Wednesday, May 30, 1972
GI Hates War, But He's A Working Man
FIRE BASE SPUDIS, Vietnam (AP) --Immigrant, hardhat and now one of Uncle Sam's machine gunners, Ernest daCosta is so opposed to this war that he sued President Nixon.Yet he is an efficient fighter, a volunteer in an elite reconnaissance platoon stalking the enemy-infested bush of War Zone D.In camouflaged fatigues and a cork-blackened face, the 22-year-old soldier from Queens, N.Y., packs 140 pounds of machine gun, ammunition, food and water on wearing patrols northeast of Saigon. He has risked his life with increasing frequency since Hanoi went on the offensive. DaCosta's superior officers are frankly puzzled how a soldier can be so unwilling and fight so well."He's not a goldbrick. He's one of the best damn troops I've got," said his colonel. "I can't understand how he got mixed up with the American Civil Liberties Union."DaCosta's answer is simple: Opposition to the war coupled with a strong sense of duty to the nation fighting it. For him the American dream came true. He is paying his dues as one of the last American combat "grunts" in Vietnam."I don't believe in this war. Americans shouldn't be here," he explained. "But I'm here because I have to be; I was ordered to come. I've got a good life in the United States and I want to go back to it holding my head high."DaCosta left his native Portugal in 1965 with a U.S. student's visa, a desire to learn English and "see America." He lived with a sister in New York, suffered the indignity of being placed in much younger classes while learning the language and eventually graduated from Brooklyn's Most Holy Trinity High School at the age of 20.Upon graduation he received resident alien status and got a job as a hardhat with a demolition company. "I was lucky and I worked hard -16 to 18 hours a day. They made me a foreman," said DaCosta."Then I got drafted. I didn't mind serving my time -although I figure two years in the Army is costing me $55,000 -but I didn't want to go to Vietnam. I was still a Portuguese citizen. I felt the war had nothing to do with me." DaCosta took his case to the American Civil Liberties Union, which fought it all the way to the court of appeals but failed to prevent his shipment to Vietnam in November 1971. The appeals court rejected his petition for release from Vietnam duty and the case is now awaiting a Supreme Court ruling.Meanwhile daCosta has become a U.S. citizen. He used a 14-day leave last February to fly to Hawaii and take the oath of allegiance.He still disapproved of the war, he still wanted to get out of Vietnam but he felt the Supreme Court wouldn't act in time to affect his tour in the war zone. Apparently of the same opinion, his attorneys tried a new legal ploy -Spec. 4 daCosta versus the President of the United States.On May 12 the Civil Liberties Union filed a suit on behalf of daCosta, charging that President Nixon had escalated the war without congressional approval by ordering stepped-up bombing and a naval blockade of North Vietnam.DaCosta said the suit was filed with his permission although "I think it was the only thing Nixon could do to try to stop the North Vietnamese offensive. But they are my attorneys. I trust them to do what is best for me."On May 24, U.S. District Court Judge John F. Dooling ruled against daCosta, saying the President's escalation was "within the boundaries of the continuing war and not forbidden by law." But he added that Washington's handling of the Indochina war demonstrated a flaw in government that may call for prompt "fundamental constitutional changes."DaCosta said he "never expected to win against the President," but he stoutly maintained the case was not a publicity stunt. "My lawyers were just doing what I believed in," he said.Throughout his legal battles in New York, daCosta has had an exemplary record in Vietnam, first with the 101st Airborne Division, later with the 1st Air Cavalry. He volunteered for his dangerous recon job in March and now works out of this dusty fire base 22 miles northeast of Saigon."I'm a line soldier and I feel safer with professionals," he explained. "There are fewer people in recon, there is better noise control. I know the value of silence in the bush. A sound can travel a mile and alert the enemy, I just feel more safe.""GI Hates War, but He"s a Working Man", by (AP), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes Tuesday, May 30, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.