Download PDF of this full issue: v4n7.pdf (8 MB)From Vietnam Veterans Against the War, http://www.vvaw.org/veteran/article/?id=2297&hilite=
| Download PDF of this full issue: v4n7.pdf (8 MB) |
(The threat of the less-than-honorable discharge is a major tool of the military to keep GIs in line. This interview with VVAW/WSO member Jim Christopher shows some of the effects of a "bad" discharge, and why VVAW/WSO demands a single-type discharge for all veterans).
Winter Solder: You have an undesirable Discharge. How did your problem with the military begin?
Jim: They began when I joined the Army in 1966. I went to Germany as an artillery-man, but was stationed in Frankfort as a unit policeman--an MP. I asked the Army to put me in my MOS (military occupational specialty), but they wouldn't hear of it. In hope of working in my MOS, I asked for and got Vietnam duty in 1969.
While I was in Nam, back in Texas, my wife was in the hospital. It took me two months to get emergency leave, it was for 15 days. They refused an extension and refused to pay me in Texas. So, I when AWOL. I knew I wouldn't return anyway, because I knew what was happening over there--the whole war thing and the fact that I was busted from SPC 4 to E-1. I called the Pentagon and told them, "I have personal problems at home and I'm not going back to Vietnam. I don't want to fight your war anyway."WS: You also spent some time in a military hospital. What were your experiences there?
Jim: When I came back from Nam, I was pretty well addicted to drugs. After I went AWOL, I turned myself into the VA Hospital. I was in there for a week before the Fort Polk Army Hospital came to pick me up. Captain Cohen, a doctor at Fort Polk, recommended immediate discharge from the Army. On January 17, 1971, I received a medical discharge. There was no treatment there for drugs. They just gave me some thorazine and other pills and got me out of the Army.
WS: If you were discharged medically in 1971, why has the military harassed you since then?
Jim: The Pentagon refused to accept the fact that I was discharged. For 3 years, I was periodically arrested as AWOL; they found my discharge then lost it again. It seemed strange that the Pentagon had two Jim Christophers with the same serial number.
WS: The FBI arrested you in January, 1974. What has happened since then?
Jim: I was in Dauphin County, Penn. Prison for 65 days, then I went to the stockade at Fort Meade, where I was recommended for a general court-martial and Dishonorable Discharge. Through Congressional pressure, I was finally given a UD in lieu of court-martial.
In the stockade, there was one guy who was there for "disdainfully discarding a match," and because he refused to say "sir" to a colonel. Most of the guys were in there for AWOL, some, marijuana, where the military used Army dependents for informers and agents. Many of the guys who went AWOL from Vietnam did so because of family problems at home, political reasons because of the war, or harassing treatment toward the lower ranks by lifers and officers. They felt they had been betrayed by their country.
WS: How has your UD affected you so far in civilian life and how do you think it will affect you in the future?
Jim: I don't have any benefits, I can't go to school (despite four years in the military). I don't get any medical treatment. I cannot apply for jobs where the good money is because of the UD. I tried to get a bank loan, where I got a loan before the UD, and they turned me down. Since you don't qualify for the "Hire a Vet" thing, which is a racist program anyway, you get what's left. One job I applied for since my discharge said they don't hire less-than-honorable vets.
WS: How would amnesty affect you?
Jim: Universal, unconditional amnesty would give me back my rights that were unjustifiably taken from me; it would restore my educational benefits. Plus, it would open the way so I can get a better job to support my family.
WS: Over 1/2 million bad discharges were given to Vietnam-era vets; can you explain why this was so and why a single-type discharge system should replace that system?
Jim: Because the Vietnam War was the most unpopular war. Plus the racist military treatment toward the troops, long months of harassment which was unnecessarily inflicted, the confusion of going into the military believing in your country and then seeing the true side of the war--what started it, what is was, what the military had turned itself into.
Drugs also were a widespread thing among GIs in Vietnam. Gis used narcotics to escape the reality of the war, to escape the reality of mass murder for business. There were quite a few guys in our company who got bad discharges for using drugs. The military said they were unable to adjust to military life. It was mostly poor, working class people who got the bad discharges.
A lot of guys got bad discharges because their company commander or another lifer didn't like his attitude in general or his appearance... These guys are punished unjustly for the rest of their lives. Most GIs are fed up with the Army, anyway. They say, "OK, I'll take that UD." Most bad discharges are given administratively by the company or battalion commander. It's a matter of bureaucracy.
In a way, I don't feel I should be asking for amnesty in my case. But I have to ask for amnesty since the Army has given me a UD. A single-type discharge would eliminate the problem of guys being falsely punished by their government.