Some refused to bear arms on religious or quasi-religious grounds, but did not refuse military service. When called to duty, such men served in non combatant roles, usually as medics.

Others were willing to register for the draft, but were unwilling, again on religious or quasi-religious grounds, to participate in war in any form. Such C.O.s were required to serve two years of alternative service in some form of socially useful civilian employment--often but not always in medical facilities.

There were also a few "absolute pacifists", who refused to cooperate with the SSS at all. They wouldn't register for the draft, they wouldn't submit themselves to the Army's pre-induction physical examination, and in general they wouldn't cooperate with any part of the draft procedure. In time of war, they invariably went to jail (or fled the country). I know of one man who spent the whole of World War II and two years thereafter in federal prison for his refusal to get involved in the process of conscription at all. The reason he was not released at the end of the war was because he refused, on grounds of conscience, to sign the form requesting the parole that he would surely have been granted had he requested it.

Copyright © 2003, William A. Wisdom