'Deserter!'
Army deserter serves time, returns to school
By RICHARD LOUV Kansan Staff Writer
LEAVENWORTH — Mike Martinez, a deserter, stood in the tiny kitchen watching his friends make tacos, and ran his hand through the hair of a little boy who was hugging his knees.
Martinez was released from prison yesterday.
He had just finished a three-month term in the disciplinary barracks at the San Francisco Presidio Stockade, and 10 months in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.
He had gone to prison because he had refused to put on his uniform one day, fled from the Army, lived in Canada for two years, and then returned from his exile to face a prison term.
At the Presidio prison, he witnessed the sit-down strike by prisoners after a prisoner had been shot to death by a shotgun-wielding guard.
Both Time and Newsweek magazines had continued coverage of the 27-man mutiny trial. Mutiny is punishable by death, and the trials have received wide national attention, especially since four of the men have been sentenced to prison terms, the longest a 16-year term. Three of the 27 have escaped to Canada.
"I was standing in line during roll call, and when the captain called the first name, the 27 men all answered, then walked out and sat down, singing 'We Shall Overcom.'" Martinez said.
"The reason I decided not to sit down with them was because I had just come back from Canada and I wanted to get my jail term over so I could get outside and work with the war resistance," he said.
The small, articulate man walked through the kitchen and into the living room. The little boy named Michael followed him, skipping over the scattered toys on the floor. The room had only a few pieces of furniture, and on a wall was a magazine photograph of a soldier, with the inscription, "is he protecting you?"
A smiling woman named Betty Foster rents the Leavenworth apartment while she waits for a fried named George Dounis to walk out of the prison gates. Dounis is one of nine young men who chained themselves to priests and ministers last year after dropping out of the Army.
Martinez is 22. He sat smoking a pipe and with a clear, steady voice, slowly began to tell his own story.
"I joined the army in 1966. At the time I wasn't really thinking about the military or Vietnam. I was a student at the University of California, and I hadn't taken enough credits my first year to
Retonde elected Greek president
Interfraternity Council (IFC) officers were elected last night at a joint meeting of the IFC representatives and presidents in the Kansas Union Centennial Room.
New officers:
Mark Retonde, Kansas City, Mo., senior, Alpha KappaLambda, president; Ken Wiley, Wichita sophomore, Sigma Phi Epsilon, vice-president in charge of rush; Terry Moran, Kansas City, Mo., junior, Beta Sigma Psi, secretary; and Jim Huggins, Prairie Village junior, Tau Kappa Epsilon, treasurer.
12 KANSAN Mar. 14 1969
Two months later he began to question himself about the war, and about his own involvement in the military.
avoid the draft. I joined so I could pick where I was going," he said.
"The last straw was receiving orders to train recruits on the firing range. I refused to do that. I told the people that I wanted a job re-assignment, but they didn't give me one. So I left instead of going to jail," he said. Michael was trying to climb up on Martinez, but he went on in his quiet, steady manner.
"Just before that, I was a social worker. I worked for about three months, I guess, before I decided I couldn't go on with it. I felt like I was psychologically hypnotizing the soldiers I was talking to. That was what was expected of me. I was supposed to go out into the field and talk to people who were having trouble adjusting to the army, when I was having trouble adjusting myself."
Instead of giving people patriotic reasons for being in the army, he said, he gave them psychological reasons.
"For instance, if a trainee wouldn't follow orders and was having disciplinary troubles, we would try to show him that he was being childish, being passively aggressive."
Michael was slapping his hand. Martinez laughed and tousled the 4-year-old's hair.
"That's what we were doing," he said, "we were slapping their hands, and saying naughty-naughty, you're sick. If you want to be well go along with the rest of the crowd and do your iob well."
He was staring at the wall on the other side of the room, where construction paper peace symbols were pasted. "I found myself acting very hypocritical," he said, running his hand through his short dark hair. He paused for a moment and shifted his stare to the floor. "So finally I told my commanding officer at the psychiatric clinic that I couldn't go on with the work, and I quit. It was a few weeks later that I got my orders to train in basic."
Martinez talked to a priest,
applied for a conscientious objector status, and was refused.
"The priest warned me that I didn't have a chance because I lacked formal religious training." For the first time there was a hint of bitterness in his voice. "After they refused to give me the CO rating, I recognized that there was no hope that the Army would recognize my beliefs."
"I didn't have enough courage at the time to go to jail," he said, still staring at the floor.
"After spending time in jail I realize that jail is much better than the Army. You actually have more freedom than in the Army."
Another woman and a girl entered the room and sat down. Betty Scott came in again and sat on the couch. Michael had wrapped himself around Martinez's leg and was sitting on the floor, looking up open-mouthed at the deserter's face.
"I go home to California tonight. These people have helped me a lot. They've put me up for a day," he said.
What did his parents think about his jail term?
"My father didn't agree with me, but he's been good to me. My mother, I think, understands and agrees," he said. Martinez plans to enter college again, and major in human relations.
"The resistance movement is very important to me right now," he said, "and I have a lot of ideas I'd like to work on."
Martinez said he met one of the three members of the Presidio sit-down strike in the Leavenworth prison. "I talked to him for just a few minutes. I told him some things about the prison. I really didn't get to ask him his views, or ask him what he thought about his long sentence. Of course I know what he thought."
The doorbell rang and Michael ran down the stairs. A scholarly looking man and his wife entered the room and shook hands with Martinez.
The man was Mike Novak, a middle-aged English teacher from Saint Mary College in Leavenworth. They had a child
with them, and Michael spread out his toys and presented him with a brown teddy bear, then for no apparent reason went over and stood in the corner, hiding his face.
Martinez and Novak stood for a moment, shaking hands and talking about the resistance movement. Novak and a few other people in the town have formed a group called the 'Committee to Aid Political Prisoners.'
He and his group make contact with prisoners in Leavenworth, visiting them in jail, writing to them, and trying to make their terms more liveable. He has been in contact for the last few months with Howard Levi, the first Army officer to actively protest the war.
Levi, said Novak, was an Army doctor who refused to train for the Green Berets. Witnesses at his courtmartial included Donald Duncan of Ramparts magazine, and Dr. Spock.
And now Novak, a greying man in a dark suit, stood with
20% Coed Discount on Frostings and Permanents CHANEL HAIR FASHIONS 10 E. 9th VI 2-7900 No Appointment Necessary
Minnie Pearls
"COUNTRY-FIED"
CHICKEN
1730 West 23rd VI 3-8200 FREE Delivery over $5.00
Baha 'u' llah
Lord of the New Age Baha'i Faith 843-0978
Where You Always Save 802 W.23rd Lawrence
the young resister and told him proudly of a recent demonstration at Saint Mary.
"It was in the lunch room. One at a time some of us got up and read things, some from the Bible and some from other places. At the end we read a list of political prisoners," Novak smiled and said, "and they included Malcolm X, Eldridge Cleaver, Thoreau, Socrates, Howard Levi, the Presidio 27, Jesus Christ, and all the other jailbirds."
The middle-aged man stood there quietly with the young man beside him. Suddenly Martinez looked very old, and his flat, toneless voice, and his tired eyes came into perspective.
VI 2-0705
VI 2-0705
MARION R. SMITH, D.D.S.
Office Hours
By Appointment
711 West 23rd Street—Malls
Lawrence, Kansas 60044
reg. $4.98
$2.99
KIEF'S
Record & Stereo
RING DAYS,MARCH 17 & 18
The Official Ring UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
A factory representative will be at the bookstore to help you personalize your KU class ring.
Order now to assure delivery by graduation.
GENERAL OFFICES: OWATONNA, MINNESOTA 55060
SERVING THE THIRD GENERATION OF AMERICA'S COLLEGE STUDENTS
kansas union BOOKSTORE