Quaker/Buddhist goes AWOL

Published on: 2004-02-19
http://www.fayettevillenc.com/story.php?Template=military&Story=6185924
Quaker deserts as unit deploys
By Julia Oliver, Staff writer

Jeremy Hinzman said he could barely stomach chanting "kill we will" during
basic training and, as a Quaker, he didn't want to shoot anybody. But it
was the thought of serving U.S. interests in Iraq that made the 82nd
Airborne Division specialist flee to Canada last month.

"I would have felt no different than a private in the German Army during
World War II," he said by phone from Toronto, where he is seeking refugee
status.

Hinzman, 25, who was a member of the 2nd Battalion of the 504th Parachute
Infantry Regiment, is subject to prosecution as a deserter if he is caught
within U.S. borders.

His name will go on a national database that law enforcement officers can
access, said Sgt. Pam Smith, a spokeswoman for the 82nd Airborne. He can
be arrested, but the Army won't go looking for him, she said.

"We don't have time to go and track down people who go AWOL," she said.
"We're fighting a war."

Hinzman, who grew up in Rapid City, S.D., joined the Army in January 2001.
The socialist structure of the military appealed to him, he said. He liked
the subsidized housing and groceries and, at the end of his service, the
money for college.

"It seemed like a good financial decision," he said. And, he said, "I had
a romantic vision of what the Army was."

But from the beginning, basic training bothered him. He said he was
horrified by the chanting about blood and killing during marches, by the
shooting at targets without faces and by what he called the dehumanization
of the enemy.

"It's like watching some kind of scary movie, except I was in it," he
said. "People would just walk around saying things like, 'Oh, I want to
kill somebody.'"

He felt that the prospect of killing should be taken more seriously and
that soldiers should not talk about death in such a cavalier way, he said.

In August 2002, Hinzman turned in his first application to be a
conscientious objector. He wanted to fulfill his service obligation, he
said, but he didn't want to participate in combat. He wrote a six-page
explanation of his beliefs, but the Army told him it was lost.

"I was informed three months later that it was never received," he said.
Last fall, while doing clerical work, he was given a file that included
that application.

By the time Hinzman applied again at the end of October, his unit was on
track to go to Afghanistan. He deployed in December, and the application
was pending.

"I didn't mind being deployed. I just didn't want to shoot anybody," he
said.

Not allowed to go on patrol, he worked as a dishwasher, often 15 hours a
day and, for the first few months, without a day off. He said his unit
didn't get into any major combat.

Application denied

While he was in Afghanistan, his application for conscientious objector
status was evaluated and denied, he said. Hinzman said he thinks one
question - Would he defend his unit if attacked? - destroyed his chances.
He said he answered yes, reasoning that he had no choice if he was forced
to carry a gun.

"I was a little bit too honest, I guess," he said.

In July, he returned to Fayetteville, and to his wife, Nga Nguyen, and
their 14-month-old son, Liam.

"My son, of course, was a little bit shy about seeing me, but that went
away after a few hours," he said.

He and Nguyen figured it was only a matter of time before his unit would
go to Iraq. He said he felt the war there was unjust and was being fought
over oil interests.

"Had we, say, gone to war with North Korea or someone that was an imminent
threat, I would have gone along with it," he said. "I signed up to defend
our country, not be a pawn in some sort of political ideology."

He began to think about his options. And about what he might have to do if
he went to Iraq.

On Dec. 20, Hinzman found out that his unit would be deployed. And on Jan.
2, he packed his family into his car for the 18-hour drive to Canada.
The three left at night, on the Friday of a four-day weekend. Hinzman's
absence wasn't noticed until that Monday; he wasn't declared AWOL until
the following day.

Support network

Through his philosophical objections to the Army, Hinzman has received
much support from Quakers in Fayetteville and Toronto. He has always been
interested in Buddhism, he said, but joined the Friends Meeting after he
moved to Fayetteville and couldn't find a place to worship in the Buddhist
faith.

"The Quaker's mode of worship was closest to meditation because it's
silent," he said. In Toronto, the Quakers took Hinzman and his family in
while they looked for an apartment, he said.

Ann Ashford, recording clerk at the Fayetteville Friends Meeting, said
Hinzman and his wife were faithful attendees of the meetings. She said the
community supports Hinzman, but no one at the meeting knew he was planning
to desert.

"We're all very concerned about him," she said.

Ashford said Hinzman spoke with Chuck Fager, executive director of the
Quaker House, a related organization that counsels soldiers who are
seeking discharge from the military. Fager could not be reached Wednesday
but has said in an e-mail that calls to the organization's hot line from
service members and their families last year reached a record total of
6,187, up by 50 percent from the year before.

According to the Toronto Globe and Mail, Hinzman is believed to be the
first U.S. soldier filing for refugee status in Canada for refusing duty
in Iraq. During the Vietnam War, an estimated 30,000 Americans sought
refuge in Canada to avoid compulsory military service.

Hinzman's chances of receiving refugee status are statistically slim:
According to Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board, none of the 268
American applicants last year was accepted. But people who are denied
refugee status are not automatically deported; they may be granted
permission to stay in Canada under other provisions, said Charles Hawkins,
a spokesman for the board.

Hinzman knows that the decision will take awhile.

"It's a big drawn-out process," he said.

He said that the hardest part has been leaving the people in his unit,
which is still in Iraq.

"I didn't do this out of animosity toward them," he said, "but toward the
situation we were in."
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