Garett Reppenhagen (former Army Scout Sniper, 2-63 AR BN 1st Infantry Division 2002 to 2005) and Jeff Englehart (former Army Specialist, 19 Delta-Cavalry Scout from 2001 to 2005) served in Iraq at the same time, but were in different locations. While stationed in Iraq, they started a blog against the war “Fight to Survive”, which they did when each of them were stationed in different locations, not even spending time together. They worked along with fellow soldiers on the frontlines to keep the blog going. This blog, the first of its kind, attracted the attention of the officers, and caused problems for one soldier. However, the anti-war messages kept going out and received notoriety amongst the ranks. They were also inspired to continue their fight against the war while still stationed in Iraq by reading “Flower of the Dragon.”
Both Garett and Jeff spent time in Iraq talking to other soldiers about the futility of the war, the total lack of reasons to be there, and the horror of it all. They put up stickers around the base where they were stationed which said “Bush Lied, Who Died!” Now, members of IVAW, they continue their struggle to speak to active duty military at various military bases about organizing tactics against the war (visit the links to read more postings written by Garett (www.ivaw.org/member/garett-reppenhagen-0) and Jeff www.ivaw.org/membersspeak/supporting-gi-resistance).
Fabian Bouthillette, former US Naval Lieutenant, and a graduate of the Naval Academy; a member of IVAW and the Military Project, led the discussion about how important it was for members of the anti-war movement to do outreach to the troops. He said, “When I got out of the Navy, I knew the war was wrong, but didn’t know how to go about expressing that. I joined IVAW, and then met members of the Military Project. It dawned on me that this was the thing to do. Go and speak to the troops. And that’s what I have been doing ever since.”
III. Support from Labor Against the War, Veterans For Peace & Civilian activists
Sandy Kelson, VFP, who organized two weeks of outreach at Ft. Stewart Army base, which is home to roughly 19,000 soldiers, of which approximately 15,000 are currently deployed, talked about direct outreach at the base. In February, 2008, he and others, stood at a traffic light right before the entrance and distributed 500 copies of “Sir, No Sir!”, the Dave Zieger film about GI resistance during Vietnam, and 385 copies of “The Ground Truth”, a film documenting resistance by the military against the war in Iraq, as well as 1300 packets of leaflets, including VFP and IVAW applications, Appeal for Redress, GI Rights pocket cards, and other materials. Sometime after they did this outreach they discovered that the PX and other locations on the base were discussing the materials that they had delivered.
Mike Hastie, Vietnam Veteran and photographer, presented his evocation against the war by displaying his vividly moving pictures from Vietnam. His photos were hung around the room surrounding the audience and reminding them about the quagmire that this Country led us into almost 40 years ago, and how eerily similar it was to what is happening today. He particularly moved the crowd by removing 5 of his hanging photos and read stories related in the captions. Faces of Vietnamese children, men & women, soldiers who were all adversely affected by the devastation they had witnessed and lived through.
Dennis Serdel, Vietnam Veteran and member of VFP, read his extremely moving and heart wrenching poems which can be found regularly in the publication GI Special at www.militaryproject.org. The audience was completely silent and greatly touched during the reading.
Other veterans who spoke about the importance of doing face to face outreach to the troops were Alberto Jaccoma, and Alan Stolzer, both members of VFP and the Military Project. Jaccoma said, “I went to a meeting where a group was planning to do something… hold hands….and we did that, and I thought ‘what does this mean’. Then I go to the armory and feel like I have accomplished something.” “It’s hard to be there at 5:30 in the morning, in the snow and rain, and you think ‘what am I crazy?’ but when you leave you feel like you’ve accomplished something.”
Of course there are the civilians who believe that outreach to the troops is the way to end this war. Presentations by Katherine Gorell, Johanna Petit and Elaine Brower, all of the Military Project, talked about how they got involved in this kind of work. Katherine Gorell, whose father was a Vietnam Veteran, and died from agent orange poisoning, is a zealot when it comes to trips to the local Harlem armory. “There’s nothing more productive, or useful. Protests just don’t work.” Johanna Petit, who lives by the naval base in Connecticut, started by handing out GI Rights materials to the sailors either in the mall or at the Groton Naval Base.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
