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Supporting Materials for Sir! No Sir!
The Army Is Revolting
A lot of us, are in the service-for a lot of reasons. Some of the reasons that we went in for were airight, like trying to learn a skill or to get more education., Some of us had to go in to get away' from home, to avoid going to., jail, to get out of the draft, or because we were drafted. And some ofuswent lnfor, bad, reasons - to be a 'he-man' or to kill 'gooks'. But whatever the reasons people are in the service there's one thing everyone knows It sucks! And not just the army - it's all of them, army, wacs, wafs, airforce, navy, marines, coast guard, etc.
When you look at it, it's not surprising why everyone hates the service. In basic training they try to rob you of your identity, and make you into a machine that says 'how high?' when. the brass says 'jump!'. There's all those stupid rules and the dumb gung-ho lifers that make life miserable for the average GI. But worst of all is that once we're in the service we begin to understand what :the government and lifers want us to do. They want us to be the pigs of the world to protect their interests! Dig it! They want us to do their dirty work! If the rich businessmen want to control S. E. Asia they start a war against the people of Viet Nam (call it a war against communism) and send us there to fight it. Hell, we don't have anything against the National Liberation Front (Vietcong) - we don't even know them. If there's trouble here at home because blacks want what's theirs or young people want to bring us home from Nam, we have to fight them. We should be fighting on the same side as our so called 'enemies' not against them!
And that's what's happening! Within the services, GI's and their wives are building a movement that's fighting the lifers and the pig politicians and businessmen. These GI revolutionaries are hooking up with revolutionary blacks, revolutionary women, revolutionary grease, etc., to try to bring this motherfucking Pig nation down and make it into a People nation. It's happening all over the country in all branches of the service. From Great Lakes Naval Base in North Chicago to Selfridge Air Force Base in Detroit to Ft. Rucker Alabama to the Pentagon to Nam. There are anti war coffee houses at many army bases and there are over 25 underground anti war papers In the military. And this movement is growing rapidly. But the pigs know what a threat it Is to have their own military turn against them so they're trying to smash the revolutionaries as quickly as possible. But repression isn't, doing any good, because the GI's keep right on fighting.' Dig this brief rundown of what GI's are doing at a number' of bases around the world.
"When I was a guaard in the Long Binh stockade, there were 23 guys there for killing their C.O.'s and 17 more on trial. They weren't all very political guys but they knew they were pissed off." Staff Sgt. Rich William, 7 year Army vet and past platoon commander in Vietnam.
Fed Up!, vol. 1, no. 2