The Thwarting of the Pentagon

THE STORY of David and Goliath teaches that the forces of Evil, no matter how strong, always succumb to the forces of Righteous Good. And even today the small guy does occasionally conquer the bully: while Davids may be in short supply, one Army lieutenant has during the last year continually challenged the Army on its own ground. He has not slain Goliath, nor even wounded him seriously, but his annoying thrusts have damaged the giant's prestige and perhaps paved the way for future challengers.

I

THE sequence of events began in 1968, when First Lieutenant Louis P. Font graduated from West Point in the top five per cent of his class. In September Font enrolled in the Kennedy School of Government as a member of the Army's distinguished graduates' program.

Font wrote the Army 18 months later and applied for discharge as a conscientious objector, citing as his reasons the gross immorality of the war in Vietnam and his refusal to fight in it. He was the first graduate in the 168-year history of West Point to apply for C. O. status.

Two weeks later, on Friday, March 13, Font was sitting in Professor Samuel H. Beer's seminar on comparative political parties, when an Army sergeant walked into the room and requested that Font meet him in the hall outside. Font stepped out of the room to learn that he was being ordered to disengage himself from Harvard on Monday and report to Fort George T. Meade in Maryland on Tuesday.

Font was assigned various jobs at Ft. Meade while his superiors thought of various ways of dismissing his unprecedented request and sending him to Vietnam. The Army's speculation stopped in July when Font's lawyer obtained a federal court ruling preventing his being ordered to Indochina. However, Font's farcical succession of jobs continued:

For two months Font worked at the base Family Housing Office, helping veterans returning from the war find homes. When Font uncovered evidence of racial segregation and unfair housing policy in nearby Odenton, Maryland, and brought this matter to the attention of his superiors, he was transferred to another job.

For six weeks during the summer of 1970 Font was told to sit in his room and do nothing. He was allowed to write, read and type but not permitted to speak to anyone. His next assignment was to read and study the regulations of the Reserve Officers Training Corps for about two weeks. He was then ordered to add up columns of figures on machine tapes in his head and check the machine totals.

Finally, in hopes of keeping him permanently occupied, the Army assigned Font to inspect the barracks at Ft. Meade. Font inspected barracks from October 23 to January 25, 1971. It was while doing this that Font took three days off in December to participate in the Washington meeting of the Vietnam Veterans Commission of Inquiry with regard to war crimes.

FONT submitted weekly reports on his findings in the Ft. Meade barracks and ended his examination with a 106 page report on the housing conditions. The report concluded that the barracks, built as temporary shelters in 1941, were "unfit for human habitation" and an "outrage to common human decency." Font claimed that they contained roaches and rats and that the temperature of the hot water was 38 degrees. Cases of influenza and ringworm were common. Font included 85 statements from enlisted men and officers who complained of poor plumbing facilities, broken windows and holes in the barracks' walls.

On January 21, Font went to First Army Headquarters at Ft. Meade to deliver a copy of his barracks report to Lt. General Jonathan P. Seaman, commanding general of the First Army at that time.

While Font was in the Headquarters waiting room he was seen by Major General Richard G. Ciccolella, First Army chief of staff. According to Font, Ciccolella rushed toward him saying, "You're not supposed to be here. I don't want anything of yours." Ciccolella then grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him out the door, shouting "Get the hell out of here!" The general then called the military police to arrest Font.

Five MP's in two cars responded to Ciccolella's call and took Font to the military police station. After four hours during which he was not allowed to call his lawyer, Font was told that he had not been arrested, only "detained." He was released with severe restrictions placed on his movements and activities.

A week later, Colonel Arnold W. Alexander, the post commander at Ft. Meade, filed general court-martial charges against Font on five counts, carrying a maximum sentence of 25 years:

Failure to strictly obey the duty hours of Ft. Meade by being at First Army Headquarters;

Failure to ask for time off to go to First Army Headquarters;

Failure to obtain the specific approval of the post commander to go to First Army Headquarters;

Failure to obtain specific permission of the commanding officer of the building to go into First Army Headquarters;

Failure to obey the order of the commanding officer of the building to leave the building.

Font has labeled these charges "Mickey Mouse and fraudulent." He pointed to the fourth charge and said, "This would be like me going to Gen. Westmoreland before I go into the Pentagon." He has also noted that "since all this has been going on people have been working like hell to get these barracks in shape."

Font has found support for his allegations in many areas, including two former classmates at West Point, Captains Jon C. Anderson and Donald J. Millus, whose letter from Vietnam was published on Feb. 25 in the New York Times. The letter read in part:

The fact that a product of the most cherished of Army institutions should have moral beliefs so contrary to those of his superiors is hardly reason enough for the five picayune charges that were recently filed against Lieutenant Font. Four of the five "offenses" were of such an arbitrary nature that the majority of today's officers might be charged with an occasional violation of one or more of them. While charges of murder at My Lai are dropped in case after case and the mass relocation of Vietnamese peasants is considered, the Army plays games with an individual who is attempting to make himself heard as a man of conscience.

FONT HAS SAID he believes the charges stem from his Jan. 11 request that the Secretary of the Army convene a board of inquiry to investigate responsibility for alleged atrocities in Vietnam, including some said to have taken place during operations commanded by Seaman.

Font's request was based on the December testimony before the Vietnam Veterans Commission of Inquiry of 40 Vietnam veterans that My Lai and other atrocities against Vietnamese civilians grew directly out of top-level U. S. military policy.

Some of the veterans testimony concerned Operation Cedar Falls, during which about 40 square miles of the so-called Iron Triangle in Vietnam were cleared of "enemy" forces by bombing, artillery and infantry attacks. A former lieutenant in a unit that participated in Operation Junction City said that orders for the operation were that "villages, hamlets or any other signs of life were to be completely destroyed."

Font stated in his allegations that an inquiry should follow from the Yamashita rule, under which the U. S. hanged the Japanese commander in the Philippines in 1946 for atrocities his men committed without his knowledge or authority. The U. S. Supreme Court has upheld a military court ruling that a commander is responsible for the conduct of his men whether or not he is aware of their activities.

On Feb. 3, three freshman Congressmen, Representatives Parren J. Mitchell (D-Md.). Bella S. Abzug (D-N. Y.), and Ronald V. Dellums (D-Calif.) asked Secretary of the Army Stanley T. Resor to investigate charges that Font is being harassed because of his antiwar activities and the housing report that he compiled.

Then on Feb. 17, Font filed charges against Major General Samuel W. Koster for "dereliction of duty" for allowing war crimes to be committed under his command, and against Seaman for "conspiracy to commit war crimes" and for "dereliction of duty" for allowing his men to commit war crimes in 1967, with regard to Operations Cedar Falls and Junction City, which he planned and executed.

Font has also charged Alexander with "dereliction of duty" for failing to "properly inspect and maintain" barracks at Ft. Meade, and Ciccolella with "assault and battery" committed during the incident at First Army Headquarters on Jan. 21.

Since that time, Alexander has written Font asking him to resign from the Army because of alleged overuse of the telephone and incompetence in performing duties. Instead, Font has chosen to sever himself from the Army through elective discharge, the difference being that the latter would provide him with about $1700 in back pay and an honorable discharge.

Font's letter of discharge, which the Army ruled on last week, read in part:

"I therefore state that the allegations against me, late to work, overuse of the telephone, are grossly exaggerated, and are made to discredit me because I hold and express anti-war views and seek discharge as a conscientious objector....

Thoroughly appalled at the lack of integrity of some Mt. Meade officials, and others, and in light of the invasions of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, I hereby elect discharge, as is my right as a Regular Army officer, and thus submit the attached resignation from the Army."

II

THE ARMY was embarrassed by the entire Font affair and was generally unwilling to discuss it. Post Commander Col. Alexander admitted last month that the housing conditions at Ft. Meade had been sub-standard but that they were quickly renovated. He flatly denied that Font was ever placed in an empty room with nothing to do. "I have attempted very strongly to employ him profitably," Alexander said. "If I have a lieutenant I like to get a day's work out of him."

In subsequent conversations. Alexander refused to discuss Font and referred all questions to post information officer Joseph J. Hedley. Hedley contended that the barracks in question were occupied by soldiers awaiting disciplinary action and that these men deliberately committed acts of vandalism in their frustration with the Army.

III

ON APRIL 12, the Army granted Font's request for elective discharge. As a consequence, the court-martial charges against him will be dropped. Nevertheless, the Army is obligated to investigate his charges against Seaman. Koster, Alexander and Ciccolella.

Still, Font is not sanguine about the Army's honesty. "One of the main reasons they want me out is so that one month or two months from now when they begin dropping charges I won't begin hollering," he says.

Font characterized the mood at Ft. Meade as decidedly anti-war and antimilitary. His actions there have won him respect and admiration from the men. One of Font's friends, Specialist 4th Class Nick Perazza, labeled the base "the most disgusting fort I've ever seen. I've lived in buildings with no walls. This is First Army Headquarters and the closest fort to D. C. but they keep on dumping money into buildings that are condemned. I've personally had to sleep with five blankets and my clothes on."

Font is currently accompanying Congressman Dellums on a tour of Army bases around the country. He plans to return to Maryland and continue his antiwar activities there for a few months. These activities include Font's participation in the Concerned Officers Movement, a group of about 700 active-duty officers who oppose the war and advocate increased leniency within the Army. Font hopes to return to the Kennedy School of Government in the fall to finish off the requirements for his master's degree.