A tired looking Camilo Mejia walked quietly and unassumingly to the podium at Macalester College on Friday night, 11/4/05, to tell the standing room only crowd of mostly students about his decision to say no to war.

Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia Castillo, known by his friends and supporters simply as Camilo, was the first veteran of the Iraq war to seek conscientious objector status. In 2004 a military court sentenced him to the maximum penalty of a year’s imprisonment for desertion despite a pending application for conscientious objector status. Camilo was released in February of 2005 and is traveling about the country speaking out against the war.

Camilo joined the Army at age 19 and served as an infantryman from 1995 until 1998 then continued his contract as a reservist in the Florida National Guard while attending college. This contract was to end in May 2003, but was unilaterally extended by the Army prior to deployment.

“Behind these bars I sit a free man because I listened to a higher power, the voice of my conscience.”

Camilo described his conversion from being politically against the Iraq war when his National Guard unit was deployed to Iraq in April 2003 to that of opposing all wars. He told the crowd about his first mission in Iraq, which was to oversee a POW camp. He and other soldiers were directed to break the detainees resolve by taking such actions as banging on metal walls with sledgehammers to enforce sleep deprivation and cocking pistols near the ears of prisoners to intimidate them.

In a second mission near Ramadi in May of 2003, Camilo’s squad was ambushed and bullets rained down on their flimsy equipment. They returned fire while fleeing and felt lucky that none of their squad was hurt. But, their commanding officer felt differently and reprimanded them for sending the wrong message to the attackers. It began to dawn on Camilo that protecting our troops didn’t rank very high on our leaders’ agenda. He began to realize that medals, glory and “sending the right message” were more important to the commanders than saving the lives of a few soldiers.

Erik Forman, Macalester sophomore with Camilo Mejia

While in Iraq, Camilo was also troubled by the number of Iraqi civilians who were killed by soldiers. In an environment of war, “you shoot at anything that moves,” he said. “Whether a war is deemed just or unjust, innocent people lose their lives.” These events are what led to Camilo’s conversion from a political opposition to the Iraq war to a moral and personal objection to all war.

“People don’t realize the pain we carry.”

There is no time to analyze your philosophical ideals while in the middle of battle, said Camilo, “you’re just trying to stay alive.” So, it was after returning home on leave in October of 2003 that Camilo realized he could not return to war. “People don’t realize that we are transformed as human beings while fighting in a war,” said Camilo. Forever after, we have to live with everything we have done, or, what’s worse, everything we didn’t do. That’s when he turned himself in and filed for conscientious objection.

Camilo was introduced by Erik Forman, a sophomore at Macalester and head of the Macalester Peace and Justice Committee which coordinated the event with the Iraq Peace Action Coalition. Forman called it a timely moment for Camilo to be present and speaking out against the war just after thousands of students had walked out of classes demanding an end to recruiting. He admonished the crowd to take their cues from this courageous man and be more active against the war.

Some of the audience, Macalester freshman(right) like Emily Killpack, Katy Petershack and Sonia Burns, were there not only because they oppose the war, but also because their teacher recommended that they attend. They wanted to hear a first hand account of the war. Sonia found it “awesome” and was moved by his talk. John Bremseth, a 10th grader from Blake Upper School and head of the Blake Democratic Club, was euphoric as he waited his turn to shake Camilo’s hand and tell him how much of a hero he was to him. His only regret was that his dad was out of town and had to miss it.

I went to Iraq and was an instrument of violence; now I am an instrument of peace.

Not everyone agrees with Camilo. Some call him a coward. But Camilo says those who call him a coward are wrong when they think he left the war for fear of being killed. While he admits in an essay he wrote from prison that fear was there, there was also fear of killing innocent people. But, he regrets that he was more afraid to stand up to the government and the army. Now he is saying no to war. “I went to Iraq and was an instrument of violence, and now I have decided to become an instrument of peace.”

No wonder Camilo looked tired; he had a very busy speaking schedule appearing on two radio shows, St. Thomas, Macalester and the University of Minnesota on Friday; The Resource Center of the Americas and Holy Trinity Church on Saturday; and St. Joan of Arc at the 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. masses on Sunday. At St. Joan’s, Camilo shared a more private part of his transformation– the conversion of his faith in God as well as his political conversion.

Camilo has joined the Iraq Veterans Against War. IVAW’s main objectives are: (1) Support our veterans and our troops now and upon their return home; (2) Support Iraqi reconstruction in whatever way possible; and (3) Bring the troops home now. Their website is ivaw.net.

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Rose Grengshas been a SJA parishioner since 1982. She is an immigration attorney and passionate about the subject. She is a member of the choir and active in the Peace Movement. She and her husband, Paul, routinely attend the 11:00 Mass. She is the mother of four children and grandmother of two. She is looking forward to retirement, travel and enjoys music, especially singer, songwriter, Greg Brown.

Camilo’s Twin Cities appearances were sponsored by the Iraq Peace Action Coalition, Veterans for Peace, Anti-War Committee, Anti-war Organizing League, Twin Cities Peace Campaign-Focus on Iraq, Women Against Military Madness, and United Steelworkers Fight Back ’05 Campaign.

For more on Camilo Mejia, go to www.freecamilo.org.