Katie Rucke
Opposition to war usually conjures up a cliche image of a 1960s hippie — a person with long hair, bodies decorated with tie-dye apparel — but in the U.S. there is an increasing number of citizens speaking out in favor of peace options, many of whom are veterans.
Since their voices are largely silenced or muted in the mainstream media, Mint Press News felt compelled to highlight all of the deaths that have occurred as a result of war, specifically the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, about 4,500 U.S. soldiers have lost their lives, in addition to the some 122,000 Iraqi civilians that were murdered. In Afghanistan, about 2,200 U.S. soldiers have died. And while there is no official single figure for the total civilian deaths in Afghanistan, estimates place the total around 19,000.
None of these figures include any soldiers wounded during combat nor any civilians injured or displaced from their homes.
Mint Press News spoke with five veterans — men, women, gay, straight, those in leadership positions, and those in lower ranks, soldiers who were on the frontlines, and those who were not — about their experience.
While these brave men and women donned the military garb to fight for their country at one point in their life — all for different reasons — they all discovered a dark side to military life that led to their individual decision to leave a life of service for one advocating peace and spotlighting injustices in the military. In a five-part series, we’re sharing the stories of Leah Bolger, Mike Prysner, Jenny Pacanowski, Wes Davey and Chante Wolf, in order to highlight the largely untold horrors of war that peace options could have prevented.
Leah Bolger: CDR, USN (RET) — Past President Veterans for Peace (VFP) and current member VFP Board of Directors
- Joined the Navy in March 1980 and retired in the summer of 2000
- Served all over the world, including tours in Iceland, Bermuda, Japan and Tunisia
- Formed Chapter 132 VFP in Corvallis, Ore. in 2004 and served as president for three years.
- In 2009, Bolger was elected to the national VFP Board of Directors, serving as vice president until 2012 and then national president.
Raised in a small town, Bolger says she joined the military in 1980 because she wanted to get out of town and needed a job. Though the U.S. was involved in the Cold War at the time, Bolger says she was pretty ambivalent and ignorant about America’s participation in war.
“When I joined the military, I never was a huge fan of militarism or war,” she said, “I was just neutral and went along with whatever the country does.” Even with a college degree, Bolger says her knowledge regarding the military was very limited. “I was quite ignorant about our policies and felt like I needed a job. It was a job, and I didn’t feel like I was part of anything bad.”
Stationed overseas four times, Bolger spent time in Iceland during the Cold War as part of the SOSUS (sound surveillance) team, and was tasked with listening for Soviet submarines.
“The work I did was not aggressive,” Bolger explained. “I never had to shoot anyone or had my life in danger. I never had to challenge or make any conscious decisions about the morality aspect. I was part of the big machine and it didn’t seem like I was doing anything.”
But in 2005, Bolger says the kick-in-the-gut that made her realize the importance of peace was an exhibit she saw in Eugene, Ore., called “Eyes Wide Open.” The exhibit, which consists of army boots lined up in rows as if they are tombstones at Arlington National Cemetery, is designed to represent the hundreds of men and women who were killed in Iraq, and includes civilian shoes — including small shoes — representing the some 1.3 million Iraqi men, women and children who have been killed as well.
For her work in the peace movement, Bolger has been arrested eight times. Though her emotions vary when it comes to each arrest, she says she’s proud of her actions.
“When I started in 2005 I was kind of naïve, but more and more as I’m involved I’m fighting for First Amendment rights and Fourth Amendment rights and the police, which have become much more militarized.”
Bolger says one of her most memorable arrests is directly related to free speech. “I was in upper senate park near the Capitol building. There was a gathering of pro-war people and senators speaking like [John] McCain, who was running for president at the time.
“The gathering was outside, open to the public — it wasn’t invitation only — and I was wearing a T-shirt that said ‘I support Iraq veterans against the war.’
“I was standing in the back and before it started, police made me move to be with other protesters. ‘That’s your first warning,’ he said. In Washington, D.C., you get three warnings before they arrest you. I told him, ‘I’m not doing anything,’ and he said ‘Second warning.’
“I went over to the edge where there were unions, Code Pink members, and [the police] made me stand with them, and so first of all I was irritated — I had not done anything to violate the law and then I went over to the side.
“The politicians started saying things and pointing to us [the protesters]. ‘They want to us to cut and run, but we’re not going to dishonor your loved ones,’ they said. I started yelling ‘there’s no honor in killing innocent people!’, and for disrupting and refusing to back down, I was arrested.”
The real kicker for Bolger is that she believes if she was shouting “God bless America,” she would not have been arrested. “They didn’t like the words I was saying,” she explained.
Though Bolger recognizes that many young people join the military for money or to get an education, she says she recommends that young people considering serving in the military talk to someone who has been in war, especially Iraq veterans, and think about if they could kill someone.
“How would you feel if you killed a child or an adult who was not guilty of anything?” she said. “Is that something you’re willing to risk? Your lives, morality, personality?
“The military is not something you can quit if you don’t like it. You can clean toilets for minimum wage and have a horrible boss, but you can quit. In the military you will be demeaned and have horrible bosses and do things that are reprehensible that you will never get over and you can’t get out.”
“Do some research and don’t listen to the recruiters,” she said. “They will lie to you, they have to.”