Marine in Growing Group of Enlisted Objectors

As his brigade prepared to deploy to Saudi Arabia, a 22-year-old Marine Corps corporal based at Camp Pendleton announced Monday that he has applied for an honorable discharge as a conscientious objector, joining a small but growing group of servicemen who claim moral objections to the military buildup.

Kenneth Turner, a Michigan native who enlisted in 1987 for six years of service in the Marines, said a spiritual “reawakening” he experienced during mock war training exercises earlier this year led him to file his application Oct. 30. When the 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade is deployed--reportedly on Saturday--he said that he will refuse to go.

“My religious beliefs are no longer compatible with the way the Marine Corps wants me to train and operate,” said Turner, a former squad leader who claims that he has nightmares about leading men into combat. “Any duty that I do perform in the military is more or less supporting the efforts of a war machine. My God is behind me and giving me the strength to stand up and say this--it’s against the word of God to participate in any kind of killing.”

He added: “Within the near future, we’re supposed to deploy. So I’m looking at within the next couple of days possibly going to the brig.”

Turner’s application--apparently the first to be filed at Camp Pendleton since Operation Desert Shield began in August--puts him in “an extremely small minority,” according to Maj. Doug Hart, a Pentagon spokesman in Washington.

Since early August, Hart said, fewer than 100 of the 2 million active duty troops and 80,000 reservists and National Guardsmen have asked to be relieved of their military obligation. Of those, he said, fewer than 10 have applied for conscientious objector status.

On Monday in New York, five members of the 25th Marine Regiment at Ft. Schuyler declared themselves conscientious objectors as other members of the company were on their way to Camp Lejeune, N. C., for deployment to the gulf.

Anti-war advocates say they are receiving hundreds of calls from military servicemen and women requesting information about how to make a conscientious objector claim. Harold Jordan, coordinator of the American Friends Service Committee’s national youth and militarism program, said his Philadelphia-based office is working with at least 30 service members to prepare conscientious objector statements.

“The meaningful statistics are hard to come by. If you ask the military, they’ll say there hasn’t been a substantial increase,” said Jordan, who said that he has received letters requesting help with conscientious objector applications from four servicemen stationed in the gulf.

“It’s not at the level that it was in Vietnam--nobody means to suggest that,” he said. Conscientious objector applications are on the rise, Jordan said, and there is every indication that they will not be handled as they were 20 years ago.

“During the Vietnam War, it was routine to hold people stateside (while their applications were processed). They are clearly saying the opposite is in effect now.”

That is precisely what Turner is afraid of, according to Mark Lamanna, a military counselor for the Central Committee for Conscientious Objection, who has worked for three months with Turner on his 15-page application.

“The only way to get a proper review is to be on the mainland United States,” said Lamanna, noting that the Marine Corps has kept Turner on combat duty, assigned to a rifle platoon bound for the gulf. “I’m hoping (that coming forward publicly) will put the pressure on the command to transfer him to noncombat status.”

Turner, who sent his wife, Joelle, to read a statement at a news conference Monday at a Methodist church in San Diego, said he wanted others to know of his decision despite warnings from his superiors that he not talk to the media.

“I want people to know that you can stand up for your religious beliefs and that it’s OK to oppose war, if that’s what you believe,” Turner, a Methodist, said. “Christ was not one to go in and use force.”

Turner said he enlisted in the service to help pay his way through college, and did not give the idea of going into combat serious thought. But during advanced infantry training earlier this year, Turner said he became increasingly aware that he was being trained to kill.

After participating in a mock battle this summer, he began having nightmares, he said.

“My performance began to decline. I thought maybe I was getting burned out. I lost a lot of enthusiasm,” he said. Then, “I realized it was the job I was performing. God was revealing to me that what I was doing was wrong.”

Capt. Rose-Ann Sgrignoli, a spokeswoman for Camp Pendleton, said that to be granted conscientious objector status on religious, moral or ethical grounds, a serviceman must prove his belief is a controlling force in his life.