[Vision2020] Quaker GI flees Army Unit
Melynda Huskey
mghuskey@msn.com
Mon, 23 Feb 2004 10:23:10 -0800
As a Quaker, I have to disagree with Tom and Tim. I can well imagine that
one might enter the military without any particular objection to doing the
work expected of one, and then find the systematic dehumanization which is a
necessary part of military training utterly repugnant. It's one thing to
want money for college and a chance at a decent career, and another to
confront the actual work of killing. Once his conscience was awakened to
the horrors of war, a young man might act rashly and in haste.
Most Quakers, I think, would counsel him to accept the consequences of his
new beliefs: our own Meeting here in Moscow has one member who was a
conscientious objector in WWII, and did extended prison time for his refusal
to serve. It sounds like Jeremy Hinzman is a new Quaker, and certainly in
Afghanistan he would not have had access to the eldering and clearness
processes that might have helped him make his decision (Quaker chaplains are
something of a rarity, as you might imagine--we don't ordain clergy and we
oppose all wars).
Nevertheless, I am sorry for him, and sorry for his friends who are left to
fight, and sorry for the superior officers who have done damage to their
consciences by "losing" his application and then denying his C.O. status.
But worst of all is the ongoing devastation which all war brings to everyone
who is associated with it.
The historic testimony of Friends is this: "We utterly deny all outward wars
and strife, and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any
pretense whatever; this is our testimony to the whole world. The Spirit of
Christ by which we are guided is not changeable, so as once to command us
from a thing as evil, and again to move unto it; and we certainly know, and
testify to the world, that the Spirit of Christ, which leads us into all
truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward
weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this
world."
Melynda Huskey
>From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen@moscow.com>
>Reply-To: <thansen@moscow.com>
>To: "Tim Lohrmann" <timlohr@yahoo.com>, <vision2020@moscow.com>
>Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Quaker GI flees Army Unit
>Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 15:24:54 -0800
>
>AWOLs and "desertion" for religious reasons (Quaker, this time) are very
>very common.
>
>In 1991 a soldier refused to ship out with his unit to Iraq. This was
>reported by CNN.
>
>During Vietnam, people refused to register with the Selective Service
>System
>(spelled D-R-A-F-T) and many of them went to Canada.
>
>It is easier to understand why draftees refuse to "go". In today's All
>Volunteer Army, I simply cannot understand this refusal to "go". I am
>certain that they understood what was ahead of them when they raised their
>hand and took the oath. They had to have realized that the Army is alot
>more than sitting back and collecting a paycheck twice a month.
>
>I have absolutely no sympathy for an enlistee that refuses to go, based on
>his/her religious convictions. His/Her religious convistions didn't keep
>him/her from enlisting.
>
>What ever happened to the old saying, "Serving Proudly"?
>
>I consider these people to be a personal slap in the faced of all those who
>went before them.
>
>Take care,
>
>Tom Hansen
>SFC, U.S. Army (Retired)
>Not On The Palouse, Not Ever
>
> A good friend will come and bail you out of jail. But, a true friend
>will
>be sitting next to you saying, "Damn...that was fun!"
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: vision2020-admin@moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-admin@moscow.com]On
>Behalf Of Tim Lohrmann
> Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2004 1:03 PM
> To: vision2020@moscow.com
> Subject: [Vision2020] Quaker GI flees Army Unit
>
>
> Visioners,
> The first real desertion I've seen reported since the Iraqi
>invasion
>started.
> I understand there are plenty of AWOL's though.
> TL
>
>
>
>
>
>http://www.fayettevillenc.com/story.php?Template=military&Story=6185924
>
>
> Published on: 2004-02-19
>
> Quaker deserts as unit deploys
> By Julia Oliver
> Staff writer
>
>
> Contributed photo
> Jeremy Hinzman fled to Canada with his wife, Nga Nguyen, and their
>son,
>Liam, in January.
>
> Jeremy Hinzman said he could barely stomach chanting "kill we will"
>during basic training and, as a Quaker, he didn't want to shoot anybody.
>But
>it was the thought of serving U.S. interests in Iraq that made the 82nd
>Airborne Division specialist flee to Canada last month.
>
> "I would have felt no different than a private in the German Army
>during
>World War II," he said by phone from Toronto, where he is seeking refugee
>status.
> Hinzman, 25, who was a member of the 2nd Battalion of the 504th
>Parachute Infantry Regiment, is subject to prosecution as a deserter if he
>is caught within U.S. borders.
>
> His name will go on a national database that law enforcement officers
>can access, said Sgt. Pam Smith, a spokeswoman for the 82nd Airborne. He
>can
>be arrested, but the Army won't go looking for him, she said.
> "We don't have time to go and track down people who go AWOL," she
>said.
>"We're fighting a war."
>
> Hinzman, who grew up in Ra! pid City, S.D., joined the Army in January
>2001. The socialist structure of the military appealed to him, he said. He
>liked the subsidized housing and groceries and, at the end of his service,
>the money for college.
> "It seemed like a good financial decision," he said. And, he said, "I
>had a romantic vision of what the Army was."
>
> But from the beginning, basic training bothered him. He said he was
>horrified by the chanting about blood and killing during marches, by the
>shooting at targets without faces and by what he called the dehumanization
>of the enemy.
> "It's like watching some kind of scary movie, except I was in it," he
>said. "People would just walk around saying things like, 'Oh, I want to
>kill
>somebody.'"
>
> He felt that the prospect of killing should be taken more seriously
>and
>that soldiers should not talk about death in such a cavalier way, he said.
> In August 2002, Hinzman turned in his first application to be a
>conscientious objector. He wanted to fulfill! his service obligation, he
>said, but he didn't want to participate in combat. He wrote a six-page
>explanation of his beliefs, but the Army told him it was lost.
>
> "I was informed three months later that it was never received," he
>said.
>Last fall, while doing clerical work, he was given a file that included
>that
>application.
> By the time Hinzman applied again at the end of October, his unit was
>on
>track to go to Afghanistan. He deployed in December, and the application
>was
>pending.
>
> "I didn't mind being deployed. I just didn't want to shoot anybody,"
>he
>said.
> Not allowed to go on patrol, he worked as a dishwasher, often 15 hours
>a
>day and, for the first few months, without a day off. He said his unit
>didn't get into any major combat.
>
> Application denied
>
> While he was in Afghanistan, his application for conscientious
>objector
>status was evaluated and denied, he said. Hinzman said he thinks one
>question - Would he defend h! is unit if attacked? - destroyed his chances.
>He said he answered yes, reasoning that he had no choice if he was forced
>to
>carry a gun.
>
> "I was a little bit too honest, I guess," he said.
> In July, he returned to Fayetteville, and to his wife, Nga Nguyen, and
>their 14-month-old son, Liam.
> "My son, of course, was a little bit shy about seeing me, but that
>went
>away after a few hours," he said.
>
> He and Nguyen figured it was only a matter of time before his unit
>would
>go to Iraq. He said he felt the war there was unjust and was being fought
>over oil interests.
> "Had we, say, gone to war with North Korea or someone that was an
>imminent threat, I would have gone along with it," he said. "I signed up to
>defend our country, not be a pawn in some sort of political ideology."
> He began to think about his options. And about what he might have to
>do
>if he went to Iraq.
>
> On Dec. 20, Hinzman found out that his unit would be deployed. And on
>Jan. 2, he packed his famil! y into his car for the 18-hour drive to
>Canada.
>The three left at night, on the Friday of a four-day weekend. Hinzman's
>absence wasn't noticed until that Monday; he wasn't declared AWOL until the
>following day.
>
> Support network
>
> Through his philosophical objections to the Army, Hinzman has received
>much support from Quakers in Fayetteville and Toronto. He has always been
>interested in Buddhism, he said, but joined the Friends Meeting after he
>moved to Fayetteville and couldn't find a place to worship in the Buddhist
>faith.
> "The Quaker's mode of worship was closest to meditation because it's
>silent," he said. In Toronto, the Quakers took Hinzman and his family in
>while they looked for an apartment, he said.
>
> Ann Ashford, recording clerk at the Fayetteville Friends Meeting, said
>Hinzman and his wife were faithful attendees of the meetings. She said the
>community supports Hinzman, but no one at the meeting knew he was planning
>to desert.
> "We're all very concerned about him," she said.
>
> Ashford said Hinzman spoke with Chuck Fager, executive director of the
>Quaker House, a related organization that counsels soldiers who are seeking
>discharge from the military. Fager could not be reached Wednesday but has
>said in an e-mail that calls to the organization's hot line from service
>members and their families last year reached a record total of 6,187, up by
>50 percent from the year before.
>
> According to the Toronto Globe and Mail, Hinzman is believed to be the
>first U.S. soldier filing for refugee status in Canada for refusing duty in
>Iraq. During the Vietnam War, an estimated 30,000 Americans sought refuge
>in
>Canada to avoid compulsory military service.
>
> Hinzman's chances of receiving refugee status are statistically slim:
>According to Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board, none of the 268
>American applicants last year was accepted. But people who are denied
>refugee status are not automatically deported; they may be granted
>permission to stay in Canada under other provisions, said Charles Hawkins,
>a
>spokesman for the board.
>
> Hinzman knows that the decisio! n will take awhile.
> "It's a big drawn-out process," he said.
> He said that the hardest part has been leaving the people in his unit,
>which is still in Iraq.
>
> "I didn't do this out of animosity toward them," he said, "but toward
>the situation we were in."
>
> Staff writer Julia Oliver can be reached at oliverj@fayettevillenc.com
>or 323-4848, ext. 280.
>
>
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