California national guards troops and marines deployed to Los Angeles to help restore order after days of protest against the Trump administration have told friends and family members they are deeply unhappy about the assignment and worry their only meaningful role will be as pawns in a political battle they do not want to join.

Three different advocacy organisations representing military families said they had heard from dozens of affected service members who expressed discomfort about being drawn into a domestic policing operation outside their normal field of operations. The groups said they have heard no countervailing opinions.

“The sentiment across the board right now is that deploying military force against our own communities isn’t the kind of national security we signed up for,” said Sarah Streyder of the Secure Families Initiative, which represents the interests of military spouses, children and veterans.

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[–] hogslayer@hexbear.net 6 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

This group can coach and help them so they can find a way to leave without having their life ruined by their superiors.

what kind of stuff do they do to ruin your life if you try to get out?

[–] TreadOnMe@hexbear.net 8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

They can court martial you, hit you with insubordination beforehand, delay the paperwork, all kinds of fun stuff, because despite being a volunteer army, you sign an enlistment contract and unlike at-will employment that gets pushed everywhere else to combat unions, there can even be financial consequences for trying to leave your contract early.

It's why I heavily discourage people from joining the military, other than all the usual reasons. At least you can quit McDonalds.

[–] Belly_Beanis@hexbear.net 7 points 3 weeks ago

Not to mention the threat of a dishonorable discharge. Any future opportunities are completely fucked. A dishonorable discharge can affect everything from housing, to job applications, to loans. It's why there's a lot of homeless veterans. You can get away with a lot of fucked up shit in the military, so you have to do something really fucked up to get a dishonorable discharge, or have to do something like trying to leave early.

[–] Carcharodonna@hexbear.net 4 points 3 weeks ago

So there are different levels of discharge and some of the worse levels, “Other Than Honorable” and “Dishonorable”, will supposedly make it difficult to get hired (assuming employers know about it) and result in (I think) total loss of benefits on top of that. In addition, their superiors could find creative ways to make their life very difficult and they’ll likely face harassment, extreme punishment, and possibly physical/mental abuse. If they’re convicted of something, they could also be locked up in a military prison.

Someone on their side with good knowledge of the military legal system can potentially help protect them from all this which would of course help them to make a decision to refuse orders and/or leave completely.

I think I’ve mentioned it before, but convincing soldiers to find a way out and helping them do so seems like good praxis for multiple reasons and I wish there was more discussion about this.