Library - Reading Room
Supporting Materials for Sir! No Sir!
A Declaration
Head On is not a Communist paper. It is not a Communist-controlled paper. We are not Communist-influenced or Communist inspired, and Russia does not send us weekly pay checks. So don’t listen to the officers, lifers or weak-minded peons who talk through their dust covers.
C.I.T., C.I.D., O.N.I., the F.B.I., the C.I.A., HUAC and Life magazine can investigate us all they want. We are an independent newspaper (but will accept anyone who is willing to join us as long as he agrees with our basic principles). We are clean and we are legal. We have nothing to hide.
We are not secret or underground. It only seems like it because the Brass are trying their damnedest to keep us from you. But time is our ally and we are making ourselves known here despite all the frantic and illegal efforts of the lifers.
We are at LeJeune with three purposes in mind. First, we intend to be the voice of the rank-and-file Marine who gets crapped on every day by the lifers and the brass. Second, we intend to fight for elementary rights for our fellow servicemen, and struggle for all the things we feel are necessary to bring us up to par with the rest of humanity. Third, we will support the right of all enlisted men in the Armed Forces to band together to get some power over what happens to them in the military machine.
And to those of you at Cherry Point, New River, Parris Island, Pendleton, El Toro, Okinawa, Quang Tri, Cong Ha, Phu Bai, Danang, Chu Lai. and other points of the compass, we want to make it clear that our support goes out to you in whatever endeavor you undertake in your fight for a Bill of Rights for rank-and-file servicemen.
Today we are planting the seeds for a new declaration, one which Marines can relate to. Tomorrow that declaration will be no less than a reality - a Force to be bargained with. It will be a Force of support for you and me and every other man who thinks this green organ sucks. We urge you to look to us for support and we encourage your letters. whether you're in a shitter in Con Thien or Cherry Point, “drop what you're doin'“ and drop us a line. We dig your shit.
Head-On!, No. 1