Library - Reading Room
Supporting Materials for Sir! No Sir!
Roger Priest
When Seaman Roger L. Priest began putting out OM, the Liberation Newsletter, the Navy set out to silence him. They had him tailed by two dozen agents, and specially collected all the trash from the apartment building where he lived, hoping to find some evidence against him.
Admittedly there were some choice statements in OM, such as "Our goal is liberation - by any means necessary," "Today's pig is tomorrow's bacon," and others in which Priest refers to Congressman Mendel L. Rivers as a hog, and Melvyn Laird as Public Enemy No. 1. Priest's efforts to tell it like it is eventually drew a General Court martial on eight charges,. ranging from urging insubordination to soliciting desertion.
Priest's lawyer has argued, "The material quoted in the specification charging Priest with soliciting sedition ... cannot possibly bee construed as a serious request or advice to do anything." The central issues now are whether an American citizen gives up his Constitutional rights to free speech and free press upon entering the Armed Forces. Roger Priest has a rare combination of balls and sense of humor. Defend him and defend the movement against the war in Vietnam.
The AWOL Press, no. 9