The Role of Military Families in GI Resistance

author : Seth Manzel topic : Iraq Occupation

by Seth Manzel

I joined the Army Infantry in 2002 but did not deploy to Iraq until 2004. In the time leading up to deplyoment, my unit took part in many training exercises known as field problems. Many of these were dubious events that were of little value.

One of the first field problems that I ever took part in was a Battalion Field Training Exercise. My part in the event was rather insignificant. My unit was transitioning from being a Light Infantry Unit to one that utilized armored vehicles. My first duty position was as the headquarters LAV (Light Armored Vehicle) driver. Our unit had not received any vehicles yet, so I did not have much to do. In fact, since I didn’t have a job, I had no reason to go into the field.

All the same, I found myself in the rain, enjoying the outdoors with everyone else. Once we arrived at the site of our encampment, it became clear that this was an misconceived venture. There was no organization at the company level. The individual platoon leaders picked random spots to dig in with no higher directives to ensure that this was a coherent and mutually supportive exercise.

My platoon set up on an easily defended hill with a view of the surrounding area. Later that night it was determined by the Commanding Officer that my platoon should occupy the lowlands at the foot of the hill and leave the crest of the hill for the imaginary enemy.

After a while all the vehicle crews were gathered from their respective platoons and moved to the company headquarters, since they had no vehicles and were of no use to their platoons. I found myself doing radio guard at various times throughout the night. This was a simple and comfortable duty since the radio was located in a heated vehicle.

In the morning when I woke up I ate the first of the three Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) that I had brought to the field. I ate my second meal for lunch and the third for dinner. By the morning of the second day I had exhausted my issued food supply and started consuming the Ritz crackers and Easy Cheese that I had smuggled in. (This extra food is known in the Army as “Pogey Bait.” POGs are “Personnel Other than Grunts,” non-infantry personnel—a group of people generally despised by the infantry.)

I ran out of cheese and crackers around dinner time on the third day. There were rumors of hot chow coming soon, but they never materialized. I went wandering in the dark to find some food. I had heard from other soldiers that there was a pallet of MREs that had been dropped off somewhere in a clearing near by.

I wandered in the darkness until I found the pallet. As promised it was stacked with boxes full of MREs. I fumbled around, grasped the smooth edge of the plastic wrapper of an MRE and went back to my sleeping bag (or fart sack as they are referred to in the Service).

When I arrived I could hear moaning in the darkness. I could see writhing sleeping bags under ponchos strung up between trees. As I opened my MRE, I heard a voice warn me that they were all bad. These prepackaged meals that were made to survive nuclear holocausts had somehow spoiled while waiting in the warehouse. The lemon poundcake had hair growing on it. The beef chow mein was rancid. Even the laxative gum was hard like the gum you get in baseball cards. I took out a bag of fossilized Skittles and crunched my way to sleep.

In the morning there were more rumors of hot chow. I set off with several friends to find the place where the cooks had set up, but never found it. I pilfered more rancid MREs for M&Ms and Charms hard candies. By this time, order in the camp was starting to break down. The vehicle crews had taken a tarp from one of the existing vehicles and suspended it between some of the old growth trees to stay dry. The commander had ordered us to take it down, but in the absence of everything that should be present in such a situation, like food, we did not feel compelled to eliminate our one source of comfort.

Eventually married men started turning on the cell phones that they had been forbidden from bringing to the fields and calling their wives. They started telling stories about rotten food and no hot chow. They started telling their wives that they were on a training mission with no training value. The wives were irate.

The Army is not without checks and balances. Army-savvy wives flooded the Inspector General’s (IG) office with complaints. They told stories about men vomiting out rancid beef noodles and black bean burritos. The IG office was made aware of hot chow that never came and field problems with no training value.

By the fourth day we had food, real food hot food, brought out in insulated containers, served by real Army cooks. Later that day it was announced that the field problem would be ending early. We piled into utility vehicles and those who couldn’t fit marched back. We returned to the barracks and cleaned the weapons made rusty by rain. We ate fresh hot food from the Chow Hall and basked under the warm showers.

All of this took place because of the families of soldiers who were willing to act on their behalf. The value of Army Wives is enormous. When they complain about their soldiers being mistreated their voices are heard. And when their voices are heard it slows down the gears in our war machine. So, among our most effective allies in the fight against this war are the military families. They have a lot of sway over the actions of individual commanders.

One of the events that will be taking place over the Fifth Anniversary of the war in Iraq will be an Easter egg hunt, children’s concert, and demonstration outside the gates of Fort Lewis. It will take place on March 22 and will attract many military families. While an Easter egg hunt and children’s concert is not the type of event that would normally attract the peace community, this will be a rare opportunity for the peace movement to interface with soldiers and their family members.

For soldiers and their families to engage in resistance requires them to stand up for soldiers’ rights. The mere act of standing up for one’s rights in the Army is enough to slow down a unit’s deployment times. The Army could not function if it delivered on all its promises to soldiers and their families.

In this way a moderate message (stand up for GI rights) could have a radical effect on the military. We don’t need to indoctrinate people in the military. If we inform them of their rights, they will come to anti-war conclusions on their own.

So on March 22, moderation should be our watchword. It is not important that every soldier believes that we should impeach Bush or be out of Iraq tomorrow. What is important is that soldiers know that it is okay to stand up for their rights and are given methods to do that. They could be fundamentalist Christians or right wing radicals and still serve the purpose of ending the war simply by looking out for their own self interest.

We should all realize that people in the military are generally either conservative or without political views. Changing these views overnight is a hard fight. Informing them of their rights and how to stand up for them is comparatively easy. We should take this opportunity to make big gains by exercising restraint instead of alienating the military community with radical propaganda.

Note: My use of the male gender is based on the fact that there are no females in the infantry. I am sure that the role of military husbands in military resistance is just as important as the role of military wives.

[See details of March 22 rally below]