Bruce Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.
He offers his own reflections on organizing and the state of America's declining empire....
Monday, August 08, 2016
GI Resistance Movement
I joined the Air Force in 1971 as a gung-ho GI (who had grown up in an Air Force family) and wanted to be a lifer in the military just like my step-dad was.
My first roommate in the barracks at Travis AFB in California was one of the organizers of the GI resistance movement at our base. They had meetings in our room at night - white guys talking about the war - black guys talking about racism in the military and across the country.
I got the education of my life and this was where I became a peace activist. I owe my career in the peace and social justice movement to those GI's who taught me what was really going on in Vietnam and in Washington. All of my illusions about freedom and democracy were shattered behind the barbed wire fences at Travis AFB.
This film tells the story about this GI movement.
Bruce
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My background was very similar. I got drafted in 1969. My life was devoted to cars and girls -- my only real interests. When I got to my duty station, I also got the education of my life. I owe so much to one individual in particular. His name was Steve Born. He got out ahead of me so I lost contact with him. Like Bruce, my illusions about "God and Country" were - shall we say - updated.
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