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Lowry Stockade

By VVAW

Vengeance, hate, racism, and brutality is what the Lowry Stockade is all about. Captain Gary B. Jones, Stockade Commander, and his staff of disturbed guards are probably more dangerous than the great majority of the men they try to rehabilitate. These sick men seek personal advancement and apparently find personal satisfaction by inflicting pain and misery on their fellow men. They do not belong in positions of authority, but should be sent to institutions where they can be helped.

Lowry Air Force Base is the retraining center for the Air Force. It is the base where Airmen are sent to serve extended sentences in the stockade or where they go for voluntary retraining rather than accept administrative discharges. What it is suppose to do is teach disgruntled Airmen that the Air Force is the good guy and it is a NO NO to fuck with it. When soft talk and bullshit will convince a guy Lowry uses it. When an Airman does not eat up that song and dance they try fear and terror tactics.

The food, the prisoners are given, is so bad that a two day hunger strike was staged in an attempt to appeal for decent food. On the third day of the hunger strike, prisoners broke from their normal route to their chow hall to march on the Officer's Open Mess. The prisoners wanted to bring attention to conditions in their own cow hall.

They were sent back to the stockade, where they were separated by race. The white participants received no punishment, but the nine black participants were sent to the Fort Carson Stockade under maximum security for eight days as "trouble makers". Upon return to Lowry's concentration camp (stockade optional) they were put in, appropriately named, segregation cells.

In the segregation cells, the prisoners are allowed no reading materials, no visitors, no combs or toothbrushes, and no mattresses. For eight hours they area allowed to sleep on mattresses then the mattresses are taken away. For sixteen hours a day, the prisoners live only with an iron bed frame, a toilet, floor, ceiling, three solid walls, and an iron bar door. Sixteen hours a day, the men in segregation cells endure one of the worst tortures, that of boredom. These men can learn nothing constructive of how to deal with the Air Force and society in general. All they can learn is the lesson of their keepers - vengeance, hate, racism, and Brutality.

Two of the blacks in the Lowry "reform center" are now facing new charges. One of the men was singing in the shower with a group, when a colonial walked in with all his Gestapo splendor and ordered them to shut up. They did not and one of the men, who happened to be a member of the American Servicemen's Union, was selected for court-martial. The other black Airman, also a member of the American Servicemen's Union, reportedly did not get out of bed when he was told to do so. He was sick and the dispensary had him on sedatives. Captain Jones, Stockade Commander, stood outside the cell and said: "I am going to give you the chance to hit me, nigger." Then Jones and two of his flunky tyrant guard guards (sic) went into the segregation cell and took the mattress by brute force. Edward West, the Airman, was beaten so badly during the incident, that X-rays were needed to determine the extent of his injuries. The brass said "West was being held in the base stockade on three charges involving three incidents of disrespect to officers, two incidents of willfully disobeying an order, and four incidents of assault on an officer." All charges stem from the same incident.

A group of GI's from Lowry, called Getting Together, distributed leaflets telling of conditions in the stockade. That evening the commanding General called for an investigation into the allegations. When the GIs showed for the hearing concerning the charges they were barred from witnessing "Air Force Justice". When they tried to get into the stockade to talk to West about the incident, they were also barred. Edward West is now facing a general court-martial that could send this eighteen year old man to a federal prison and win him Dishonorable Discharge.