Earlier this month, a federal judge in San Diego ruled a Marine reservist should be honorably discharged from duty as a conscientious objector. It was a first in San Diego, and among a handful of similar cases across the country. The 25-year-old man argued taking a life violated his moral code. KPBS reporter Joanne Faryon brings is this report. It’s Wednesday night, band practice in his garage. James Janke is on drums. His dark hair longish, he wears patterned Bermuda shorts and flip flops. All signs he is a civilian.
A couple weeks after a federal court judge made a ruling that would change the course of Janke’s life.
The judge issued an order releasing Janke from his duties as Marine reservist. An order that means he won’t be going to war in Iraq.
Janke: I was in the Marines for about four years and I had a change of heart, and I became conscientiously opposed to participation in war and after that, I applied as a conscientious objector.
The Marine Corps denied Janke’s application as a conscientious objector, but a civilian federal court judge over-turned that decision. The judge said the military showed no good reason for denial.
Military personnel can apply for CO status if they have a sincere moral, ethical or religious objection to war or bearing arms. It’s a process that requires documentation, interviews, even psychological evaluation and it can take several months. Most applications are denied. The difficulty is proving one has had a change of heart --especially when the United States military is voluntary.
I asked Janke why he joined in the first place.
Janke: I wasn’t satisfied with my life at the time, and I was kind of convinced by the recruiter I could travel around the world and get money for college. I was looking to join the Peace Corps also but I didn’t have a Bachelor’s degree so that wasn’t an option. I just kind of wanted to get away do something a little different.
Janke was one of about a dozen men who got help from an anti-war help line. Larry Christian was the volunteer who guided Janke through his CO application. Christian takes calls from men and women who have second thoughts about the military.
Christian: You can make a few bucks, you can get away from home, you can get school benefits and people don’t have a conception signing up on that paper putting them on the street and pointing a gun at someone.
Janke says the turning point in his life was the death of his father in 2003.
Janke: Hearing people who returned saying they were given orders shoot anything that moved and hearing that the brutality of it all it made me think would I be able to do something like that, take a life.
The Department of Defense did not respond to a request for statistics on the number of military personal who have applied for CO status during the Iraq War. Reports from anti war groups which help military personnel apply, estimate the numbers to be in the hundreds.
The Center of Conscience and War in Washington D.C. says before 9-11, it got one or two calls a month inquiring about CO status. Now it takes as many as five such calls a day.
Larry Christian, who helped found the National GI Hotline, says its not unusual for young recruits to have second thoughts during training exercises.
Christian: And the most important thing in the convoy for the safety of the people is never to stop, even if a kid falls in front of your truck, you keep on going, you run them over that’s the way it is and to train you for that, they put cardboard cutouts of kids in front of your truck to desensitize you to running them over experiences like that can easily make a person wonder what in the world have I gotten myself into.
Last fall, a doctor in Boston, whose medical education was paid for by the Army Reserve, was discharged as a conscientious objector after she took her case to federal court.
In New York, a federal judge ruled last year the Army couldn’t deploy a Sergeant to Iraq while his CO application was pending. And just days ago, the Marine Corp reversed its decision to deny a Navajo private in California CO after a spiritual experience lead him to believe he is a gifted medicine man.
Janke says he’s been called a coward and ridiculed by members of his reserve unit. But he’s comfortable with his decision.
Janke: I don’t think I’ll ever look back and say you know maybe there was a war, a time when we should kill hundreds of thousands of people over something. I don’t think I’ll ever regret that decision.
For KPBS, I’m Joanne Faryon
