February 1970 BRAGG BRIEFS Page 4 February 1970 BRAGG BRIEFSArmy does lasting harm to Family Structure in AmericaIn vast issues, Bragg Briefshas tried to show some of the in-dignities and devrivations thatthe average GI is forced to bearwhile serving his country as aoart of the militery machine,Not the least of these is themental anguish of being separa-ted from his wife, family, oreven his girl friend back homefor extended veriods of time,Not only does the arny ignorethis deplorable sta_e of arfairs,but it often uses such separa-tions to force dissident sol-diers into submission or to oun-ish them for acts not demed ac-ceotable by military standards,How often have youknown fellow GlTswith family strifeor marital problems?We of GI's United submit thatthis is unjust punishment andconstitutes undue mentel cruel-ty, not only to the solcier inquestion, pout also to the ver-son or persons being deorivedof the confort of his oresence.Though such mental anguish isoften only of a temporary nature,it can and does destroy the mar-riages and lives of hundreds ofpeople every year. To illus-trate this voint we airect yourattention to the case of one ofthe editors on our staff. Oureditor, who was married in No-vember of 1968, received ordersfor Korea in January of 1949after heving been married foronly 2% months. At this time,his wife began exhibiting ten-dencies toward emotional insta-bility which related directly totheir impending seoaration. He-alizing that his wife~*s emotion-al health was seriously tT ureat-ened by such an assignme~.t, oureditor attempted to have his or-=ders changed to oreclude hisbeing sent overseas. When offi-cial channels oroduced no re-sults, he sooke to his father,who at that time was an activearmy colonel stationed at thePentagon. Even this attemptfailed, and despite his efforts,he was reassigned to Korea inFebruary 1949. His wife wasplaced under doctorsT care inhis absence and it became morethan evident that eny furtherseparation would be disasterousnot only to ner health, but totheir marriage as weil. On thesegrounds, our editor anolied fora compassionate reassignment andwas turned down for the typical-ly inane reasons the army seemste reserve ror such requests.As a result, his wife became osy-chotic and he is presently fac-ing impending divorce. Too late,the army recognized the serious-ness of the situation and inSeptember 19469, he was reassignedto Fort Bragg, where he is pvre-sently stationed. The dnage,however, nsd alreacy been done,and as it now stands, his wifemay be vernsnently criooled emo-tionally, and an otnerwise happymarriage has been destroyed.If this were an isolated case,it night be excusable, but withminor variations it is @ commonocurrence in the military today.According to statistics, one outof every tnree marriages in theUnited States today results ina divorce, and since tnis estoun-ding figure has been true foronly a convaratively short time,it would avpear that it relatesdirectly to the Vieénam build-Ude Though the news mediatends to exvlain these figuresby citing the rising incidenceofdrug abuse, the lowering ofAmerican morals, and marryingtoo young as the causes, we sub-mit that the all too common ene-forced senarations broucht aboutby our presence in Vietnam andother hsrdship tour areas has adirect bearing on the increaseddivorce rate in the US today.Due to tneir age, most of themarried enlisted men in the low-er five ranks have been marriedonly a comoaratively short timebefore they are forced into mielitary service. The time need-=ed to develop the lasting andpermanent bonds so necessary fora successful marriage is not a-vailable to these youn couples,and as &@�,�-consequence,,thsir mar-riages are almost doomed to fail-°ure from the start if they areseoarated for any length of time.How often have you known fellowGI's with family strife or mari-tal problems? Is the incidenceof broken or unhaooy marriageshigher among oersons in the mi-litary than it is in civilianlife or does it just apovear thatway? It is our contention thatthis isa valid theory and thatit is the callous outlook of themilitary that makes it so. Uneaqeniably, family seoaration is"_Their marriagesare almostdoomed to failure.a part of the military, and dueto the entire conceot of whatthe military's job is, such aseparation may, at times, be un-avoidable. This is not, howeever, any excuse for the army'ssk of concern over the exist-ing situation, and, most emoha-tically, the army's use of thissituation as a ounetive messurecannot to any extent be condonedby resoonsible and sane indivi-duals, whether they be connectedwith the service or not.Proof of such inhumane oun-ishment can be shown by the fol-lowing incident which took polacejust recently in the USAG com-mand. Jim Evans, voresentiy work-Is the Divorce Rate Higher in the Military?ing in Main Post Separations,lives approximately 147 milesfrom Fort Bragg and goes home ev-ery weekend to visit with hiswife, who due to her job as aregistered nurse is unable torelocate to the Fort Bragg areafor the short voeriod of timeJim has remaining here. Lastweekend, due to home problems,Jim received pernission to leaveearly on a Friday afternoon (willwonders never cease). In hisrush to get home, he neglectedto sign out On pass and was sub-sequently snowed in so as to beunable to re'urn until the fol-lowings Monday afternoon. Real-izing that he could not get backon time, Jim called in Sundaynight and informed both the CQand his OIC of the situation andpromised to return as soon asthe roads were clear enoush totravel. Unfortunately, the de=lay brought to the attention of.his OIC tne fact that he hadneglected to sign out (heinouscrime, wot?) and upon his return,he found himself in with LTCJohn Scullion, USAG conmander.To hts credit, tie colonel didnot formally sounisn Jim. How-ever, even thouczh he was cogni-gezant that Jim's only contactwith his wife was thronzh week=end oasses and that these weeklyvisits were extremely imoortantto both of them, the colonel re-stricted Jim to the Post foraoeriod which ouroosely includedtwo weekends in a row. If thisis not considered sadism end men-tal cruelty, not only to Jin,but to his wif2?, wno was notguilty of any infraction, thenit is time to start changing thedefinitions in our dictionaries.Through the imposition of thiscruel and unjust form of punish-ment to Jim and his wife, LTCDoes the Army havethe right to destroya family or marriage?Scullion has once again demon-strated the callous lack of re-gard that the arny has for theneeds and oroblems of its men,and in doing so has reaffirmedthe need for drastic reformswithin the military structureto make it more liveable for thepeople presently suffering underits unyielding ane dictatorialthumb of suvoression and misjus-ticeePerheps if more actions of thisnature were brouzht to lizht, oub-lic outery over such inhumanitywould bring about the major chan-ges which are needed so badly.The-army must be changed from anunfeelinz war machine which mea-sures its success in kill ratiosand casualty rates. Kindness,understandins, and basic humanrights cannot be alien terms tobe treated with fear and con-temot by our military leaders.Nor can the army be oermitted todeny such conceots by saying theyare seditious and therefore de=-trinmental to the military's effi-ciency as an organization dedi-cated to killing and genocide.Wars are harsh and inhumane,but does the army that fightsthem have to be the same? Anddoes the arny have the right tomake whole families suffer in or-der to ounish one GI whose in-fraction (as it was in Jim'scase) was orobably minor and al-most alwavs unoremeditated?And most imoortant, for it 1sa moral issue as well as a so=-cial one, wnen is the army with-in its riehts to destroy a fami-ly or a marriage simply to achieveits own ends? With these finalquestions we rest our cese andleave the difficult oroblen ofsolvins them to you, the indivi-duel, without whose helo no so=lution can be found to thesenost vitally innoortant questions.IN PRISON FORADVOCATINGa a en"~ (~canoiwaTe DIUbed »ETS is a LieIt all beginswith a letter in the mail,Obey it or elseyou'll wind up in jail.The next thing you knowyou're boarding a busAnd all you can dois sit there and cuss.When you finally arriveand you're inside their gate,You want to say no,but now itTs too late.You're to stand up stick straightand wait there in lineWhile youTre issued some clotheswhile you're issued a mind.You're marched to a barracks,"KEEP IT SHINY AS CHROME�,But it'll burn in three minuteswhile the *brass* sits at home.In the months that followyou are treated like dirtAnd you're given some stripesto wear on your shirt.Rank they call it,oWEAR IT WITH PRIDE�And they send you overseasto commit genocide.After going through hell,and you're back in the West,You worship the daythey call ETS.So you think you'll be freewhen you're on the outside?But the road of freedomisn't really that wide.