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Quaker Deserts 82nd, Flees to Canada
He thought the Army was a socialist utopia. As Bugs Bunny says "What a maroon!" Can you say "Private Slovik"? I thought you could.
Jeremy Hinzman said he could barely stomach chanting "kill we will" during basic training and, as a Quaker, he didnât want to shoot anybody. But it was the thought of serving U.S. interests in Iraq that made the 82nd Airborne Division specialist flee to Canada last month. "I would have felt no different than a private in the German Army during World War II," he said by phone from Toronto, where he is seeking refugee status.
| Actually, you wouldn't have been much different from a private in the American army during World War II. The Private Slovik reference is apt... |
Hinzman, 25, who was a member of the 2nd Battalion of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, is subject to prosecution as a deserter if he is caught within U.S. borders. His name will go on a national database that law enforcement officers can access, said Sgt. Pam Smith, a spokeswoman for the 82nd Airborne. He can be arrested, but the Army wonât go looking for him, she said. "We donât have time to go and track down people who go AWOL," she said. "Weâre fighting a war."
| "We don't have time to waste on riff-raff like him." |
Hinzman, who grew up in Rapid City, S.D., joined the Army in January 2001. The socialist structure of the military appealed to him, he said. He liked the subsidized housing and groceries and, at the end of his service, the money for college. "It seemed like a good financial decision," he said. And, he said, "I had a romantic vision of what the Army was." But from the beginning, basic training bothered him. He said he was horrified by the chanting about blood and killing during marches, by the shooting at targets without faces and by what he called the dehumanization of the enemy.
| What did you think they were going to do, Clem? Tell you how nice the enemy is? |
Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2004-02-19 |
