Dennis W. Mills, PhDU.S. Army 1966-1969
RA19898045
Veterans For Peace - Rachel Corrie Chapter 109
Today, I am a Quaker pacifist/activist living in Olympia WA with 30 years of experience as a teacher, professor, and administrator. As a Quaker, I affirm the equality of all people regardless of race, station in life, or sex. This belief leads me into a range of social concerns, including efforts for simplicity, peace, integrity, community, and equality. Besides participating in peace vigils with the Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation, and serving as President for Veterans For Peace - Rachel Corrie Chapter 109, I maintain the www.criticalconcern.com website and teach online graduate education courses full time with Capella University.
I am a veteran of the United States Army 1966-1969. Many of us believed serving in the military was our duty, and our job was to defend this country. Some of us held opposite views. Some of us were drafted out of college for a war we didn’t want, believe in, or understand. I received my draft notice shortly after participating in a Peace March in Bellingham. The FBI took my picture as I carried a sign that read: “Pray for Peace.” I guess both prayer and peace were too controversial then. The Dean of Men at Western Washington State College (now Western Washington University) identified me. He was also an officer in the Navy Reserves!
Rather than serve as an infantry officer, I chose to enlist as an Army musician in the Band at Fort Lewis. I played the trombone for a “Pass and Review” as an entire infantry division left on troop ships from the Port of Tacoma for Viet Nam. For the next 18 months, I was detailed to play for military funerals as these soldiers returned to the Northwest in body bags.
A year ago, The Pentagon ordered 77,000 body bags to be prepared in anticipation of the Iraq war. Sadly, these body bags and coffins are now in daily use. Even more disturbing is today there are not enough military musicians trained to play taps at funerals, so the Pentagon is issuing non-musician soldiers fake trumpets with a built in computer chip that plays taps.
Why did 58,000 Americans have to die? The Viet Nam Memorial on these Olympia Capitol grounds brings sadness to many citizens who remember a son, father, husband who were killed. I understand their sadness of their loss. It saddens me as I lost friends, too. But it also angers me that we even have to have memorials for wars that were created through deceit, lies and failed foreign policies.
“American Planes Hit North Vietnam After Second Attack on Our Destroyers; Move Taken to Halt New Aggression" announced a Washington Post http://www.fair.org/media-outlets/wpost-newsweek.html headline on Aug. 5, 1964. The front page of the New York Times http://www.fair.org/media-outlets/nyt.html reported: "President Johnson has ordered retaliatory action against gunboats and 'certain supporting facilities in North Vietnam' after renewed attacks against American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin." The official story was that North Vietnamese torpedo boats launched an "unprovoked attack" against a U.S. destroyer on "routine patrol" in the Tonkin Gulf on Aug. 2 -- and that North Vietnamese PT boats followed up with a "deliberate attack" on a pair of U.S. ships two days later. On the night of Aug. 4, the Pentagon proclaimed that a second attack by North Vietnamese PT boats had occurred earlier that day in the Tonkin Gulf -- a report cited by President Johnson as he went on national TV that evening to announce a momentous escalation in the war: air strikes against North Vietnam. That navy ship, the "Turner Joy" is now on display in Bremerton, Washington.
President Johnson ordered U.S. bombers to "retaliate" for a North Vietnamese torpedo attack that never happened. Top officials in Washington had reason to doubt that any Aug. 4 attack by North Vietnam had occurred. Cables from the U.S. task force commander in the Tonkin Gulf, Captain John J. Herrick, referred to "freak weather effects," "almost total darkness" and an "overeager sonarman" who "was hearing ship's own propeller beat." The Los Angeles Times urged Americans to "face the fact that the Communists, by their attack on American vessels in international waters, have themselves escalated the hostilities." The President knew it was a lie, but thousands more had to die.
During the Vietnam War veterans my age were ordered to destroy Vietnam from the air and on the ground. We used Agent Orange on the "enemy" and then returned home experiencing its effects first hand. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder still affects thousands of Viet Nam vets. More returning veterans took their own lives after returning home than died in battle!
Today, our returning military people most likely will suffer PTSD and possible exposure to uranium weapons (depleted uranium.)
Today, as a Veteran For Peace - Rachel Corrie Chapter 109, I stand with the majority of humanity, including millions in our own country, in opposition to the United States' all out war on Iraq. We veterans span many wars and eras, have many different political, religious, and world-views. We all agree, however, that this war is wrong! Personally, I believe that all war is wrong. Over 1100 troops have died and more die so every day. Every casualty of war is a mother's child.
I have a concern for those in the military whose lives will be permanently affected by their participation in a war with Iraq. My life was affected by Viet Nam, though I was not in combat. Peace is our best troop support. I wonder n 30 years, what lies and deceit will we remember that got us into a devastating war in the Middle East? What “Gulf of Tonkin”-like stories are being told to us today? Let’s work together for peace throughout the world so we don’t have to add another war memorial on the Capitol grounds!
I am a part of Veterans For Peace today because I want to work, with others
Toward increasing public awareness of the costs of war;
To restrain our government from intervening, overtly and covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations;
To end the arms race and to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons;
To seek justice for veterans and victims of war; and,
To abolish war as an instrument of national policy.