as:

• Do you have legitimate grounds for a different discharge?
• Can you live with the consequences of refusing orders (possibly court martial, jail time and a punitive discharge)?
• Filing a writ of habeas corpus costs a lot of money.

When the court reviews the case, they are not looking at whether the military made the correct decision when turning you down.  They are simply looking to see whether there was "any basis in fact" for the decision the military made.
Unless you had a very good CO application that was turned down for no legitimate reason, this could be a waste of time, effort and money.