The American Serviceman’s Union (ASU) at Selfridge Air Force Base has beat another attempt to stop the growing antiwar GI movement there.
On July 1 Air Force Office of Special Investigation agents burst into the room of Sgt. Bob Worosz armed with a search warrant signed by the base commander. Although the warrant was for drugs, the agents seized the mailing list of Broken Arrow, the base ASU paper, personal letters, anti-war leaflets and newspapers such as the Fifth Estate and the Guardian. The OSI-conducted search lasted for almost five hours and a thorough investigation of Worosz’s person, car and room produced nothing.
According to Worosz, “The real reason for the attempted bust and confiscation of our files was to stop Broken Arrow from coming out and to harass those of us involved in the ASU.”
The brass’s attempt to stop publication of Broken Arrow or to break the anti-war group failed miserably. A week later the base was flooded with the latest copy of the anti-war paper with a headline reading “Emergency Issue — OSI Seize Files.” The issue appeared even though the original copy had been confiscated in the raid.
“We had a very heavy rap on drugs in the military and other good material, but we rewrote as much as possible and ran some poetry by black GIs. The main thing was to show Gunnarson (the commander) that we were not going to be intimidated by his political harassment,” Worosz said.
Through the legal intervention of attorney Marc Stickgold, the brass gave back everything they had taken from Worosz’s room, including a stack of papers confiscated from him during the Memorial Day picnic held at the base. They kept two personal letters that they claim “refer to drugs.”
The ASU does not plan to let this matter die. Other men on the base are being victimized by OSI drug raids and Gunnarson has continued his attack against ASU men. The GIs are circulating a petition asking the Air Force Inspector General to investigate the situation at the base.
Currently, the ASU has stopped the attempt to force a member of the Broken Arrow editorial staff, Navy man Jon Nelson, out of the service on an “undesirable discharge.” The brass backed down, however, when Nelson brought in a civilian lawyer and said he would fight for an “honorable discharge.”
ASU member A1C Derek Riske told us the two reasons for their continuing victories against the brass. “First, is the negative publicity given the Air Force whenever they try to repress the GI movement,” he said. “And second, is that our civilian lawyers make the Air Force’s legal system backfire on the brass’s ill-conceived schemes.”
Broken Arrow may be obtained free by GIs and by donation from Box 471, Mt. Clemens, Mich. 48043. Information about the ASU is available from 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City 10010.
Related
See Fifth Estate’s Vietnam Resource Page.