Posted on 07/05/2011 11:39:09 PM PDT by naturalman1975
A Royal Navy medic was jailed for seven months today after he refused to draw a gun because he disagreed with the war in Afghanistan.
Leading Medical Advisor Michael Lyons disobeyed the order by an officer to pick up an SA80 as part of rifle training on the grounds that it was 'against his moral beliefs.'
Lyons, 25, told a court martial he became disillusioned with the service after reading about troops killing civilians on whistle-blowing website Wikileaks.
He had already applied for, but had been denied, conscientious objector status when he was ordered to undertake the rifle training before a tour to Afghanistan.
Lyons was due to begin a two-week rifle course at HMS Excellent, a shore base in Portsmouth, last September but requested to be re-listed in a non-combative role.
On arrival he claimed it was his right not to take part in any combat training while he appealed the decision not to grant him conscientious objector status.
A panel of five Naval officers at a court martial at HMS Nelson, in Portsmouth, Hampshire, today found Lyons guilty of wilfully disobeying a lawful order.
Lyons, who joined the Navy at 18 and denied the charge, was only the third sailor in history to use conscientious objector as a defence at court martial.
He was demoted to the rank of Able Seaman, dismissed from the service and sentenced to seven months at the Colchester Military Corrective Training Centre in Essex.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Apparently the fact that his actions will result in another medic being sent in his place does not trouble his conscience.
I assume these are CO MOH recipients ? I would love to hear their stories.
NM, I googled it. it’s late.
Good Lord, what men. Incredible stories.
No whining by me today - perspective at hand.
Brits must look at this differently than we do. Conscientious objector status isn’t uncommon among those in the medical services in our military.
- Lyons, 25, told a court martial he became disillusioned with the service after reading about troops killing civilians on whistle-blowing website Wikileaks.
Probably liberal websites. Why was he visiting anti-war liberal websites to begin with?
Shouldn’t his interest been in medical websites?
Give him ten years hard labor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Doss
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_W._Bennett_%28conscientious_objector%29
I’m a graduate of Francis C. Hammond High School in Alexandria, Va.
Anyone who is planning on being in a war zone, and who doesn’t learn how to handle a rifle supplied to them, is just an idiot who wants to die.
Of course we know that this is a lawsuit/political/MSM issue and not ignorance.
It used to be that American boys were taught to use rifles and pistols in Boy Scouts. We were also taught when to use them.
I bet if this ‘sailor’ was living in Afghanistan, he would learn to use a rifle. And every other weapon he could find.
Odd that those who refuse to use a 'gun' to kill because of the Hippocratic Oath don't seem to mind using a pair of scissors and a vacuum cleaner to kill babies in the womb, or approving of other doctor's doing so.
I was there from 83 to 85 .. then we went to Europe....
When there is conscription in place, the British military does allow for genuine conscientious objectors to serve in non-combatant positions. This has been the case since World War II (technically since World War I, actually, but the World War II system was much more effective and organised).
But at times when joining is completely voluntary as it is now, the situation is different. The position is that a conscientious objector simply should not join the military.
There is a procedure in place for somebody who becomes a conscientious objector after they joined to continue to serve, but they have to convince a panel that their change of heart is genuine. In the case of this man, it was decided that it was not.
Damn fine man.
“Congressional Medal of Honor winner Francis C. Hammond”
...I went there in the 70’s and graduated TC Williams. In the Hammond lobby they had a seal in the floor honoring Hammond. You were NOT to step on it. Disrespectful. Today, they’re probably peeing on it.
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