Mennonite Central Committee

Profiles of Contemporary Conscientious Objectors

 

Ertell Whigham

 

In 1968, at the age of 17, Ertell Whigham enlisted in the military. He was a senior in high school and had a young son. With few good options available to him, he decided to enlist in the military in order to have a steady income and a benefit package. He joined the Marines, noting that they had the sharpest uniforms. He never considered any other service branch.

Ertell grew up in a Baptist Church. He and his family were nominally Christian. His religious life and faith were not involved in his decision to become a Marine.

"I went from deciding who to take to the prom at the end of my senior year to fighting in the jungles of Vietnam in about 6 months time," said Ertell. He was in combat a lot, but this did not raise questions for him about what he was doing. He became extremely patriotic during boot camp, and felt he was doing the right thing to help stop communism. He lost friends and acquaintances in VN, but did not question what he was doing.

Ertell's wife said he returned from VN a different person, but he has not had any long-term negative effects. At first, he was very uncomfortable in crowds, and would hide if he heard a vehicle backfire. He was also prone to violence, and kept lots of weapons.

Ertell left the military with an honorable discharge, but was coded as undesirable because he had become quite militant about the presence of racism and prejudice in the military. He became well-versed in the regulations about the kind of protocol that should have been afforded to his rank. Whenever that was missing, he complained. This behavior was not welcomed by the military.

Ertell noticed that people of color were disciplined more frequently and more harshly, they were passed up for promotions, racial slurs were used during basic training as a toughening up technique, and the military media distorted events in a way that fed into white people's fear of people of color.

He completed his enlistment in NC upon his return from VN. During his time in NC, Ertell became a committed Christian. The church he attended had no particular emphasis on peace, and his service as a Marine was not an issue.

Ertell re-enlisted as a Marine recruiter in the city of Reading, PA in 1973-1974. At that time Reading was a rural, largely white community made up of low to moderate income families. His job as a Marine recruiter was to enlist 3 Marines a month. He received something comparable to sales training and did well at his job. He "sold" young people on the benefits of being a Marine and the pride in belonging to the Marines which resonated well in the society at that time.

The typical recruit was white, rural or low income, and someone who was disillusioned about their future prospects. Many were not sure what they wanted to do next. The military offered money for education, job training, and assistance with housing purchase.

As a recruiter, Ertell knew where to go to gain the most recruits. He went to places where kids didn't have other good prospects. These kids needed help with money for college, job training and other benefits. Recruiters definitely focused on areas of poverty. This may not have been military recruitment policy, but it was a very clear practice.

"We sold kids on the pride of the Corps, as well as the training and education that they could have in the military. We didn't tell them about all the realities of war. We didn't tell them about the racial or cultural bias they might encounter if they seemed different from others. We didn't tell them what it would feel like to kill or almost be killed. We didn't tell them what it would be like to watch people suffer and die just because they happened to be home on the day violence was inflicted on their village."

"We were committed to fulfilling our goal and our vision as recruiters by any means necessary. We built relationships with kids. We'd have coffee or tea and ask them about their girlfriends, and tell them they had a nice car or a nice house. We got to know the dog's name."

After moving to Reading, Ertell began attending the Buttonwood Mennonite Church, and began hearing about the peace position. At first he had little patience with it. He was sent to peace conferences, but had trouble accepting the message. He had gone half way around the world to help stop Communist aggression, had seen all kinds of death and destruction including the death of his friends. He felt that what he had done was necessary. "Who did these Mennonites who were talking about peace think was going to do this necessary work? Who was going to look out for us?" he thought.

Someone told him that since he was going to college on the GI Bill, he was taking blood money for his education. The logic didn't work in his mind.

One morning in 1975 during his devotional time, he heard God's Spirit say to him, "How can you tell someone about the love of Jesus and take their life?" Suddenly he saw things in a new light. From then on he knew that he had to stop being a Marine recruiter.

Today Ertell is a pastor. Young people in his congregation come to him and ask for help. They need help with education, or want to get a job and support their mother. They have few options. The military seems like a good prospect. They are not interested in hearing about war and peace....but neither are they super patriotic or militaristic. They just want a meaningful opportunity to get ahead.

The congregation tries to help these youth. Sometimes they are in a position to offer some help in the form of a scholarship. They also walk alongside youth and help them find sources for other scholarships and help youth find employment when they finish school.

While money is an important ingredient in being able to provide meaningful alternatives to youth, mentoring is also an important piece. "If young people are in relationship with strong adult mentors, they may decide to be like them instead of like the Marine recruiter in the sharp uniform," says Ertell. "Mentors can help a young person find and sort through opportunities that exist in the local community. We can't just say don't enlist, we have to provide other options. We need to ask young people what they want and what they need. And then we need to listen to what they tell us."

Ertell takes inspiration for this kind of work from the story of the early church in Acts 2. "In a time of economic difficulty, the church provided for the people of God beyond ministering to their spiritual needs," notes Ertell. "They sold houses and lands and distributed the proceeds so that no one had need. In the same way our church needs to be creative and entrepreneurial in our approach to creating opportunities for our young people."

Finally, Ertell notes that this is all not just about avoiding some future draft. This is a current reality that affects everyone. "The recruiters are in a neighborhood near you. Our nation has a high level of commitment to the war machine. As a church we need to have a high level of commitment to the peace machine."