„From Flagwaver to Flagburner“

Story of a US soldier joining the

GI Anti-War Resistance Movement

 

Sp-4  Dave Blalock, Long Thanh, Vietnam(Peace Sign hangs around his neck)

July 1969

 

Born 1950 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Dave Blalock was raised up in this former heartland of America’s steel and coal producing region.

 

He graduated from high school in June of 1967. Seven months later he turned 18 and fulfilled his legal obligation by registering for the military draft. Then the massive bloody “1968 Tet Offensive” in Vietnam shattered any illusions that the war might end before he had to go fight in it. The threat of being drafted into the military now greatly limited any of his opportunities for a decent job. With no anti war activity going on in his hometown at this time he believed that, “this war was a just cause to free the people from communist tyranny.” * So he volunteered for the US Army and served from May 1968 thru June 1971.

 

While in army basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, Blalock went AWOL for 9 days. He was court-martialed and sentenced to a jail term of “six months at hard labor.” As a result of overcrowded conditions and brutal guards a series of revolts were erupting throughout the US military prison system during this time—this also happened at the Fort Jackson stockade. After serving one month of hard labor the army suspended his remaining prison sentence and he returned back to basic training.

 

When round two of basic training came to an end he was sent to Fort Gordon, Georgia for a three-month communication center specialist course. It was here that he had his first contact with the anti war movement. It came through the words printed in The Last Harass—an anti war underground newspaper clandestinely produced and distributed by GIs stationed at this base.

 

Following his training at Fort Gordon he then spent one year in Vietnam (February 1969 thru February 1970) assigned to the 210^th Combat Aviation Battalion located at a small base camp called Long Thanh North. At the end of his year in the war he wrote, “I learned from first hand experience that this war had nothing to do with bringing ‘Freedom and Democracy’ to the Vietnamese people…America’s justification for all the death and destruction it brought down on these folks was nothing but a damned lie! The vast majority of them supported the Viet Cong’s fight for national liberation and freedom from foreign domination. They were involved in a righteous struggle because this was their country and their land and we had no business being there!”*  Throughout his time in Vietnam his observation of this reality had propelled him into various radical activities ranging from taking part in “search and avoid” patrols to participating in his first anti war demonstration. Step by step, Blalock became involved in the GI anti war resistance movement. It was a movement without any centralized organization but its powerful rebellious attitudes and actions were spreading like a wild fire among the US troops in the war zone. From combat refusals to “Fuck Authority” attitudes to fraggings this movement was beginning to wreck havoc on the ability of America’s military to wage the ground war. In May of 1969 President Nixon ordered the high command to begin the slow withdrawal of ground troops from Vietnam—In August 1969 the 9^th Infantry Division was the first to pack up their bags and go home.  

 

Upon completion of his tour of duty in Vietnam Blalock then returned to the US to conclude the remaining 16 months of his army enlistment contract. His first duty assignment here was with the 53^rd Aviation Battalion at Fort Rucker, Alabama (April 1970 to June 1970). While there he participated in his first anti war demonstration in the states. It was on “Armed Forces Day” May 16, 1970 when he, along with 75 other angry soldiers, defied the orders from their commander and joined with several hundred university students at a rally outside the entrance to this base. (Note: On this day thousands of GIs staged antiwar actions across the country and forced the Pentagon and cancel it’s regularly scheduled “celebrations” at over 40 US military bases.)

 

A month after this demonstration he was transferred to Fort McClellan, Alabama. Upon arriving there he immediately joined a radical group already in existence at this base called “GIs & WACs United Against the War.” Soldiers who had returned from the war a year earlier initiated this organization. He participated in a broad range of activities from helping to produce and distribute their underground newspaper Left Face… To organizing different anti war campaigns on the base… To participating in various other actions that fought against the oppressive power structure in the military… To taking part in a contingent of GIs from here who drove up to Washington, DC for the massive April 24, 1971 demonstration. There they joined with a group of over 1,000 other active duty GIs to lead 750,000 antiwar protesters through the streets of this city. Over all, Blalock spent his last year in the army deeply involved in the work of organizing his fellow soldiers to bring an end to this unjust war.

 

Following his discharge from the army in June 1971 he continued to fight for the cause of the soldiers rebellion by working full time for the United States Servicemen’s Fund in it’s Boston office. This organization raised money and helped to build support for the wide spread GI resistance centers and their underground newspapers that were then flourishing at US military bases across America and in West Germany.

 

In the spring of 1972 Blalock went to Cuba on the Venceremos Brigade where he, along with a group of Vietnam veterans and other radical US citizens, spent several months doing construction work to build housing for a farm co-operative. While there he had the opportunity to meet with members of the Vietnamese National Liberation Front along with freedom fighters from several African countries.

 

After his return from Cuba Blalock moved to New York where he became active in the New York City Chapter of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). Through out the summer of 1972 he worked full time organizing for VVAW’s The Last Patrol campaign that began with a series of convoys which traveled down the east coast, from the Mid-west and the west coast of the US to converge in Miami Beach for the week long Republican National Convention in August. There, over 1,200 veterans along with ten thousand other protesters politically confronted President Nixon with their powerful antiwar message.  (Note: On their way to Miami the large east coast VVAW convoy that he took part in had camped outside of Fort Bragg, North Carolina. There the army units from the 82^nd Airborne Division were now on alert for riot-control duty at the convention.  With the help of a local anti war GI organization VVAW issued a written appeal to these troops calling on them to refuse to fight against the protesters. The message from the vets was well received by these soldiers so the next day the Pentagon was forced to cancel their orders for Miami.)

 

According to the Department of Defense, there were 503,926 incidents of desertion during the Vietnam War. Throughout 1973 Blalock participated in VVAW’s campaign of demonstrations and other actions that demanded Universal and Unconditional Amnesty for All War Resisters.

 

After moving to Jersey City, New Jersey in 1974 Blalock worked tirelessly to build up the North Jersey Chapter of VVAW. Their group confronted the military recruiters who appeared like a flock of vultures at various university campuses. In conjunction with the New York City Chapter of VVAW they also launched a wide-ranging campaign that targeted the US Veterans Administration for its mistreatment of war veterans. He, along with some other VVAW members, was arrested after seizing control of the Directors office of the Newark Veterans Administration to protest and publicize the inhuman conditions existing in the VA hospital.

 

On July 4, 1976 in Philadelphia Blalock, along with a large contingent of Vietnam veterans and thousands of other people, protested against government sponsored celebrations of America’s bicentennial. They demonstrated under the slogan “We Carried the Rich for 200 Years—Lets Get Them Off Our Backs!” 

 

During the 1980s he joined with other veterans in the New York/New Jersey area to form a group called Vietnam Vets United to Prevent World War 3. They published a newspaper called Nothing to Lose and spoke out against President Reagan’s massive build up of America’s nuclear arsenals. During this decade he also took part in countless demonstrations from opposing the Trident Nuclear Submarine to opposing the USA’s bloody counter insurgence wars in El Salvador, Nicaragua and other countries throughout Central America.

 

In 1989 Blalock took part in a campaign initiated by Vietnam Veterans Against the War (Anti Imperialist) to expose and challenge the new Flag Protection Act that was rammed through the US congress by President Bush. On October 28, the day the law took effect; he participated with other VVAW-AI members in New York City to organize at a large march and rally where hundreds of American flags were torched in protest against this new law. In Seattle, VVAW-AI organized a ‘Festival of Defiance’ where 1,000 US flags along with a McDonalds flag were napalmed in front of the Post Office. Their slogan was “Down with Fascist Flag Amendments and Laws.” No one was arrested at these actions. So several days later Blalock, along with three other people, went to Washington, DC and in front of the world’s media burned American flags on the steps of the US Capital. They were arrested by police and their protest action took them all the way to the Supreme Court where they successfully overturned the government’s law that banned flag burning.

 

During the summer of 1990 the US government began a massive troop mobilization to fight against Iraq in the Gulf War. At the same time the first of over 2,000 individual GIs began refusing to participate in this war. Blalock then joined in the VVAW (AI) campaign to support the troops that refused to fight. In conjunction with local antiwar groups he spent most of the remainder of the year in Houston Texas where he participated with other Vietnam Veterans to leaflet, rally and speak out against the Blood For Oil war in front of various US Army and Marine Corps reserve centers located there.

 

In January 1991 Blalock responded to a call from VVAW (AI) for veterans to go to Germany to support the growing antiwar movement among US troops based there. Upon arrival he along with two other Vietnam veterans, a US army reservist and a group of active duty GIs formed the Stop The War Brigade. Their group quickly expanded to include the spouses of soldiers who were forced to fight in the war and German army reservists along with veterans of their military. With a lot of help from various elements of the German peace movement the STWB was able to spread it’s anti war message to US military personnel based in Germany. During his two and a half months there he participated in almost all of the 70 Anti-War actions carried out by the STWB. He took part in a broad range of activities from addressing American troops during the massive blockades of the US‘s Rhine Mein Air Force base in Frankfurt and the US Army’s Headquarters in Heidelberg… to small secret meetings with groups of GIs who were planning their refusal to fight.

 

In the mid-90s Blalock returned briefly to Germany where he spoke for the STWB in a Berlin demonstration supporting the Kurdish people’s just struggle for freedom from domination by the Turkish government. During this time he also addressed a large fund raising event in support of Mumia Abu Jamal an American political prisoner held on death row in a Pennsylvania prison.

 

In March of 1999 Blalock along with other Vietnam veterans and GI resistance supporters in Germany met to re-activate the ‘Stop the War Brigade’ and discuss plans to oppose the US/ NATO invasion of Yugoslovia. They issue a statement to the troops of NATO exposing the unjust nature of this war and called on them to “Stop the war in Europe! Refuse to support this new wave of aggression! Just say no!” It also called on civilians to “Support Anti War Resistance in the Military!” This statement was signed by dozens of war veterans from many different countries around the world. During this brief but bloody war the STWB expanded its active membership to include old veterans from the former Soviet Union’s Red Army. Over the next month Blalock would address troops at the blockade of the US Air Force Base in Spangdahlen, Germany and at a massive march that shut down the US Army Headquarters in Heidelberg.

 

In the fall of 2001 during the US attack on Afghanistan the STWB spoke out in various cities of Germany against this new war. Blalock addressed a crowd of 50,000 anti war protesters in Stuttgart the home of the US Army European Command.

 

In September of 2002 President Bush began promoting plans to next attack Iraq. On October 10 Blalock along with another Vietnam Veteran and a Gulf War veteran participated in a STWB press conference in Berlin. There they announced their campaign to denounce these moves towards “Perpetual War,” spread this message to soldiers and “call on all troops involved in this offensive to REFUSE…RESIST…REBEL!!”

 

For the next six months thru the fall of Baghdad to US Forces in the spring of 2003 he participated in an intense schedule of activity. From speaking out to the troops at countless blockades organized by the anti war movement at various US military bases throughout Germany and Italy to many smaller actions of leafleting and meeting with soldiers Blalock took part in nearly 90 anti war actions taken by the STWB.

 

From this point till the end of 2004 Blalock has consistently spoken out against the unjust war and bloody occupation of Iraq by the US and he has been firm in his support of the soldiers who refuse to take part in America’s death machine.

 

On March 24, 2005 he participated in a press conference in Darmstadt, Germany in support of Blake Lamoine a US Army Specialist who had already served a year in Iraq and now wanted no more involvement with the military and its unjust war. He was about to be courts martialed for his activity. Blalock’s statement of support for Lemoin concluded with the following:

 

“Today we offer our heartfelt salute to Army Specialist Blake Lamoine for the heroic action that he is now taking to oppose the military’s death machine. We also offer the same salute to the thousands of other soldiers who have courageously stepped into front lines of this new anti war GI resistance movement.

 

We pass no judgment on the tactics that they might use. No matter if they are  “loul mouthed” adversaies denouncing the war—Or if they participate in a modern day “Search and Avoid” patrol—Or if they are Conscientious Objectors—Or if they are Deserters—Or if they go AWOL—Or if they refuse to fight—Or even if they are  accused of participating in a fragging—it doesn’t matter what form they use to express their discontent. Because taken as a whole all of their efforts are playing a significant role in building a movement that will bring an end to this unjust war.

 

Again—We give all of them our firm salute! The possibility to change the course of the future now lies in their hands.”

 

(*) from Blalock’s recently completed book: “An Ex_GI remembers Viet Nam:The Hidden Legacy of Soldiers in Revolt Book 1—The Awakening”