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How I Came to VVAW

By Jim Baldridge

I reported for duty on 6 Jan 66 and was "Riffed" early on 6 Nov 69. In between I was stationed near Memphis for aviation electronics school and was then sent to a VP squadron in Norfolk. I was a crew member on P2-V's, and then P3-B's based at Patuxent R. Naval Air Station.

We deployed to the NATO base at Keflavik, Iceland, for 6 months in 68 and again in 69, which was extended to 8 months. I read Zinn's Vietnam – the Logic of Withdrawal and then many other books and documents. I was transformed from an apolitical Nebraska and Ohio Republican anti-communist "patriot" to an anti-war, anti-Republican (and anti-Democratic) activist of undetermined allegiance or ideology for the remaining two years of my four-year enlistment.

When I realized that the Tonkin Gulf "Incident" was phony, I was PO'd! When I realized that other so-called justifications like the SEATO Treaty and Geneva Accords were exaggerations, distortions and lies, I began looking for explanations for why the President and Admirals and Generals and others were lying to get kids like me to sign up, kill and die, I wanted to know WHY!

I subscribed to several underground GI newsletters; that's where I first heard of VVAW, in 1968 I think, in an article about a demo in NYC where half a dozen Vietnam vets decided such an organization was needed. The anti-war and underground GI movement was talking about it and I was digging it.

I decided to put out my own little newsletter during our second deployment. I liberated mimeo masters, typed up news of GI activities stateside and in Vietnam, added my own ideas and arguments about the war, ran it off on a hand-cranked mimeograph machine in the middle of the night. I then distributed it, "surreptitiously" as Dave Cline described it in Sir, No Sir!, on base.

As you might imagine, Iceland wasn't a hotbed of war resistance and insurrection. I was pretty much by my lonesome in this. Others in my unit quietly agreed with me but I was outspoken so I had the "rep," I was the Squadron Radical.

The success of the GI resistance movement didn't depend on what I did in Iceland or in southern Maryland. The resistance in Vietnam or places like Ft. Hood DID matter. I wanted guys in my unit to know all about it, even if they wouldn't openly speak out or resist. I was a part of the war resistance, one small spoke in a big wheel, a part of the active duty anti-war movement.

When I was released from active duty I heaved my sea bag into a dumpster and headed for Baltimore, where I jumped right into the university-based anti-war movement. I never thought about joining VVAW. There were Vietnam vets around who could and did form and do stuff as VVAW, but I wasn't sent to Vietnam, so I left that part to them and worked against the war as a vet and a worker.

I eventually joined VFP, but when Bush/Cheney invaded (THEY didn't invade anyone, those chickenhearted bastards) Iraq, VVAW wasn't represented in the movement in Baltimore and I thought it should be. When I was in the service, I didn't get sent to Vietnam, but I was involved in the war resistance movement, I spoke out publicly in uniform, so I figured, "why the hell not?" I went to the VVAW website, checked out the eligibility requirements, paid my dues.

I got some other Vietnam and era vets together who agreed with me that the VVAW voice needed to be a part of Baltimore's anti-Iraq and Afghanistan voices, and here we are. It's hard to get folks who are already over-extended activists to add another organization to which we want them to commit. But as long as these wars continue, and as long as there are vets who resisted in Vietnam or during Vietnam, there is a need for VVAW. As long as there are new vets, especially IVAW vets, with whom we can work, there is a need for VVAW. We'll keep up the fight until we win or are gone.

I want to be and am a part of the effort to organize VVAW while there are Vietnam and era vets to organize. Before long we'll be dropping like flies, so we need to get out there for people to see and join NOW! Time's-a-wastin', Brothers and Sisters!

Jim Baldridge, Vietnam-era veteran, Baltimore Contact for VVAW and life-member of VFP was stationed at Norfolk Naval Air Station, Pax River NAS and Keflavik NATO Base in Iceland.