COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Leaving Military: Conscientious Objector
From Solider to Objector
Interviewed by Francesca Fiorentini and Steve Theberge, Nonviolent Activist
January, 2006
Born
in the Bronx, Jose Vasquez grew up in San Bernadino, Calif. In 1991, a
junior in high school, he enlisted in the Army’s Delayed Entry
Program. During his four-and-a-half-year tour of duty, Vasquez was
stationed in Hawaii, Louisiana, Thailand, Florida, and California.
After completing his tour, Vasquez trained and began working as a medic
and a nurse. In spring 2003 he received his bachelor’s degree
from the City College of New York in Harlem, and by fall he began
studying anthropology at the City University of New York’s
Graduate Center.
In January 2005, just days before his unit was to be mobilized for
deployment to Iraq, Jose Vasquez turned in an application for
conscientious objector status. In June 2005, he became a member of Iraq
Vets Against the War (IVAW). He is currently the president of its New
York City chapter and represents IVAW on the steering committee of
United for Peace and Justice.
NVA: What prompted you to enlist in the army?
The way that the recruiters got a hold of me was they had brought a
tank to the [high school] outdoor basketball court. I was in the tenth
grade it was career day, and pretty much the only careers they were
offering were Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard. That was
career day. They had a tank out there and guys were rappelling off of
the gym, so it was just like a big show.
I went up to the table where the Army guy was and I filled out a
postcard and forgot about it. I was probably 15 years old. I had no
intention of going to college. I wasn't really sure where I was going
to work because there wasn't much work to be had in San Bernardino,
California.
Then the summer after my junior year, a recruiter called me up and
said, "Why don't you come down to the recruiting station and we'll talk
about your future, your options." So I did, and took a practice ASVAB
[Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery] test and all that, and I
signed up for the delayed entry program a year ahead of time. I
graduated in 1992, and two weeks later, I was shaved bald,
left-right-left, at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
The job that I picked turned out to be one of the worst jobs you can
have in the military, Reconnaissance, in Cavalry. Basically what we do
is go out and find out where the enemy is, which is not a good job. So
that's what I did for four-and-a-half years. By the end of it, the only
reason I didn't re-enlist was I didn't like my job all that much, and I
hated my platoon sergeant, so I thought it was time for me to go. So I
got out, and was in inactive reserve.
When I got out, I knew I wanted to go to college, I had my GI Bill. It
was a big change from the time I left high school, when I had no desire
to go to college. But by the time I left the military I knew I didn't
want to do anything but go to college.
The problem was that, being a Cav Scout for four-and-a-half years, I
had no marketable skills unless I wanted to be a cop, security guard,
or a mercenary. But that's not what I wanted to do; I wanted to go to
college. So I started working in security, which sucked. I was working
at a retail place and the hours were terrible, and it was me guarding
the door all day. And I was like, this is not going to work out well
for very long, so I started to look into my options and I realized that
I can get a skill quick if I join the reserve. So I called a recruiter
and I said, "Don't try and sell me anything; I'm prior service. But if
you can find me a unit that will train me to be a medic, I'll sign up
tomorrow."
A few days later he calls me up and says, "I found an infantry
battalion. They're ready to send you to medical training tomorrow. So I
quit my job and I went off to Texas to learn to be a medic. I came back
from Texas to Hawaii, started working in the medical field as an EMT,
and I was going to college full-time in Hawaii. I finished my
bachelor's at City College up in Harlem.
On September 11, 2001, I'm still in the military. And the combat
support unit hospital I was in was called up and there was a chance
that we were going to go to Afghanistan to set up a hospital. But it
turned out it was a false call and they had found another unit that was
more ready to go than we were. That was my first false call in the
reserve. I had plenty of other times when I could've been deployed on
active duty, but it was the first time that I felt like it was really
going to happen. I don't know if it was because I was here in New York
and I saw what had happened, but I felt like this was it.
NVA: What were your feelings about the attack on Afghanistan?
I was kind of ambivalent about it. I felt like the mission was us going
to get revenge, that's the way I felt about it. I saw what happened
down at ground zero, but I didn't think that killing more people was
going to fix that, or would make that better. And I knew what we're
capable of, and how many bombs we've dropped to prepare the
battlefield, so to speak. So I was thinking, there'll be a helluva lot
more than 3000 people that die if we go to Afghanistan.
I didn't say anything to anybody; I didn't do anything about it. But in
the back of my mind, it didn't feel right. And I don't know if it was
because I was older or if it's because I had an education by the time
9/11 happened, but I just started to connect the dots more. I thought,
okay, there's going to be a lot of poor people and a lot of brown
people that are going to get bombed. And is that going to make what
happened here better?
I started thinking about the consequences of war, and what am I doing
in the military, and what do I think I'm going to accomplish by being
in the military? And do I agree with what the military is called on to
do? No. I didn't think so. But I never talked politics to anyone in
uniform. In March 2003 we invaded Iraq. So if you didn't get deployed
to Afghanistan, you're definitely going to get deployed to Iraq. And I
anticipated that there would be a lot more casualties in Iraq. So
definitely there would be a need for a field hospital there.
NVA: What were your thoughts about the war?
I didn't buy it from the beginning. People were asking me, are we going
to invade Iraq? And I was just like, you don't understand, we're
already there. We don't move battleships into the area unless we're
going to do something. And as it turned out, we were already bombing
Iraq-I found out from one of the IVAW members. The media was saying
that we're negotiating with them or we're trying diplomacy, but he was
in the Air Force, and he was loading bombs, and they were already
bombing Iraq well before we were going to start.
I really didn't see what the hell the World Trade Center had to do with
Iraq. And I was really upset that I was gonna have to go there. And I
knew that [my friend] Ray was gonna have to go to Abu Ghraib. For me it
was like of all the places on earth, why there? I kind of put myself in
his place and thought, what would I do if I were stationed there? Would
I go?
After the Abu Ghraib photos I really started to identify more with the
Iraqi people than anybody else. I saw those pictures, and to me the
guys in the photos who were being tortured looked like my uncles, you
know what I mean? People in my family. I'm Puerto Rican; brown-skinned
people, we grow facial hair, we have dark hair. I saw myself as the
person being tortured. And that just really made me sick.
What else happened? The election, which was a mess. I called my dad the
morning of-I remember this, I said, "Dad, I'm really thinking about
refusing to go to Iraq if I get called up." I started to think about
what am I going to do to show the military that I'm against this, what
are my options?
I think also in 2004 was when we went into Fallujah, so I was watching
that closely. And I was like, this is just like Vietnam. We're just
leveling whole cities. Even though I'm a medic, no matter what job I do
in the military, I'm supporting what's going on, you know? I'm
supporting this green machine rolling over the people in Iraq.
And so, it was just these things-layer upon layer-that were making me
think but making me angry and pissed off. I made up my mind that I
don't need to get to Iraq to realize how bad it is.
NVA: What made you apply for conscientious objector status?
As a sergeant I have to go through leadership training in order to
progress in rank. And one of the lessons was the ethics of warfare. And
they wanted us to read a website which was basically an account of the
My Lai massacre-I don't know why they did that-and then have a group
discussion on what went wrong and what we can do better. I read the
website, and as I was scrolling down I was getting more pissed off.
So we had the discussion, people started saying this, that, and the
other. Then I raised my hand and told them that what really went wrong
with My Lai was that the policy was set up in such a way that the
troops had to dehumanize the enemy, and really that's the problem with
war in general is that you have to dehumanize the enemy, and that's why
we shoot at silhouette targets, and that's why we have names like gooks
and chinks and ragheads and hajjis. And everybody kind of looked at me
like, "Where's this guy coming from? What's wrong with him?" I was in
such a different place from all the other sergeants.
That's when I knew, I can't do this anymore. So when I came home I
started doing research, just like I do in grad school. I dropped
everything I was doing and started doing research on conscientious
objector status. I had heard about it, but I didn't really know what
you had to do. I got the regulations, I found the Center for
Conscientious Objectors website and downloaded the booklet that they
had. I emailed the War Resisters League, I emailed everybody. I started
to do all my homework and highlighting the regulation parts that I
didn't understand.
Probably around December 29, 2004, is when I said, this is it. I had
done my research and I realized I was going to be immobilized until I
could get this off my chest. And once I started writing, I started
feeling better. So I did a three-day marathon, writing my CO claim. And
after that, I tell you it was like a weight was off my shoulders. I
didn't need a therapist, it was a form of therapy for me, and it really
opened up some part of my brain that had been closed off or
disconnected.
NVA: What was the reaction from the military?
I called my unit the first week of January after the New Year. And we
had our drill weekend coming up, 7th and 8th of January 2005. I called
my commander and said, "Sir, I want you to know that when I come in
Saturday for drill I'm going to be turning in a claim of conscientious
objector status." And he was like, "What? You're one of our best
troops, what the hell you talking about?" I said, "Well, Sir, I've been
thinking about this ever since 9/11 and I've just now come to the
conclusion that I can't do it anymore. I can't support what's going on
in Iraq and I'm against war in any form-I'm done with the whole thing."
I had a meeting with my commander and Sgt. Major in February. And when
we got to the end of the meeting, they asked me questions about the
application. They basically had me reiterate the thing. Part of it was
because they didn't believe that I actually could write it by myself.
They were like, "Tell us again." So I reiterated it to them damned near
verbatim.
At the end of the meeting they said, "Well, Sgt. Vasquez, the unit has
been mobilized. And we're going to leave in March, and you're coming
with us." And I said, "Roger that, when do I get my orders?" I didn't
fight with them or anything. In the back of my mind, I remembered
reading somewhere in the CO claim thing that if I turned in my
statement before the unit gets deployed, I'm supposed to stay put. But
I didn't say that to them there.
So I showed up for duty on March 4, to Fort Hamilton, and we shipped
out to Texas. My orders said Operation Iraqi Freedom and all that
stuff. I can't remember how many days I was mobilized, probably like 18
months. So I knew that there was no guarantee I'm going to stay in
Texas. If they need a medic in Iraq, I'll probably be over there. And
sure enough, as soon as we got to Texas they said, "Don't get too
comfortable cause some of you might have to go to Iraq."
After a couple days of processing I went in and saw the new commander.
He had a chance to read my claim and he had the personnel sergeant
involved. And he [the sergeant] was really on the ball, he was a
by-the-book kind of person. So when the commander said, "I want you to
handle this [CO claim]," the guy read the regulations, you know, and
sure enough, Chapter 2 Paragraph 10 says if the solider turns in the
statement before they get mobilization orders, the solider is supposed
to stay there and the unit moves forward. So he's like, "Sir, this
guy's not supposed to be here."
That was it. I went in on Tuesday, and Thursday I was back on a plane and at LaGuardia. I was off active duty.
NVA: Where does your claim stand now?
I've been in limbo ever since. March of last year till now, I'm still
pending. I've gotten through the interview with the shrink, the
chaplain, and I'm waiting for the investigative officer to do his
thing. And so then I'll be a discontented sergeant. And I still have to
show up for drill on weekends. It's unfortunate that I'm not going to
be able to retire, which is what I was headed for. But I feel strongly
enough about it that if they say no to my CO claim, and they try to
deploy me, I'd rather either go to Canada or go to jail. 'Cause I will
not step foot in Iraq, until I can do so with my passport and go there
with some kind of NGO doing good things.
NVA: What happened to the unit you were in?
They are now stationed at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. So had I stayed in
that unit, I would be at Abu Ghraib right now. My buddy Ray just came
back. He said there are about 5,000-6,000 detainees; they have them
separated by threat level, but they also have adolescent kids, women,
and they're just like barbed wire concentration camps is all it is.
NVA: How did you get involved with IVAW?
There was this event called Put the War on Trial and they were reading
excerpts from Pablo Perez's CO claim and also his court martial
hearing. So I was like, cool; I already knew about them after reading
websites about them. I went to check it out and I met one of the Iraq
vets, Alex Ryabov, who was speaking. He told me about IVAW and said you
don't necessarily have to have gone to Iraq or Afghanistan, just if
you've been in the military since 2001, that's who we want.
So I signed up right away, I think it was in June. I sent off my
membership and then I went to-well pretty much anything Alex was
speaking at I would go to. Then the first time I got to see them [IVAW]
as a group was at the march in DC last year. And then I got to meet 40
or 50 of them.
I helped start a chapter in New York City. Right now there are only
four of us, but we're looking to change that. We're going to try to do
a tour of all the CUNY campuses. Yeah, we just know that when troops
come back from anywhere, whether it be active duty or combat, the first
thing they want to do is go to college or get married or whatever. And
if they're going to go to college, and they're using the GI Bill, NYU
is out, Columbia is out, so they're going to be at the CUNY campuses.
Another mission is to get more people of color, because right now IVAW
is a pretty white organization. And I know that doesn't reflect what
the military looks like, and I know that there are a lot of people like
my dad, who went to combat, came home, and just wanted to forget about
it. Unfortunately, political activism comes second when you're not able
to find a job.
One of the first things we did here in the city was the New York Times
had a big job fair for vets at the Javitz Center and it was enormous.
They had all of the federal, state, and local agencies, but then they
had all these big contractors-Halliburton and the whole thing.
And what'd we do? We got a bunch of IVAW fliers, printed up 300 of
them, and I had my field jacket on, so I was easy to spot and I just
picked them out, easily, by the haircut and the ill-fitting suits, and
started handing out IVAW fliers. Surprisingly, I only had one guy look
at it and give it back to me. Some people stopped to talk, some people
said, "Hey, man, I think it's cool what you're doing." Some people
said, "I disagree with you but I respect you, and that's what we're
fighting for."
NVA: What's it been like for IVAW members as former soldiers now
becoming political organizers? What's the air of political
consciousness?
There's a spectrum of political consciousness in IVAW. Not everyone in
IVAW is against war in any form. But there is a handful of
conscientious objectors. There are some folks on the other side of the
spectrum who were gung-ho Marines when they went over there; they were
ready to blow shit up. But when he got there and found out who's
actually getting blown up, and looked at the bodies it was like: old
person, baby, woman … so that caused one of the members to
really think, okay, every time I send artillery down range, I don't
know who's actually getting killed. So that woke him up when he was
there.
We're not encouraging people to sabotage the army or anything like
that, but as a solider, why can't you have free speech like everybody
else? That's why I'm here talking to you. A lot of people say, "I don't
want to talk to the media 'cause that will get me into trouble." But
I'm in civilian clothes, I'm an American citizen, I do whatever the
fuck I want. I'm on my time, you know? I don't go to parades or rallies
in my uniform. Although when I'm discharged there's no guarantee that I
won't do that.
So, you know, what would it take for us to do something on the scale of
the GI movements in Vietnam? I think that having a blog is our
generation's way of having underground newspapers, and that's why the
Army is cracking down on them now, 'cause they cant' control it.
NVA: How has it been working with other antiwar organizations?
I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for somebody who organized that thing
over at the Community Church, you know? So I think so far, the antiwar
movement has been smart about putting the troops up front and putting
the military families up front. Because it's like, what can the pro-war
people say about us? They can't just dismiss us.
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