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Portland Observer
Thursday, October 14th, 1978
Page 3
Vietnam ’s forgotten casualties
Oakland. California (PNS) - Roger
Prieat, a Navy teaman apprentice in
1989-70 while working in the public in
formation section of the PenUgon, was
simultaneously publishing one of the first
anti war newspapers, called Om.
As a result of the prper's anti war
editorials, reports on military unions and
desertions and criticism of the-House
Armed Services Committee Chairman
Representative Mendel Rivers, Priest
was charged with violating 14 counts of
article 134 of the Uniform Code of Mili
tary Justice - including soliciting deser
tion, promoting disloyalty and sedition.
After being convicted of two relatively
minor offenses, he was given a bad-con
duct discharge.
Priest is one of 700,000 Americans who
have become yet another uncomfortable
legacy of the Vietnam war: veterans
branded and stigmatized for life by bad
paper discharges.
While excluded from the current Ford-
Carter debate about amnesty or pardons
for draft resisters and military deserters,
these bad paper vets were victims of the
same Vietnam-related social and political
conflicts that tore apart both the military
and the nation.
Undesirable discharges issued by the
Army in 1970 jumped to more than
double those in 1989 - as opposition to the
war grew and the need for troops fell.
The rate continued to increase until in
1973 one out of every five discharges was
less than honorable.
Now, well over half the bad-paper vets
in the country are from the Vietnam
period.
Of the less-than-honorable discharges
given during the Vietnam and post-war
years, only six per cent - called bad
conduct and dishonorable discharges -
resulted from courts-martial. The rest -
either general « ' kndesirable discharges
- were “administrative” discharges given
without a hearing and on the recommen
dation of a commander.
Eighty per cent of these latter, accord
ing to organizations that help veterans
upgrade discharges, were for offenses
that would not even be misdemeanors in
civilian life.
Roger Priest's lawyer is now appealing
his bad discharge before a review board
in Washington, D.C. The boards, com
posed of high-ranking military officers,
reject about 85 per cent of the appeals.
Vicious Cycle
Once saddled with bad-paper dis
charges, many veterans find themselves
locked in a cycle from which they cannot
escape. Bad-paper vets “cannot use their
GI Bill benefits for an education and it
(the bad discharge) keeps them from find
ing employment,” says Nick Bambacus, a
discharge upgrading counselor in San
Diego.
Although federal law prohibits only
those with dishonorable discharges from
using G I Bill benefits, the Veterans-
Administration (VA ) has interpreted this
to mean that benefits automatically go
only to those with honorable or general
discharges. Others must go through a
series of hearings to apply for benefits,
and, according to the V A , 96 per cent of
their applications are denied.
With or without an education, bad-
paper veterans have difficulty finding
employment. A 1975 Gallup poll found
that 39 per cent of the nation's employers
would give “less than equal” considera
tion to veterans holding general dis
charges - even those under honorable
conditions.
An undesirable discharge was consid
ered an impediment to employment by
over 75 per cent of those polled, and half
of those said they would refuse employ
ment to any such applicant.
“The cycle is completed," says Hay
ward Kirkland, director of the Incarcer
ated Veterans Association in Washing
ton, D.C., when “in desperation the man
turns to crime and winds up in prison.”
In 1973, almost a third of all federal
prison population were veterans. And of
those from the Vietnam era, only 12 per
cent had honorable discharges.
In California, according to discharge
ipgrading activities, 25 per cent of all
state penal inmates are Vietnam-era
veterans with bad-paper discharges. And
at Angola State Prison in Louisiana, over
half the incarcerated veterans have less
than-honorable discharges.
Imprisoned veterans with bad dis
charges are caught in a “Catch 22,” ac
cording to Ron Bitzer of Swords to Plow
shares, an organization in San Francisco
that tries to help veterans with their
appeals. A bad paper veteran, says Bit
zer, cannot “prove parole readiness be
cause his bad discharge will keep from
getting a job or using his GI Bill.”
And discharge review boards, says B it
zer, consider an individual’s imprison
ment after his military service as “part of
the overall record in considering an up-
Why the flood?
Since most bad discharges are of the
administrative type issued without a
hearing, it is hard for potential employers
and others to interpret their importance.
Workers in discharge upgrading pro
grams contend, however, that a number
of troops returning from Vietnam were
disciplinary problems that the military
simply wanted out so they wouldn't mix
with recruits. “The administrative dis
charge was a simple way to do that,”
says Tom Turcotte, coordinator of dis
charge review services at San Francisco's
Swords to Plowshares.
Some of the discharged veterans, T u r
cotte adds, were willing to accept bad
discharges just to get out of the Army
quickly - without being informed of the
later consequences.
‘ Upon discharge few if any of these
people were adequately counse’ed con
cerning its future effects, their rights to a
hearing and counsel or their right to
make a personal statement before the
discharging authority," says Martha
Caron, also of Swords to Plowsha-es.
A bad discharge “does not mean they
are bad or misfits who cannot contribute
to civilian undertakings,” says June Wil-
lenz, executive director of the American
Veterans Committee, a group involved in
the upgrading of discharges since the late
1940s. “The military should be able to
release such individuals without branding
them as misfits for all endeavors.”
In 1972, the Department of Defense's
own Task Force on M ilitary Justice re-
conmmended the abolition of the classi
fied discharge system - partly because
the “administrative discharge has im
pacted to the detriment of minority group
servicemen.”
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Former Administrator
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THE MORE YOU KNOW ABOUT IT
THE LESS YOU'LL LIKE IT
The Task Force reported that as many
Black soldiers received less-than-honor-
able discharges as did whites even
though Blacks made up only 12 per cent
of the armed forces. And among service
men with no previous record, the Task
Force reported, 48.9 per cent of the
whites who were court-martialed - as
opposed to just 23.6 per cent of the Blacks
- were released without action being
taken against them.
Yet under the volunteer Army, the
rate of less-than-honorable discharges
keeps increasing. In August of this year,
there were 3,500 bad discharges - one of
the highest totals ever.
VOTE # 9 NO
IT BANS NUCLEAR ENERGY
ORE3ON1ANS A3AINST THE »AS O N NUCLEAR ENEB3Y«520S W » TH A V t POST'-A-.’ D ORE «'204.MA.RRV RAS3OALE 7REAS
ri
Copyright PNS 1976
Oregon students demonstrate interest in religion studies
Oregon high school students are show
ing greater interest in the study of reli
gion, says an Oregon State University
professor. And as more and more rehgi
ous studies courses are offered in secon
dary schools, be says, universities must
face the problem of making sure such
courses are taught by qualified teachers.
John F ing and Jim Ash, two professors
in the Department of Religious Studies at
OSU. surveyed teachers and administra
tors in nearly all high schools and several
junior highs in Oregon during the sum
mer of 1975 to find out what, if any,
courses were being offered in the study of
religion.
To their surprise, they received res
ponses from 82 per cent of the nearly
8.000 teachers and administrators they
contacted at 348 schools. They learned
that nearly all larger high schools (those
with over 500 students) offered some
religious studies courses, and that the
smaller high schools often incorporated
the study of religion in history or litera
ture courses.
Among the 130 regularly scheduled
courses offered dealing exclusively with
religion were courses in world religions,
the Bible as literature, mythology, com
parative religions, and such specialized
courses as Old Testament literature.
Asian religions, thanatology (the study of
death), and religions of the American
Indians.
All parts of the state were represented
in the survey response. King reported,
and in fact some small high schools had
ambitious curricula in religion. La Pine,
for example, had several course offerings.
“I t seems those schools which are doing
the most in this area are doing the best
job,” said King. In some of the larger
schools, he added, 500 to 800 students are
enrolled in religion courses, and some
school programs have been going on for
as long as 10 years.
Unfortunately, King said, not all those
who are teaching about religion to high
school students are qualified to do so.
Concerned about misconceptions some of
his students had regarding religion. King
and Ash included questions in their sur
vey about teachers' academic background
in the study of religion.
They found that at least 10 teachers
had taken only one college-level course in
religion, and that 21 had no preparation
at all. About 30 had taken two to five
college-level courses, and a relative hand
ful. about seven, had degrees in religious
studies.
With the statistics the two professors
have gathered, supplemented by a sur
vey now underway to find out if the same
situation exists throughout the North
west, they hope to document the need for
a secondary teacher certification pro
gram in religious studies and other ex
pansions in the curricula, perhaps even a
master's degree offered jointed by OSU
and the University of Oregon, pooling
both faculties and libraries.
Eight states in the U.S., most of them
on the east coast, already have certifica
tion programa, he said, and if OSU
doesn't move into this area, some other
school will do it very soon, because the
renewed interest in the study of religion
is an obvious pattern throughout the
state and the nation.
King says the rebirth of interest in
religion reflects partly a trend toward
conservatism in the U.S. “One thing that
happens when society becomes more con
servative,” he said, “is that people be
come more interested in studying their
roots, including their religious origins.
Too, students have a strong desire to
expand their knowledge of other
peoples.”
King said school districts which can’t
afford to hire fulltime religious studies
teachers might hire such teachers to do
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double-duty as history or literature
teachers. Only a handful of the schools
contacted, expressed tfie feeling that rel
igion is not a proper subject to be dealt
with academically, he said. Many shared
his feeling that religion is, or should be,
an integral part of the liberal arts curri
culum.
“Religion has always been and still is a
primary aspect of the human experi
ence," he said. “Education should be
aimed toward teaching what it has meant
in the past and what is now means to be
human. Anything that adds to that know
ledge is worthwhile - and should be done
in the best way possible.1'
“I f we expect chemistry teachers to
have rigorous training in chemistry, then
those who teach our students about reli
gion should have the same quality of
preparation."
Group studies corrections
The Oregon Council on Crime and De
linquency has announced that they will
launch a study of the Community Correc
tions Act which is being proposed by the
Governor's Task Force on Corrections.
"The proposed Act is a rignificant
change in the way corrections is run in
this state,” said D r. Paul Reiling, Chair
man of OCCD. “We want to make sure
that it is the right way to go and that local
officials and citizens fully understand the
provisions of the Act,” he said.
The Community Corrections Act as
proposed by the Governor's Task Force
C A L TO R AN
Home 289-0939
SELLING YOUR HOME?
Call Cal or Bob at Stassens Hollywood Office.
IO .1
w ai V
would shift state dollars to those counties
which agree to operate probation, parole
and other correctional services locally.
The emphasis is said to be on better
supervision, better use of local resources
and more flexible programs for offenders.
“We plan to sponsor several meetings
eround the state to discuss this proposal,”
Reiling said. “I t is a major change and it
involves millions of tax dollars annually.”
OCCD, a statewide nonprofit citizens
group, plans to begin their study in
November. A United Way agency, OCCD
is based at 718 W. Burnside, Portland.
Cal and Bob aro effective in finding buyers far
They w ork their listings and do the extras that
Cal sad Bob a i
Folks prograa
CaU Bob or Cal for aa
obligation, of course.
value of your
a. No
Hollywood Office 288-8871
E. G. Stassens, lac., Realtors®
3835 N .E. Hancock
Room 101. Hancock Bldg.
Portland, Oregon 97212
288-8871
Y ju can call any place
w ithin Oregon and talk for
ten minutes for one dollar
or less, plus tax, when you
dial it yourself without
operator assistance
between
10 PM. and
8A M
Pacific Northwest Bell
T h u rat* also applies to station calla placed from
co«n phon
"
—
- -
not avaHabio
. JEFFREY BRADY, DENTIST
SCMLW BUILDING
8.W . 3rd & Morrison St. Portland, Oregon
Take Elevator to 2nd Floor 3rd St. Entrance
Phene: 228-7545
I w ith!
R. G. Stassens, Inc. Realtors
This Two-Party Measured Rate Resi
dence Service will be available only in
offices served by ESS machines because
they are equipped to meter the outgoing
calls. As ESS machines replace older
switching equipment, telephones served
by the other offices will become eligible.
No charge will be made for the conver
sion to the new service, whether a num
ber change is necessary or not.
sea in all price r
: to the community «
hard to boat.
Cheap phone* available
Beginning October 15th, many of Paci
fic Northwest Bell's customers will be
able to reduce their monthly telephone
bills with a new low-cost service.
For $3.95 a month, customers whose
telephone is served from an Electronic
Switching Systems (ESS) office can have
a two-party line with ten outgoing calls a
month and unlimited incoming calls. Each
outgoing call over the ten allowed will
cost 10 cents.
BOB NELSON
Home 287-4050
Racha/ Pa fan. Sorv/cs R o p ratenfeirw