Conscientious Objector Status?

Question

The purpose of this question is merley to inform people that it can be done. If you or someone you know used the clause how did it work for you and what did you do to invoke it?

Answer 1

The only way that CO status is going to work is that if it is declared when the individual enlists in the military. One of the questions asked is "Are you a Conscientious Objector?" If the applicant says "No", then the answer is no. You can't change your mind later because you don't "believe" in the war, or what's going on, or because after using the government to get an education, you don't want to go into the service.

BTW, when I was a recruiter, I put a young man in the Army who was a CO. He was given a desk position.

Answer 2

Yes, there is such a word and many have used it to get out of combat duty. Unfortunately, some waited until they were being sent into combat to declare this status and were prosecuted, so if that's going to be your story, bring it up day one and stick to it.

A conscientious objector (CO) is an individual following the religious, moral or ethical dictates of his or her conscience that are incompatible with being a combatant in military service, or being part of the armed forces as a combatant organization. In the first case, conscientious objectors may be willing to accept non-combatant roles during conscription or military service. In the second case, the objection is to any role within armed forces and results in complete rejection of conscription or military service and, in some countries, assignment to an alternative civilian service as a substitute for conscription or military service. Some conscientious objectors may consider themselves either pacifist or antimilitarist.

Answer 3

I've honestly only heard of it used during the draft. If you go into a recruiter's office and state that you're a conscientious objector, he'll probably ask why you want to volunteer for military service. In both cases, there are plenty of roles you can still perform, but many are still dangerous. The Medic/Corpsman specialty comes to mind; those people are fearless and/or crazy.

Answer 4

His case would be considered like each and every Conscientious Objectors' situations are. If he has experienced a real substitute of coronary heart so some distance as conflict and peace, so as that he can no longer in good judgment of right and incorrect take part in conflict, and fantastically if that determination is counseled by employing his non secular faith, it ought to correctly be granted. If he's in simple terms complaining that he does not have time to wish 5 situations an afternoon with the aid of protection rigidity responsibilities, he won't win the case. with any luck, a Muslim chaplain could have the skill to advice him approximately balancing Islam and protection rigidity existence. In Muslim international places, human beings in the protection rigidity comprehend that the protection rigidity usually interferes with incredibly non secular practice of the religion. however the non secular leaders there say that Allah is conscious in case you ought to make exceptions for cover rigidity. you would be a unswerving believer additionally by employing being dedicated to the responsibilities you owe on your unit and your usa. you do no longer ought to stay in the protection rigidity consistently. Get out on the tip of your settlement, after which you will immerse your self as completely as you pick for to in prayer and Quranic learn.

Answer 5

Many, perhaps most people, believe that they should only fight in a war for a just cause. Those who insist that they be allowed to refuse to fight wars that they think are wrong are often called "selective conscientious objectors."

"Selective conscientious objection " uses the "just war" moral teaching and international law to justify some wars and rule out others. Selective conscientious objection is not permitted in the United States.

The current statute says that CO claimants must object to "participation in war in any form." This means that in order to qualify as a CO you must be prepared to say honestly that you would refuse to participate in any war in which you would reasonably be expected to fight.

The law provides for two different forms of conscientious objector service. The difference depends on whether or not COs are willing to accept service in the Army that does not require them to carry weapons.

Noncombatants (classified 1-A-O) serve in the Army without using weapons or handling ammunition. They are not trained to use weapons. Noncombatants have usually served in the medical corps.

Until a draft begins Selective Service will give no opportunity for COs to be classified or to learn the details of how they will be classified. Any attempt to officially register your personal convictions in advance will be rejected. Even though conscientious objectors are not drafted to kill in the Army they still must serve the country.

Answer 6

As best as i understand there is very strict laws in the military HOWEVER i have seen one guy be a objector. The reason bein he lived and was raised in iraq. He had family there and was after all at heart a iraqi and didnt want to kill his country men. Same as IF the USA went to war with the UK i would object and sit it out because, i have friends and family there.

Answer 7

When I was a Navy chaplain, I worked with two young men who were applying for C.O. status (well, actually more, but the other guys were just trying to b.s. the chaplain to get out of deploying... this chaplain, at least, was relatively hard to b.s.).

In each of the two cases, one Navy, one Marine Corps, the reasons given were religious, and in each case they eventually went through and the sailor and Marine were both released from active duty (technically, any deeply-held moral objection to war meets the requirements, but that almost always comes down to a religious objection). In these days of an all-volunteer military, these cases are indeed rare.

In both cases with which I was involved the servicemen in question had come into the military without any moral qualms about war. In each case, the Marine and sailor had met a young woman, fallen in love, and gotten married, and joined his new wife's church... and in each case the woman was a member of a pacifistic Christian denomination. One woman was a Friend (the Quakers), if I remember correctly, while the other was either a Mennonite or Church of the Brethren.

In both cases, needless to say, the Commanding Officer was less than thrilled, and I took a great deal of heat defending the enlisted men. My job was to make sure that a} the Marine or sailor was truly sincere, and not just trying to get out of the military, b} that he really believed what his new denomination believed, and not just what his wife or new pastor was telling him (which meant I had to do a lot of reading up on other denomination's theologies, in order to first make sure the serviceman was right, and then to defend his beliefs to the chain of command), and c} to write up a formal report to the Department of the Navy, defending or rejecting his claim.

As I said, in two of the cases, the claims were legit (the sailor's case was particularly difficult, as we were at sea aboard a submarine when he came to me!), and the two were, after some months, given "General under Honorable Conditions" discharges. The other cases were just young men trying to con me, and when they figured out that I knew more about what their "new religion" taught than they did, they backed down and went back to work.

Briefly, the process is this-- the serviceman (or woman) who believes that he cannot continue to serve in the military because he has deeply held convictions that all wars are immoral and unjust (and not just a particular war, such as Iraq), "puts in a chit" to his chain of command. He'll get sent to the chaplain, and possibly to medical, and will be required to make his claim multiple times at multiple levels. If it's legit, then he stands a good chance of it going through... while most don't, it's because most, sadly, aren't legit.

There are two categories of Conscientous Objector-- those who will not carry weapons or kill anyone, and those who will not serve in the military in any way. [In the first category, some of these COs end up as Corpsmen/medics-- and one of the greatest received the Medal of Honor during the Battle of Okinawa for his remarkable heroism.] Of the two I worked with, one would have been willing to serve, but not as a combatant-- unfortunately he was the Marine, and all Marines are combatants (the Marine Corps' chaplains and medics are all Navy personnel). The submariner was unwilling to do anything in support of the military, so couldn't be retrained as a corpsman, so in the end both were discharged.

[As a "by the way", it used to be a much more common method for people to try to get out of the service--- when there was a lot more discrimination against gays in our society. By the '90s, though, I actually had some heterosexual sailors come to me and claim to be gay, just to get out. It didn't usually take much research for me to dig up their girlfriends, who disagreed about their "gay" claim. In any case, the gay sailors were busy hiding it, to stay in!]
Like I said, lots of people thought the chaplain would be easy to b.s., forgeting that I probably had more people trying it than anyone else on base, and that I'd already heard all the stories before. Heck, I'm former enlisted-- I was really hard to b.s.!

Answer 8

I have seen it happen, but it is usually when they join the military as such. It is a difficult arguement to have though if you joined the service as combat arms and you have deployed and worked within your MOS while deployed in a combat zone.

Answer 9

The only excuse that I know of for a C.O. is on the grounds of religion. Even then it is hard to prove. I know a friend who had to prove his religeion would not allow him to enlist.

Answer 10

it only applies to the draft, if you join the military , the gaurd, or the reserves you did it knowing that you could be asked to shoot at someone, we dont have a draft now.