Concerned Officers Movement
[3] Other early members were 1LT Louis Font, a West Point honor graduate, who received extensive national media coverage for his stand against the war and CAPT Mike Mullen, USMCR who was one of the contacts on the organization's first leaflet (see image to right).
"[10] COM continued to grow and on September 26, 1970, 28 members representing about 250 others on active duty from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps held a press conference in Washington, D.C., to announce "their intention to speak against the war in Vietnam" and "to encourage other officers to express antiwar opinions".
[4] They also read an open letter to Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird demanding an immediate withdrawal from the war written by LTJG John Kent, USN, an Annapolis graduate, all-American wrestler and jet fighter pilot, and signed by 29 officers of the San Diego chapter of COM ranging in rank from ensign to lieutenant commander.
[3] It bought newspaper ads calling for an immediate withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam, wrote leaflets, printed posters and held press conferences.
[5] In May 1971, 29 officers from Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base took out a "scathing antiwar" ad in the Fayetteville Observer which they openly signed with name, rank and military branch.
The organization felt the armed forces were an insular and hidebound world and explored ways to establish the right of free speech for active duty servicemen, both officers and enlisted.
Official military spokespeople blamed budget cutbacks or force reductions, but COM members were told privately they were being discharged due to their membership.
[1] This, combined with its focus on active duty officers, meant the national organization was relatively short-lived, tapering off considerably by the end of 1971.
[3] In early 1971 COM created quite a stir by holding press conferences on both coasts calling for an investigation into the military's top brass for possible war crimes.
Under the auspices of The National Committee for a Citizens Commission of Inquiry on U.S. War Crimes in Vietnam (Citizens Commission of Inquiry), COM held press conferences on January 12 in Washington, D.C., and January 20 in Los Angeles calling for an investigation into the "responsibility for war crimes of key military figures", including Generals William Westmoreland and Creighton Abrams, and Admiral Elmo Zumwalt.
The show, held in the auditorium of San Diego High School, was a tremendous success with a capacity crowd of over 2,400 enthusiastic sailors and marines, and contributed to the growth and reputation of the chapter.
The project was initiated by a group called San Diego Nonviolent Action, which united with COM to focus on the role of aircraft carriers.
They had the initial goal of stopping the Constellation from returning to Vietnam through education and non-violent activity like a blockade or by preventing military personnel from getting to the naval base.
[36] He argued in a widely distributed pamphlet that aircraft carriers had become weapons "used to crush popular uprisings and to bully the weaker and poorer countries of the world.
[41][31] When the Constellation actually did sail for Vietnam, no visible blockade occurred but nine of its crew publicly refused to go and took sanctuary in a local Catholic church, Christ the King, with the support of COM members and other activists.
The "Connie 9" as they were quickly dubbed, were soon arrested in an early morning raid by US Marshals and flown back to the ship, but within weeks were honorably discharged from the navy.
It was initiated by Lt(jg) Norman Bleier from the San Diego COM chapter after his commanding officer deemed him such a problem that he was transferred to Kodiak "to freeze until your enlistment is up."
CSM considered FID a means to express its members First Amendment rights, while promoting discussion of the war, officer-enlisted relations, racism, and the ecology.
Ironically, the Confidence was ordered to intercept and board the very first Greenpeace boat which was on its way to protest a powerful U.S. nuclear underground test on the island of Amchitka in 1971.
[1] COM did not attract the media attention as dramatically as its more well-known partner and ally, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, but it played a key and underappreciated role in the antiwar movement of the early 1970s.
