COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Leaving Military: Conscientious Objector
Navajo Marine granted objector status
FELICIA FONSECA, Associated Press
Jan 27, 2007
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. - Ronnie Tallman says that when
> > he joined the
> > Marines, he never expected a spiritual
> > transformation that would put
> > his newfound Navajo tribal beliefs in conflict
> with
> > his military
> > duties.
> >
> > A military screening board interviewed
> psychiatrists
> > and a chaplain,
> > among others, before determining Jan. 11 that
> > Tallman's newfound
> > status as a type of Navajo medicine man was
> "simply
> > a means to avoid
> > combat deployment to Iraq."
> >
> > On Wednesday, however, the military changed
> course,
> > granting Tallman
> > conscientious objector status.
> >
> > "I didn't expect this. I'm really happy right
> now,"
> > Tallman said in a
> > telephone interview with The Associated Press from
> > the California
> > base.
> >
> > In November 2005, about a year after enlisting and
> > shortly before he
> > was to be deployed to Iraq, Tallman says he
> > discovered — quite
> > unexpectedly — a gift as a special type of
> medicine
> > man known as a
> > "hand trembler."
> >
> > Such status is rare and deeply revered by the
> tribe.
> > Tallman says by
> > tradition, his status as a healer rendered him
> > unable to kill or harm,
> > or even think negative thoughts, thereby making
> him
> > unfit to continue
> > with his commitment to the military.
> >
> > Tallman decided not to return to his base in
> > Twentynine Palms, Calif.,
> > and was deemed on "unauthorized absence" until he
> > filed his
> > application to be a conscientious objector, based
> on
> > religious
> > beliefs, in January 2006.
> >
> > Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Cox, of the Marine public
> > affairs office in
> > Twentynine Palms, said he did not know why
> Tallman's
> > application was
> > approved after the initial denial.
> >
> > Marine Lt. Col. T.V. Johnson, a spokesman for
> Marine
> > commandant Gen.
> > James Conway, said "it's an administrative action.
> I
> > don't think
> > (Conway) would go into why."
> >
> > Tallman told Marine officials that although he was
> > still learning the
> > rules of traditional hand trembler practitioners,
> > "the most important
> > ones are that I can't hurt other living things and
> I
> > can't even think
> > about hurting other living things or carry
> negative
> > thoughts."
> >
> > Months before his spiritual experience, during
> > bootcamp, Tallman
> > recalled how he felt when he heard chants that
> ended
> > with new Marines
> > shouting the word, "kill." He remembered being
> > scolded as a boy for
> > saying he would kill an animal, and wondered
> whether
> > he could continue
> > on with the Marines.
> >
> > "It was emotionally tearing me apart because I
> > didn't know whether to
> > follow my heart or fill this commitment," he said
> in
> > a phone interview
> > from the California military base.
> >
> > In his application to leave the military, Tallman
> > wrote: "I had a very
> > powerful experience where my left hand started to
> > shake, and at the
> > same time, an amazing feeling of calmness came
> over
> > me ... My heart
> > slowed down, and my breathing, and I felt
> peaceful.
> >
> > "My hand kept trembling and I started to notice
> the
> > energy in the
> > people around me and I started to know things
> about
> > them that I could
> > never have known, things about their lives and
> what
> > made them sick or
> > in pain," he wrote.
> >
> > Since his spiritual experience, Tallman has been
> > sanctified as a hand
> > trembler in a ceremony conducted by his uncle and
> > grandfather. He then
> > became a certified medicine man with the Dine
> > Hataalii Association, a
> > group of medicine men.
> >
> > Tallman's uncle and grandfather also are hand
> > tremblers. "I'm going to
> > start learning from all the people I grew up
> > listening to," he said.
> > "I'm going to sit down with them and pick their
> > brain."
> >
> > Cox said Tallman is the only Marine within the
> past
> > year to apply for
> > and be granted conscientious objector status.
> Tribal
> > leaders,
> > including Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr., had
> > expressed support for
> > Tallman. Cox suggested that might have played into
> > Conway's decision.
Tallman's mother, Nora, said she's proud of her son
for standing upfor his beliefs and looks forward to him
joining other hand tremblers on the reservation.
"Our medicine men, some of them are getting tooold,
and some have gone," she said. "And we do need
medicine men to
help people. ... It's a good thing that he got this gift."
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