Opaque Lucidity

The Fifth Column

By tradition and regulation, members of our active duty military do not generally speak out in pubic forums concerning policy, national security or anything else unless it is part of a member's assigned duties. During the Gulf War, the training command to which I was assigned gave me and my fellow sailors the strictest orders not to talk to a member of the media, even if we were off base and in civilian clothes. The Navy had and has people on the payroll who do that as part of their professional responsibilities.

I guess the rules are a little more lax now. This article, linked from the Drudge Report, mentions Seaman Jonathan Hutto, a sailor stationed in Norfolk, Virginia. I recognized that name, and a Google search told me where I had seen it before--- at Appeal for Redress, a website that:

"...provides a way in which individual service members can appeal to their Congressional Representative and US Senators to urge an end to the U.S. military occupation {of Iraq}. The Appeal messages will be delivered to members of Congress at the time of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January 2007."

So I dug a little further and found this article, in which we learn a little more about Seaman Hutto:

"Jonathan Hutto graduated from Howard University with a degree in political science and a résumé of social activism.

The Navy couldn't have known it then, but they know it now: They had signed up a sailor strongly opposed to the Iraq war."

With this information in mind, let's step back and look at the big picture. First, Jonathan Hutto joined the Navy in 2003. I could not find the exact date of his enlistment, but that was the same year we invaded Iraq. Second, Seaman Hutto was employed by both the ACLU and Amnesty International, both organizations that are not friendly to the United States military. Finally, Hutto has a college degree but joined the Navy as an enlisted man. This is not unheard of (I went through Naval Nuclear Power School with several men who had undergrad degrees), but it is unusual.

Let me be clear: I may be completely wrong about Seaman Hutto. He may have joined the Navy out of a sense of patriotism or to, as the article above says, seek direction. If this is the case, then he has my respect. But I don't think that's why Jonathan Hutto is in the Navy.

Jonathan Hutto is a ringer.

A ringer, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, is someone who is accepted into a competition or organization and whose skills are misrepresented, normally to make it appear that the person is less talented than he actually is. When I look at Hutto's resume', there is nothing else I can conclude than that he joined the Navy with the intention of stirring up anti-war sentiment in the military.

Has he been successful? That depends on what your definition of success is. His Appeal for Redress site claims 1042 petition signers who are active-duty military members. Assuming that number is legitimate, it is less than 1% of the men and women in uniform. That's hardly a rousing anti-war movement. John Kerry did better than that during the Vietnam War and he didn't have internet access.

Some of you reading this are doubtless wondering why this is a big deal. After all, members of our military are still US citizens, so don't they have free speech rights? In a word, no. Anyone entering the military gives up quite a few rights, one of which is the right to free speech guaranteed to the rest of the population. You have the right to request a review of something you consider unfair, but you do not have the right to stir up protests in the name of your cause. I believe this is exactly what Hutto is trying to do.

According to the PilotOnline article linked above, the Navy looks the other way as long as Hutto's "hobby" is done on his time, out of uniform and off base. That's all well and good, but how long before the effects of his work begin to show up on base? It's happened before, albeit not for 30 years.

None of what I have written here will show up in a mainstream media story. It is much more romantic to see Johnathan Hutto as a young sailor who, one day, got fed up with the war and decided to do something about it. But I believe a dangerous precedenct has been set here, something we may all have to pay for down the road.