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GIs Continue To Struggle!By VVAWRENEW ARMY DRUG ATTACK (Washington, D.C.) A three-judge federal appeals court has given the Army a go-ahead to resume its campaign of terror tactics and repression under the guise of drug-abuse prevention in Germany. In a split decision, the panel gave the Army a stay of execution on a February 8th lower-court ruling that banned the drug program because it violated the constitutional rights of GIs. The Army had been barred by US District Court Judge Gerhard Gesell from using evidence gained in illegal searches of GIs or their living quarters in trials or as a basis for discharges under less than honorable conditions. The original decision that has now been overruled came in a class-action suit filed by the ACLU on behalf of 18 GIs in Europe and in a larger sense on behalf of all GIs stationed in Europe. In a decision that was a victory in the half-a-cake is better-than-none category, Gesell held that the Army could continue a variety of barbaric tactics that included strip searches, unannounced shakedowns of barracks with dogs, and stringent bans on personal activity, but only if it resulted in medical treatment and not punishment. When General Davison, commander of the Army in Europe, attempted to get Gesell to postpone the order, Gesell responded sharply by calling the motion "offensive." This latest ruling, which overturns even the slim guarantees of the Gesell injunction, means that the Army can charge full speed ahead with its infamous "Nelligen Anti-Drug Program", weeding out dissidents, minority-group GIs, minor drug offenders, and other victims by slapping them in jail or discharging them with UDs or worse. But the Army will lose in the long run; the GIs in Europe simply won't put up with it anymore The ACLU will continue its fight to get the program ended. CONTACT: Lawyers Military Defense Committee, 1346 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, D.C. 20036. ARMY GROWS WORSE On two Army bases, there is clear evidence that the brass is getting more repressive. Both situations point to a general trend in the military toward "tightening up" to make life as tough as possible for enlisted people -- and, potentially, for civilians. At FORT BRAGG, N.C., the 82nd Airborne Division has been on a precautionary "riot alert' since January, with an unusual and unseasonal amount of riot training. Just military paranoia. It might be -- but then again: Look at the economic situation: real wages being eroded, strikes threatened, workers angry. Look at the political situation: Nixon hanging on by his fingernails, threatened with impeachment and conviction, and lying and squirming more every day. Perhaps the 82nd's alert is a backup plan for the President, or perhaps preparation for intervention in case of uprisings by some of Nixon's victims: minority people, workers, inner-city dwellers, protestors. The GIs at Bragg don't know what they are on alert for; but they know they history of their division. GIs of the 82nd, since the division returned from Nam, have been sent to D.C. twice and Miami once to "control" antiwar demonstrations. This summer, they may be asked to participate in something far worse. For more information, contact NOSCAM-Chicago. At FORT RILEY, KANSAS, a new commander of the Personnel Control Facility (the transient unit where GIs who are returning from AWOL, who are between orders, or who are waiting for discharges) has decided that the Army is being too soft on its dissidents. The commander, Major Assenberg (an appropriate name) is sending errant GIs up for wholesale courts-martial, refusing to allow administrative discharges, and coming down particularly hard on GIs whom he suspects of having had "outside help" (like seeing a lawyer or a military counselor before entering the PCF). Assenberg particularly has it in for the local ACLU chapter, which has been helping GIs with legal hassles. He has specifically told GIs who have gotten ACLU help that he hopes they "get the book thrown at them," and is consistently harsher with these GIs than with others who have committed the same crimes." Petitions are being circulated, asking for a Congressional investigation of Assenberg's practices and a campaign is under way to see that he gets transferred out of power. For more information, CONTACT: Manhattan ACLU, 124 W. 11th St., Junction City, Kansas 66441. SMITH TRIAL SET (Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas) Sp/4 Melvin Smith will go to trial on April 8th at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on murder charges. The Army will try to prove, for the second time, that Smith consciously and willfully murdered a sergeant in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, in 1971. Smith has fought for more than three years now to prove that he had suffered a grievous head injury and was insane at the time of the killing. A huge pile of evidence supports this claim, including the testimony of Army doctors. But because of the Army's racist vendetta against him as a symbol of black GIs, Smith has already been convicted once and has spent the last three years of his life in prison. This second trial will determine whether or not he is to stay in Leavenworth for the rest of his life. Harassment of Melvin and his brothers at the prison continues at a high rate. He has been subjected to disciplinary procedures for writing letters that were published; his mail has been tampered with, and he has been denied the right to correspond with VVAW/WSO and some other groups. Prisoners found with petitions supporting Smith have been punished and the petitions confiscated. But he and his supporters remain strong and fully in support of Melvin Smith because as one of them said, "What is good for one of us is good for all of us!" The case has not received much national straight-press publicity because of the big media's tendency to shy away from military cases and because this trial concerns a war that is no longer "news." But many papers, including black publications and a whole range of Movement news media have kept up the pressure to free Melvin Smith. Thousands of signatures have been gathered on petitions, and many of his civilian supporters in the Midwest are planning to attend his trial. The war is not over for the Vietnamese people. It is not over for the Vietnam veterans who are exiled, jailed, unemployed, sick, wounded, or crippled because of U.S. imperialism. It is not over for the families of these men. And it is not over for Melvin Smith. He is going on trial for all of us, and he will win for all of us. Money is still urgently needed for his defense; petitions are still being circulated; and publicity is needed. Supporters should contact NOSCAM-Chicago immediately; the trial is beginning soon. While letters may not be allowed to Melvin, it would cheer him immensely to know he has friends. Write to him at Drawer A, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 66027. Telegrams and letters to Commandant at Leavenworth, demanding an end to the harassment of Melvin and his brothers, would also be greatly appreciated. FREE MELVIN SMITH!! HAWAIIANS FACE MILITARY RACISM (Schofield Barracks, Hawaii) Two Hawaiian GIs, Danny Grance and Pete Kealoha, are facing general court-martial on charges of disrespect, assault, and threats to an officer and a sergeant. Danny and Pete had been subjected to discriminatory treatment ever since they joined the military. Pete was stationed for more than a year at an isolated Army post in Germany where racial incidents and riots were commonplace occurrences. He was the only Hawaiian at the base, and he faced constant difficulties in that he and several Puerto Rican GIs were caught in the middle of tensions between blacks and whites. Pete felt that he couldn't talk to any officer -- black or white -- and receive any kind of receptive audience. Other soldiers would ask him if the Hawaiian people "still eat people," or if they "were still savages." Similar things happened Danny, who was stationed in Colorado. There he found that Hawaiians and Puerto Ricans were bunked together in segregated rooms and were rarely promoted. With these pressures on them, both Danny and Pete went AWOL to come back to Hawaii. They turned themselves in at Schofield Barracks. On December 12th, Danny and Pete got drunk in their room at Schofield. Their commanding officer, Lieut. Floyd, was called in, and tried to "handle" the situation with the help of one Sergeant Sparks. According to MPs who were there, Sparks was obviously intoxicated. Floyd ordered Danny and Pete to become sober. The ensuing scene, with attempted explanations being cut short by commands of silence, became more and more heated, until long-standing anger and frustration finally exploded. Now Danny and Pete are charges with serious offenses, and the wheels of military "justice" are turning. Following the incident, both of them were confined to the stockade for seven weeks because Lieut. Floyd, the same man who had provoked the incident, decided that they were a "danger to society." The evidence against them, and the military's whole case, proved to be very weak when it was presented at their preliminary hearings, but the commander of the division, General Gatsis, decided to convene a general court-martial anyway. Legal and defense work is being handled by lawyers at the Liberated Barracks, a GI counseling service in Hawaii. They have asked that those interested in the case write letters of protest to General Gatsis and send for petitions that can be circulated and returned to Hawaii. For more information, CONTACT: Grance-Kealoha Defense Committee, c/o Liberated Barracks, 124-A Oneawa St., Kailua, Hawaii 96734. News on these pages was compiled by NOSCAM, the VVAW/WSO National Office GI Project. This office coordinates active-duty chapters, new VVAW/WSO members and chapters, GI movement news, and all other GI movement activities. Contact one of the NOSCAM offices for more information: NOSCAM-Dayton NOSCAM-Chicago
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