Photo: Susannah Breslin.
Susannah Breslin has a new interview up at The War Project. Hart Viges was a paratrooper deployed to Iraq in 2003. He became a conscientious objector.
Due to my breakdown, my platoon sergeant, my chaplain, and my first sergeant go to bat for me and go talk to the sergeant major to get me to move to chaplain assistant. So I get moved from my mortar platoon to chaplain assistant, which was probably the best move they could ever make. I was able to get the chaplain's assistant work done pretty much before day ended, and bought a computer, and started writing out my conscientious objection application. My claim was, I'm a Christian. Jesus said love my enemy. How can I not do what he says and still call him Lord?
I got the reputation over there as the guy who ran the .50 cal every day. 'Cause other squads, they rotated out their .50 cal gunner, Mark 19 gunner. 'Cause that was kind of like a very vulnerable spot. If anybody was gonna get shot first, it was gonna be the guy behind the biggest gun. Me, I had a thing about me. Angelina. I'm an Angelina Jolie fan. I had to ride Angelina every single day. She was my gun.
I gave away all my war books, the war movies, try to stop making a fist, try to just change my demeanor, and everything, because if I was a conscientious objector, I need to become a conscientious objector. I wouldn't say I made a full turn there, but it was the beginning, and I needed to manifest that.
