OP¥.K HANKS a Newspaper Vol

free oo Gis BALTIMORE GIs UNITED civilians 250 OP¥.K HANKS a newspaper Vol. 1, no. 3 IN SUPPORT OP DEMOCRACY Ft. Hoiabird The wars drag on. TEE GUARD FIASCO The poignant smell of death hangs heavy. Recently, a GI walking his guard A helicopter drones above the swamps post at the officer's club was shot In search of its prey: at by a would-be thief. Fortunately, The battered, broken bodies he was not hit. Since he was armed Of men. only with a small club and a flash Strong men once, light, the guard did not try to catch And brave and yo-ung. the thief. The duties and equipment But now they're older, of the guards have remained the same And tired— as before the shooting incident. Those who survived. What does the Chief of Staff ex A widow weeps. pect an untrained and virtually un A child cells out for Daddy, armed individual to do in the event Who promised he'd return. of trouble? The official answer is that the guard is supposed to report And he did. it so qualified help can get to the But silent, scene. That's fine unless the man and in a \rooden box. has stopped a bullet or been jumped And wars crag on. by drunks, in which case the report What are v/e searching for, America? will be made when the guard is found. And why? In the age of electronics, aren't And will v/e know what it is, there safer and much more efficient If and when we find it? ways to guard buildings than by post ing unarmed, untrained, sleepy, cold, LETTER TO. THE PRESIDENT and pissed-off GIs by them? Dear Mr. Nixon: Even if it were impossible to in As active dnaty soldiers concerned stall burglar alarms in the buildings about our country and the war in now guarded, is a bottle of scotch or Vietnam, we find it necessary to ex the petty cash till in the officer's plain our feelings on draft resis club worth risking a man's life for? tance and desertion. If you are an EM involved in guarding We feel that all men who have fled the areas, then no doubt you place a this country, who have fled the arm somewhat higher value on your skin. ed services, or who are serving in Apparently if you are a colonel, your Federal prisons to demonstrate their values are reversed and the safety of opposition to the war should not be the scotch outweighs the safety of punished as criminals. the man. If the men are not going We urge you to grant a general to be properly trained and armed, amnesty pardoning these men. We then the guard duties should be dis harbor no animosity toward these men. continued. It's time you brought We want them to return to their coun some smoke on the men who place such try and work for the betterment of little value on your life - write to mankind. A general amnesty would do your Representative or Senator! much to re-unite this divided nation.- «^ ^r* • -ir-isi.^ OPEN RANKS see page 4 THIS PAPER IS YOUR PERSONAL PROPERTY. IT CANNOT LEGALLY BE TAKEN AWAY. LET]S .CET OURSELVES TOGETHER! COWARD? We know $ou< re out there!" , We know I have »heard ma$y 'Soldiers refer to there "-are GIs at Ft. Hoiabird'-who anti-war •••demonstrators ae£ cowards or want to see the war stopped now, who long haired creeps. These soldiers are fed up with the daily round of somehow feel that demonstrators are Mickey Mouse harrassment, and who are active only because they are afraid concerned about the absence of civil they will be drafted and sent to Nam.- liberties in the Army. It's about This attitude of cowardice is also time we got together. projected to our boys in Canada, Swe This Sunday, Dec. 14, there will den, and in federal prisons because be a meeting for interested GIs at they refused to become part of the the Learning Action Center, 321 East Army system. It seems strange to me 25th Street, 3rd floor, at 7:30 P.M. (I'm a GI too) that other GIs could There will be some goodies to feed foster such ideas. your jgace, and some rapping to feed Sgt. Major Wooldridge and a Major your mind. General were doing many mean and nasty Some of the topics to be discussed things: robbing soldiers and the gov are: developing a stronger base for ernment alike to make themselves weal Open Ranks, organizing a coffeehouse thy. Quite a few high ranking enlist for Baltimore area GIs, and your ed men have been charged by the Senate rights as a citizen-soldier. as being involved in NCO club graft. There will be some short speeches Lieutenant Calley'has been charged by workers in the fields of GI organ with the slaying of at least 10 9 Viet ization and GI rights, and there will namese men, women, children, and babies be active duty GIs and recent vets to Twenty-four other American soldiers talk with. are under investigation concerning this incident. • If you need transportation or if you have a car and will take riders, Reports this week alone include pic contact George Coward at 889-1998. tures of VC suspects being thrown from helicopters because they would not ans wer questions to the US interrogator's H^El COME DE JUDGE satisfaction. ' The UCMJ (Uniform Qode of Military American pilots unload their weapons Justice) is a cruel weapon that was daily on anything that moves in the adopted by uncle Sam to protect the. designated "free fire zones" - man, government and not the people who woman, or child. For months American serve under it. pilots pounded away at North Vietnam daily. Atrocities of the war have not Although the UCMJ is a nasty threat gone unreported. Papers like the Ber to. our own beliefs, it has a few good keley Barb, Vietnam GI, and Shakedown provisions. have consistently reported them, Who It is designed to protect GIs from hasn't seen the pictures of napalmed rash and uncontrollable punishment babies and child amputees? and informs them of their rights, such The war is immoral. That cannot be as they arc. denied. The Army is immoral too, but The Judge Advocate General's of it always finds a scapegoat or hides fice is the legal branch of the Army.• the facts as in the My Lai incident. They are helpful in abtaining legal The Army now is running scared looking advice and in finding the exact word for a place to hide until it all blows ing of regulations. (It is best to over. obtain a civilian lawyer for actually You may be a soldier by c>Joice, may trying cases.) Permission cannot le be not. You know about the Army's im gally be denied to go to: the JAG morality better than anyone else. Sol office, if you go through the chain diers, how can we accuse these men of of command. cowardice because they refuse to asso cont. p, 3 ciate with this sickening immorality? FIRE A DRAFTEE TODAY! CORRUPTION IN THE ARMY How many hours a week are you put People in the Army were made sorely ting in? Dount work or class time, aware recently that rank and honesty KP, guard duty, formations, inspec ' aro not always the same. This gap tions, GI parties, etc. Depressing, was driven home by the actions of two isn't it?'Now ask yourself why you high ranking men, former Sergeant have to slave this way, and espec Major of the Army Wooldridge and ially why you have to "temporarily" Provost Marshall Major General Turner. have to work Saturdays. The official These men held prominent Army position explanation is that there is a work of trust and respect. Then it wo.s overload. But how much time each Sat discovered that they had participated urday ia spent doing productive lab in illegal activities, made possible or and how much is spent at trivial, by the positions they held. worthless chores and formations? While it is true that all high rank Do you suppose that the General is ing officers and enlisted men should scared about the civilian employees not be judged by the actions of two cutback? Could it be that a lot of bad apples, it is also true that one prestige is attached to a large civ should never make the same mistake ilian force? Could he be saying in twice. The circumstances that made Washington. "Look, I have my men the Turner-Wooldridge incident pos- working every waking hour. Wo enn't sibile should bo changed. The blind spare any civilians."? If so, why 16 are we doing the lackey bât for the ^ne^âi^^iâiBs^^rrSpïi^P sake of the general's prestigious easy and prevalent in the Army. body count? The Turner-Wooldridge incident is Let's take it a step further. Why not a fluke. It will happen again are they firing civilians who need and again if something isn't done to that work, and at the same time discourage it. In fact it is happen drafting young men who have better ing all the time end going undetected things to do with their lives? Why in most co.ses. From First Sergeants not keep the civilians and cut back to Company Commanders to Generals it the draft? Again there is a simple is happening.

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