PSU Magazine Winter 2005

Ob·ectors to More than 60 years ago, as the United States chose to emer World War II, a minority of men made a dif– ferent, difficult decision. These men became cons ientious objectors (COs). They fought, not the enemy, but their own nation in order Lo do what they felt was right. The stories of COs are rarely Lold in the annals of World War I l. That's why, when the Siuslaw National Forest began a program of collecting oral his– tories from World War ll objectors who had worked for the Forest Ser– vice, history professor Katrine Barber and her class joined in. From October 1942 Lo April 1946, men who were documented conscien– tious objectors spem time in con- s ripted service at a base camp near Waldport on the Oregon coast. The U.S. government sent them there Lo fell snags and plam trees for the Forest Service instead of military service. Many of these men told their stories LO volumeers for the Siuslaw National Forest in 45 interviews conducted between 2001 and 2003. Barber and her students collected and transcribed 15 additional interviews during the summer of 2003. She and two stu– dents , Jo Ogden and Eliza Jones, are now putting together a book of excerpts for the Forest Service. Barber is also planning Lo write a more tradi– tional book Lo be published by the Oregon Historical Society. There was a fairly strong pacifist movement between Lhe world wars, says Barber. The death and horror of World War I was strongly felt in Europe, and that amiwar sentiment spread Lo the U.S. Paul Foster, whose narrative appears here, tells of gaining a graphic understanding of Lhe first war's death and destruction from read– ing All Quiet on the Western Front and seeing returning veterans. lL was during World War I thaL con– scientious objection was first granted political consideration. The 1917 6 PSU MAGAZINE WINTER 2005 conscription law acknowledged the right of objectors to refuse military ser– vice, but only if they were members of one of three recognized historic peace churches: Quakers (also known as Friends), Mennonites, and Church of the Brethren. The men were offered non-combatanL service in the military; if they refused, they were sent Lo prison. As Ford exton reveals in his narrative, treatment of World War I objectors could be cruel. The U.S. approved broader conscrip– tion laws in 1940, when it enacted its first-ever peacetime draft with the Selective Training and Service Act. Objectors were no longer required to prove religious training and belief based on historic peace church mem– bership . The law also provided an alternative LO prison for those objectors who refused non-combatant military service. These men were expected LO perform "work of national imponance under civilian direction" through the Civilian Public Service program (CPS). This program was created by the U .5. Selective Service Agency and the National Service Board for Religious Objectors, a private organization of representatives from the historic peace churches. Because the government was reluctant Lo support the program, the churches agreed to take responsibility for all costs except transporting draftees to the camps. ln 1936, an estimated 12 million Americans were considered pacifists, and Congress passed the 1940 draft only after a long and traumatic debate. However, everything changed with the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. Millions of men enlisted, including many former pacifists. "The country was transformed into a land of victory gardens, war bonds, and ticker Lape parades for those wear– ing the military uniform ," says Barber. Once the country was involved in the war, objectors represented less than one percent of the number of people enlisted in the armed services. Of the estimated 43,000 World War 11 objec– tors, 25,000 served in the military as non-combatants, 12,000 were inducted imo the CPS, and 6,000 wem LO prison. Even within Lhe historic peace churches, most young men chose active military combat service. For COs, "making the choice Lo acL on their pacifist beliefs speaks volumes about the strength of conviction demonstrated by the narrators of these interviews," says Barber. CP consisted of small camps throughout the coumy, many of which were decommissioned Civilian Conser– vation Corps (CCC) centers, Lhat pro– vid d work for jobless youth during the Great Depression. CPS assigned men to work without pay for federal agencies such as the Forest Service and the oil onservation Service. The camp at Waldpon, named Camp Angell, was the 56th CPS camp. Most of the men there came to it from other camps and many did not stay long, as transfers were a frequent occurrence. Some men worked at Camp Angeli 's satellite camps and oth– ers left the area to volumeer for "detached service." Richard Mundy tells in his narrative of volunteering to become a subject in a medical experi– ment. Other COs fi.lled vacancies in mental hospitals or labored on private dairy farms. C amp Angell was set in a muddy forest clearing with four dorm build– ings, a kitchen, and a dining area. The complex was a relatively new CCC camp. Residency averaged 120 men at any given Lime. Most of the objectors interviewed came from religious farm– ing communities in the Midwest. A unique feature of Camp Angell was its fine arts program in which the men staged plays and music for public audiences; spent Lime painLing, draw– ing, sculpting, and weaving; and printed collections of plays, short