|
WE SAY NO
TO YOUR WAR!
SONGS WRITTEN AND SUNG BY THE COVERED
WAGON MUSICIANS ACTIVE-DUTY AIR FORCE
PEOPLE MOUNTAIN HOME AFB, IDAHO
THE COVERED WAGON MUSICIANS
(alphabetical listing)
A1C John Carson
A1C Dave Davis
Sgt. Tom Derreck
Sgt. Patrick Henry
A1C George Herkert
A1C Al Kramer
A1C Joe Massaro
Carolyn Mugar
Vic Pacania
Airman Penny Rand
A1C Jim Schaffer
A1C Tom Spaulding
INTRODUCTION
The creativity unleashed by the GI
movement is monumental. No doubt the
Pentagon looks on in wonder and envy at
the ability of this self-defining resistance
movement to get people moving, giving
their best to situations. But they'll never be
able to manufacture or buy the "secret
formula" because it is the antithesis of the
military mentality of an imperialist com-
mand.
When people know that they are acting in
their own best interests, often for the first
time in their lives, they can do seeming
miracles. This is the source of strength from
which all the great social and political
revolutions have come, and from which the
world-shaking changes necessary in our
country will come. When at last people
understand the source of their agony and
alienation, their oppression and repression,
they find ways to change things that were
undreamed of before.
This is what happened at Mountain Home
Air Force Base. Young people who came
into the service as a last resort, from cities
and towns all over America where life for
them had become unbearable, through
community and love, and understanding of
both the big and the personal picture of
what life in Imperialist America really
means, found a way to live.
Many of the projects of anti-war military
people scattered around the world have
discovered such fountains of energy in
themselves, but this is the first to produce its
own recording of songs which have played
an important part in their daily lives and
struggles. We feel these songs and their
spirit can play an important part in other
movements, and this is why we have helped
them realize the production of a record.
Now that you have heard it, we hope you
will help it get around, and let the people at
Mountain Home know how you were af-
fected by their music. You can write them,
and subscribe to their paper, The Helping
Hand, at Box 729, Mountain Home, Idaho
83547.
THE COVERED WAGON: FINDING
THE POWER TO AFFECT OUR DESTINIES
Notes by Mark Lane
Mountain Home, Idaho, is a relatively
obscure desert town with a population
under seven thousand. It relies for
sustenance on the Mountain Home Air
Force Base (MHAFB), located ten miles
away. Until the early '70s, the base was
stocked with F-4 Phantom Jets, the
workhorse of the air war in Indochina. Now
the highly computerized F-111 has arrived,
the one hailed by Robert MacNamara as the
plane for wars of the future. Today it is on
its way to Thailand. For the Air Force, the
future is here.
During the spring of 1971. MHAFB
celebrated Armed Forces Day. A few days
later, a group of GIs, supported by a couple
of civilians, brought the GI movement to the
Air Force at Mountain Home. They called
themselves "Covered Wagon," and their
newspaper "Helping Hand," both Air Force
security code phrases to be used when
coming upon suspected sabotage. At these
words, all men and women, GIs and officers,
are required to unite in the face of a
common enemy!
The first issue of Helping Hand published
a picture of children playing on instruments
of death at the base that Armed Forces Day,
with the caption, "Never again!" The In-
termountain Observer, Idaho's statewide
weekly paper, recently summed up the
ensuing year's activity this way: "In 1971 as
in previous years, Armed Forces Day was a
big celebration at Mountain Home AFB.
Crowds flocked to the base to pay tribute to
the Air Force and inspect the latest gadgetry
in aerial warfare. But by 1972 the crowds
and the celebration took a different form.
Rather than risk a confrontation with The
Covered Wagon and its supporters, who had
marched to the base and assembled outside
its gates, the Air Force called off Armed
Forces Day at Mountain Home. The decline
and fall of Armed Forces Day has coincided
with the birth and growth of the Wagon, a
GI resistance movement here in Idaho
3
which just marked its first anniversary. The
Covered Wagon has had an impact in our
state reaching far beyond the gates of
Mountain Home Air Force Base."
Residents of the Northwest are well aware
of events surrounding the development of
the Covered Wagon as a presence here.
Reactions have ranged from day-to-day help
and unqualified support by some, letters of
encouragement from Senator Frank Church
(D-Idaho), all the way to the burning of the
first coffeehouse. Last August, GIs and local
friends marched 40 miles through the desert
sun on the anniversary of Hiroshima, in a
witness for peace. Jane Fonda, Dick
Gregory, Donald Sutherland, Country Joe
MacDonald and others made the journey to
Mountain Home to support the project. In
November, 1971, the old Mountain Home
theatre, where the first coffeehouse had
been opened the previous June, was burned
to the ground "by arsonists" according to
the Chief of Police.
Yet a few months later the Wagon, in a
coalition for change which included
Chicano farm workers, blacks and High
School students, took over the Democratic
Party nominating machinery in Elmore
and Camas counties. The GI-led coalition
elected four of the six delegates to the Idaho
Democratic nominating convention. All
four, pledged to George McGovern, were
Covered Wagon activists who played
leading roles at the state convention and
participated in writing much of the platform
on foreign policy, GI rights, sex and drug
education in the public school system, and
support for the farm workers' organizing.
During the past year, hostility from some
quarters toward the Wagon grew so intense
that the local newspaper published letters
urging physical attacks upon the Wagon and
its members. A number of members were
subsequently attacked, the doors and
windows of the coffeehouse were smashed
on 20 different occasions, a member of the
\
City Council, speaking at a council meeting,
voiced approval for the attackers, insisting
they were "just doing their thing." My own
life has been threatened more than 80 times
by count. One minister prayed at a regular
Sunday morning service for God to destroy
the Covered Wagon. Later, as the Wagon
burned, the minister hastily arranged for a
special thanksgiving service. Not a single
church has opened its doors to our members
in Mountain Home, and some have literally
slammed their doors in the faces of GIs.
Yet, Democratic candidates for Congress
and US Senate have hit the Covered Wagon
while touring, shaking hands and soliciting
votes. The candidates know full well how
rural Idaho views the local GI movement,
but they also understand the growing power
of the organized GIs at the base.
A few months after the Wagon was born,
General William Westmoreland was
honored at a dinner given by the Boise
Chamber of Commerce at the Rodeway Inn.
A careful reading of international law, the
various treaties to which our country is
signatory, and the judgment at Nuremburg,
led us to the conclusion that the General
should have been brought to trial as a war
criminal rather than feted. We said so. The
local sheriff was offended, and 9 of us,
including GIs and Vietnam veterans, were
unlawfully and brutally arrested. Some of us
faced the possibility of a 1 1/2 year jail
sentence, but a serious investigation by the
State Attorney General, assistance from a
leading conservative lawyer, and the facts,
freed us. The sheriff was defeated soundly
the next time he ran for re-election.
While we were grateful to our civilian
friends in Boise, a larger question persisted.
Why had there been so few Boise residents
present at the Rodeway Inn demonstration?
A little later, when the U.S. resumed un-
derground nuclear testing at Amchitka, a
group of Boise residents, led by a minister, a
newspaper editor, students, the wife of the
Attorney General, and others, organized an
act of civil disobedience on Capitol
Boulevard, the main street in town. GIs
joined hands with Boiseans, who stopped
traffic for fifteen minutes until the bomb
was exploded in Alaska.
Covered Wagon members spent New
Year's Eve huddled before a small charcoal
fire in front of the main federal presence in
Boise, the Post Office, to remind ourselves
and others that people were still dying in
Southeast Asia while our countrymen
celebrated. We marched on the
headquarters of Morrison-Knudson to call
attention to the fact that their executives
were responsible for the manufacture of the
tiger cages being used in South Vietnam by
Mr. Thieu. We joined women and children
in a symbolic circle in front of the Post
Office last summer, in support of those who
surrounded the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
to protest the continuance of the war.
In each of these actions, growing numbers
of Boise residents participated. And when
Dan Sudran of the United Farm Workers
asked us, on less than 24 hours notice, to
join a picket line in front of the State Capitol
in protest of the restrictive farm-labor bill
that had just become law, we arrived in such
numbers that we constituted nearly half the
demonstration! One of the GIs who traveled
40 miles to march had, only two months
previously, referred to Chicanos as "spics,"
calling them welfare chislers who should be
deported. And that, I believe, is the real
story of the Covered Wagon. It is the story
of men and women who have, by working
with others, liberated themselves from the
diseases of war, hatred, ignorance, racism
and injustice, diseases that abound in
epidemic proportions in our acquisitive
society.
Three basic organizing tools made a
significant difference in the Covered
Wagon's development. They are:
1. The fact that a general membership
meeting of the Wagon has taken place every
week for more than a year, chaired by a
different GI every week. All present may
make motions, speak, and vote, and there
are no rules for membership. Everyone
present, including wives of GIs, high school
students from the community, farm-
workers, career officers dropping in out of
curiosity, construction workers from an M-
K road building project, even a local
amiable drunk, is a member. And everyone
present helps make policy for the Wagon.
2. The fact that our newspaper, Helping
Hand, contains informative articles, valid
analyses, good art work, and almost no
rhetoric. We don't speak excessively of
giving power to the people—we try to ac-
complish it. The newspaper is a collective
effort, edited by different GI's each month.
In the process, scores of GIs have developed
skills and confidence in their ability to
express ideas.
3. The fact that the Covered Wagon's
counselling service has made many hun-
dreds of GIs aware of their rights. On
numerous occasions the Base Commander
has been forced to back down in the face of
airmen armed with an understanding of the
regulations. GIs have refused to accept
Article 15 punishment (non-judicial ad-
ministrative actions) and demanded court
martials, only to be acquitted later. The
Base Commander has dismissed charges,
rather than risk the loss of a court-martial
attempt, in other cases.
Perhaps the most dramatic counselling
stories are the day-to-day counselling of
applicants for discharge from the Air Force
as conscientious objectors. The regulations
for CO. discharge are quite specific. They
require that the applicant prove he is op-
posed to all wars under all circumstances.
The fact that the airman has volunteered for
the service (the Air Force does not draft)
means he previously, in most cases recently,
held very different beliefs.
During the past ten years, approximately
2,500 members of the military, in all
branches of the service, applied for
discharge as conscientious objectors. Only
20 percent of these have been discharged,
for an average of 50 a year for all branches
of the service. However, during the past
year, 68 GIs have received honorable
discharges as conscientious objectors at
Mountain Home AFB. The base is small,
representing less than two-tenths of 1
percent of the Armed Forces, so it is
somewhat astounding to discover that more
men have been discharged as c.o.'s here
than the annual national average for all
branchs of the service throughout the world
for the last decade. Equally startling is the
fact that not a single GI applicant who was
counselled at the Covered Wagon has been
unsuccessful!
Approximately 30 CO. applications are
now pending. Many other enlisted men have
been discharged for effective anti-war
organizing, and a number of officers have
been asked to resign for working with the
Covered Wagon. The goal of our members
has been to change their brothers and sisters
stationed on the local branch of the
genocide machine, volunteers in an Air
Force that drops the equivalent in fire
power of 3 Hiroshima-type bombs on the
people of Southeast Asia every week. The
United States Air Force has certified,
through the issuance of discharge cer-
tificates, that almost one out of each ten
enlisted men on the base has undergone
such a substantial change that further
service in the military constitutes an im-
5
HELPING HAND committee prepares the October issue. Standing, l-r: Sgt. Joe Ison, Capt. Steve Miller,
Sgt. Patrick Henry, Sgt. Ed Haggard, Capt. Gary Aker, Lt. Ron Rost. Sitting, l-r: A1C Dave Davis, A1C Jim
Swalley, A1C Paul Williams, Lt. Bill Entyre and Sgt. US Army fret.) Mark Lane.
possible conflict for him. It has made a
similar determination regarding almost 10
percent of the members of the Women's Air
Force who were stationed at the base when
the Wagon opened.
While figures are impressive, the stories
of individuals are more than moving.
Airman First Class Tom Spalding, a
brawling, tough veteran of the war in In-
dochina, who cheered when the students at
Kent State were shot down, met a couple of
Wagon members, visited the Wagon one
night and has never left. After he won his
discharge from the Air Force he settled in
Mountain Home to continue his work with
the GIs.
Sgt. Steve Hawkins, a sensitive man who
carried his violin and his classical music with
him to Vietnam where for a year he loaded
bombs, came home to find the Covered
Wagon and a new commitment. His inability
to ever forgive himself for playing a part in
the war drives him to work against it in
remarkable spurts of energy. When he was
about to be discharged, as his four-year term
was almost completed, he changed the
beneficiary on his military life insurance
policy to the Covered Wagon and demanded
that he be discharged as a CO,
Second Lieutenant Tom Mason, a former
Young Republican for Goldwater, decided
he could no longer play a part in what he
realized the United States Air Force had
become. The AF said he was no longer able
to organize anything well enough to remain
in, and he was discharged. Later, he
organized the 40-mile, 2 day march of 50 GIs
and civilian supporters through the desert,
with talent and precision that the military
dreams of yet rarely achieves. Tom returned
to his native Oregon to serve as campaign
manager for a woman who won the
Democratic nomination for state legislature.
Jimmy Schaffer, a talented musician and
composer, attended his first Covered Wagon
meeting on a great high. He was later
discharged as a CO., turning his back 6n
illegal personal pleasure trips because he
feels they make movement activists too
vulnerable. Through long hard hours of
study and work, he has become the best
CO. counsellor in the movement, having
just completed a book on the subject.
The work is not without its problems for
active duty GIs. Several Wagon members
have been court-martialed for minor in-
fractions overlooked when committed by
non-activists. Captain Steve Miller. the
intelligence officer at the base, was punished
for writing for Helping Hand. His security
clearance was taken away and he was placed
in charge of the base hotel, told to make
sure the linen was clean and the light-bulbs
working.
Gary Aker, a member of the staff judge
advocate's office, believed in the concept of
military justice until he saw its application at
the base. He became the Wagon's lawyer,
wrote articles about military injustice that
challenged and upset liberals and was asked
to resign by the Wing Commander. Today
he is practicing law in San Francisco, still
representing GIs in need of help.
Tom Tierney, rode his bicycle onto the
flight line to prevent bombers from landing
and F-4s from taking off. The base froze into
absolute inaction. Later he explained that if
the Vietnamese could hold off the strongest
military force in history for 10 years, one
man could tie up one base for 10 minutes.
Tom was discharged, hitch-hiked back in
time to walk with us through the desert, and
then returned to his bicycle shop in Denver
where his spare time is spent working with
Vietnam Veterans Against the War and with
active-duty GIs at Lowry AFB.
Penny Rand is a former WAF, who stayed
several months to work with the Wagon
after her discharge. She drew many of the
cartoons and illustrations for the Helping
Hand. Now she is working with runaway
children in Detroit, a long way from her
home-town in Oklahoma.
John O'Connor's father is helping make
munitions in Chicago while John is helping
organize GIs at Lowry AFB, near Denver. I
first met him when we spoke on the same
platform, the first time I was invited out to
Boise for a "Festival of Life," in April of
1971. Several GIs were there, and when I
asked if they had considered forming a
group, they replied that probably no one
would dare to participate. A little later,
when the first issue of the Helping Hand
appeared. it was nearly unanimous that all
the articles be anonymous, since even
among the bravest from the base were in the
grip of fear that resulted from isolation.
John was the lone dissenter. (By the second
issue, everyone had decided it was better to
sign their articles!)
This spring, as we marked the first an-
niversary of the Wagon, a group of
Mountain Home GIs preferred charges
against General John Lavelle, for violation
of the Uniform Code of Military Justice by
bombing Vietnam contrary to orders. They
also preferred charges against General John
Ryan, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, for
acting as accessory after the fact. This case,
of course, has since become a national issue
which has shocked the nation.
These GIs have committed themselves to
working through the system so long as that is
possible. But, through innovation and ex-
periment, they have found ways to work
through the system that the system never
believed existed! And they have found, as
well, that the power to affect their destiny is
in their own hands when they are organized.
The Covered Wagon is the first GI project
to produce a long-playing record comprised
of songs written and performed by active-
duty people, with a little help from their
friends. That is as it should be, for if the
Wagon is a bulwark against militarism,
racism, sexism, injustice and war in a state
known for its active John Birch Society, it is
also known throughout the Northwest for its
warmth, friendship, good humor, and—
above all—its music. The Covered Wagon is
a music wagon.
The original Wagoneers, many now
scattered throughout the world, some
organizing against the war in Thailand and
Vietnam, will perhaps always remember
that during the first dark days, when
physical attacks could be expected each
night, the music never stopped. And they
will remember that when the landlord
locked the Wagon's door against its
members, operating on instructions from
the Chief of Police who insisted that his
orders came from "Washington," a non-
stop, singing-talking troubadour going by the
name of Barbara Dane made a trip to
Mountain Home and didn't leave until all
was well again.
SIDE ONE
Band 1 & 6: MATHEMATICS
spoken—0:50, sung—3:42)
words and music: A1C Jim Shaffer
sung by Jim Shaffer
An appeal to middle America to listen to
the GIs, and so they wanted to open the
record with it. Probably the most popular
song at the Wagon. At a concert, Jim
Shaffer was asked why he called it
"Mathematics." He thought a moment and
then said: "It's about the war. The war
divides us, it subtracts our humanity, and
multiplies our problems. There's nothing
else to add.
Fifty stars sway with the wind
And several stripes are falling,
falling
Oh, cloth and thread . . .
This young man fights for,
Prays for, lives for,
Maybe dies for.
Listen close . . .
he's calling, calling
(Chorus)
"Help me please"
My sisters' song
My brothers' song
"It's all so wrong,
so wrong."
But indifferent ears
Hear only drums
And bugles clear,
See only blood
And flesh to tear
And marching, marching
Off to war, and more
What for, what for, what for.
(Repeat Chorus)
But who will bite the metal tag?
White collar worker?
Construction man?
Pencil pusher?
Or Wall Street rag?
Hell no!
(Repeat Chorus)
Listen close . . . he's calling,
calling . . . calling you!
Band 2
SILVER BIRD (3:38)
words by A1C Jim Schaffer and
Sgt. Mark Lane (ret.)
music by A1C Jim Schaffer
performed by the entire group
The first verse expresses the mood of
returning GIs, their feeling of alienation
from the Air Force, and their determination
to be a part of the machine no longer. The
second verse was a personal statement by
Jim Shaffer, just before he was discharged as
a conscientious objector. Combining the
two poems and adding music produced the
first song written at the project.
Silver bird go fly alone
Silver bird go die alone
Silver bird my work is done
I wish to god I'd never begun
Once I was free
But I didn't know
Almost two years gone
Taken from my life
Now I know, now I know
What it's like
To be free
(Repeat first verse)
Silver bird, silver bird.
Band 3: PHANTOM JETS ARE COMING
(2:00)
words and music: AIC Jim Schaffer
sung by Jim Schaffer & Vic Pacania
Back in his pre-Wagon days when Jim was
into psychedelics, he wrote a song most
people had trouble understanding and he
found impossible to explain. When the
smoke of the war burned his eyes, he saw
things in a different way. He made a few
changes in the lyrics, and it became
"Phantom Jets are Coming."
Well, the Phantom Jets are coming
The land has turned to ash
Creatures whisper
Silver, all that's left
Sister crowned Anita
The smoke it burns my eyes
When wine spills dry
from blood on high
And then they too
and you began to cry.
Colder stones of warmer winters
In 1968
When shackles were
my burning fate
And then I too . . .
began to cry.
Band 4:
THE RODEWAY NINE (6:28)
words by Mark Lane and Jim Shaffer
music by Jim Shaffer
& Covered Wagon Musicians
Outside the Rodeway Inn where the Boise
Chamber of Commerce were honoring
General Westmoreland in August, 1971.
Nine Covered Wagon members were
arrested for "disturbing the peace" and
three others charged with "interfering with
the police." This song played an important
part in the state-wide campaign to win an
acquittal for them. After the charges were
finally dropped, some of the defendants
filed charges against the police on behalf of
the Covered Wagon.
(Spoken:)
What do we want? PEACE.
When do we want it? NOW.
PEACE NOW. PEACE NOW. PEACE
NOW.
(Chorus:)
What do we want?
Peace not sorrow.
When do we want it?
Now, not tomorrow.
Boise's biggest, Boise's best
The place to dine, the place to rest.
300 rooms, a banquet hall
Convention center, but not for all.
One day in August in '71
Businessmen met, businessmen's fun
Westmoreland was their honored guest
For soaring profits he's the best
The wine they sipped, the general's brand
Turns into blood on foreign lands.
(Repeat Chorus)
From Mountain Home, 40 miles or more
Said we won't fight your fucking war
The guests were simply horrified
With the chants . . . not genocide
L-shaped pool, governor's room
Tinted water, Westmoreland's tune.
(Repeat Chorus)
They came to seize the criminal
We pointed to the general
Take him before others die
He was in charge at Johnson's My Lai
(Repeat Chorus)
They came with chains to end the song
But chains could never right the wrong
Nor jail cells, change their stand
While children die in other lands
(Repeat Chorus)
Brother did you obstruct police
Sister did you disturb the peace
Mothers, fathers, sons and daughters
We defend the peace, disturb the order.
They came to wish each other luck
There is no crime to pursue the buck
Swine did not bother those who dine
Instead they took the Rodeway Nine.
(Repeat Chorus)
Rita, Carolyn, Maria and Penny
We are many
Peyton, Tom, Mike, Mark and Joe
We will grow.
(Repeat Chorus)
9
Band 5: SPRING CONSCIENCE (3:5
words and music: A1C Jim Schaffer
sung by Jim Schaffer
It was the spring
And I wanted to leap
And run in the meadows
The grass at my feet
But not too soon
I'd be lost in my grief
For just not following
The thing I believed
The notice came
And I packed my bags that day
I was headed out
For San Anton' way
The bus, it passed
All the grand old sights I knew
I cried all the way
What else could I do?
Now my head was shaved
And my clothes
they were new
But no shirt of checks
And my jeans
they weren't blue
I was dressed in green
And I stunk of the mud
That I wallowed in
And I know that I was stuck
Then we're overseas
And we learned how to kill
It's not a thing you know
When you're small
and you're little
But now you've grown
And you should be so smart
So go and kill your fellow man
You've got a brain, yes,
But no heart.
(Repeat First Verse)
Building 2425, 391st TAC
Fighter Wing barracks.
Moratorium Day, October
13, 1971
I wo SAC Security Police
signal "peace" and "power"
from a barracks window, as
Covered Wagon people
raise Moratorium banner
across courtyard.
10
Band 7: CHILDREN OF THE DELTA (4:18)
words and music: A1C Jim Schaffer
Dedicated to the victims of the genocidal
war in which so many young Americans
took part before they had the possibility of
understanding it. This song is excellent for
teaching a crowd to join in, and the chorus
lends itself to being sung as a round, with
half the group singing "seize the time,
organize" and then the other half beginning
likewise. When at a signal the two halves
meet again for a unison ending, it
graphically demonstrates the qualities the
song describes. Different lead singers can
take the three verses, with the group joining
in the response after each line. Sing it with
feeling!
(Spoken)
Lovely child of the delta
Settle back and rest a while . . .
Let me touch your golden cheek
And let me touch
your blinded eyes
Who've always seen
iron cased opaqued skies.
(Chorus)
Seize the time,
organize
Unity, there's strength
in love
Have you ever heard
the screaming of a bomb
And run to the left . . .
run to the right.
Have you ever heart
the whistle of a shell
And run to the left . . .
run to the right.
Have you ever heard
the whistle of a mortar
And run to the left . . .
run to the right.
(Chorus)
Have you ever heard the
screaming of the mothers
And run to the left . . .
run to the right.
Have you ever heard the
screaming of the fathers
And run to the left. . .
and run to the right.
Have you ever heard the
screaming of the children
And run to the left . . .
run to the right.
(Chorus)
Have you ever seen
the marching of the hawks
March to the right . . .
march to the right.
Have you ever seen
the marching of the workers
March to the left . . .
March to the left.
Have you ever seen
the marching of the Generals
March to the right . . .
march to the right.
Have you ever seen
the marching of the people
March to the left . . .
march to the left.
(Chorus)
This is the original Covered
Wagon, burned to the ground
later by self-styled
"vigilantes." The copy of
Picasso's "Guernica" was
painted collectively by GIs.
SIDE TWO
Band):
WE SAY NO TO YOUR WAR!
(3:02)
words by Sgt. Mark Lane (ret.)
music by A1C Jim Schaffer
and A1C George Herkert
sung by The Covered Wagon Musicians
The Covered Wagon was a couple of
months old when it decided to march from
Mountain Home AFB to Boise, Idaho
during the first week in August to mark the
anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. The forty-mile march led
through the desert, at the hottest part of the
year, and old-timers in the area said the
group of fifty enlisted men and women, and
officers, would never make it. But the rattle-
snakes, sage-brush, boiling sun and thirst
were endured as they marched right through
and into the Emmanuel Methodist Church
in Boise, where a special service was
celebrated for peace. From there, joined
by Boise supporters, the GIs marched to the
world headquarters of the Morrison-
Knudsen Corporation, to protest that
company's part in the genocidal war effort.
(The album cover photo was taken during
the desert march.)
Well we marched many miles
A million or more
But we never marched with smiles
Never smiled before
We were marching for the Air Force
When we marched before
But now we've chartered
our own course
We say no to your war
(Chorus)
We say no, we say no,
we say no to your war
We say no, we say no,
we say no to your war
And it's hot in the desert
A hundred or more
But somehow it's quite pleasant
When you're saying no to war
(Repeat Chorus)
And it's hotter in Vietnam
Here come the F-4s
And they're splattered
with napalm
As they hear the engines roar
(Repeat Chorus)
Nixon, we say no to your war
We say no!
Let the lifers
Be your whores
We say no!
(Repeat Chorus)
Band 2: THE PEOPLES THANK YOU
(2:37)
words and music: A1C Jim Schaffer
We'd like to thank you,
Thank you, Richard Nixon,
Thank you for the job you've done.
Revolution is the people's
thank you,
And the thank-you's
have just begun!
We'd like to thank you,
Thank you Hank Kissinger, etc.
(various names substituted
for underlined)
(bridge)
Oh well, you know
You took the power
from the people
And—their land!
But now we've got—
the GI movement,
And we'll crush that
blood-stained hand!
We'd like to thank you,
Thank you Bill Westmoreland, etc.
(bridge)
Oh well you know,
You took the power
from the people,
And—that's wrong!
But now we've got—
the GI movement,
And we're growing,
we're getting strong!
12
We'd like to thank you,
Thank you all you slobs, etc.
(bridge)
Well you know
You took the power
from the people
That—was your decree.
But now we've got—
the people's army
And we're marching
on to victory!
We'd like to thank you,
Thank you Richard Nixon, etc.
Band 5: MY PLEDGE, MY VOW (2:47)
words and music: Amn. Penny Rand
and A1C Jim Schaffer
song by Jim, Penny, and the group
Life in the movement can become
conflicted especially when you are required
to hold down a full time job in the Air Force
and suffer the slings and outrageous lifers on
a daily basis. Penny Rand, a member of the
Women's Air Force, and Jim Schaffer ex-
pressed their doubts and hopes in this song.
Sometimes I wonder,
why, when and how,
Then I remember
My pledge, my vow.
Sometimes I wonder
why I'm here,
Then I see my progress,
It all comes clear.
It's never easy,
unless you're proud.
So come along—
join the growing crowd.
Of those who care,
those who share,
We work together,
an equal load we bear.
Sometimes I wonder,
why, when and how,
Then I remember,
My pledge, my vow.
I often question
our purpose here,
I'm always answered,
You too can learn.
The sound of people,
oppressed, astray.
Joining together,
to find new ways.
Building on hopes,
planning on dreams,
Unity our motto,
reality our scheme.
Sometimes I wonder,
why, when and how,
Then I remember
My pledge, my vow.
13
Band 4: RATTLESNAKE JUNCTION (3:37)
words and music: A1C Dave Davis
performed by Jim Schaffer
One day, Dave Davis (just about to
receive his discharge as a conscientious
objector) walked into the Covered Wagon
and convulsed everyone with this song he
had written the night before. Unfortunately,
his performance was not recorded and
within a couple of days he was back home in
California. Jim Schaffer tries here to
recapture Dave's unforgettable style.
The words speak for themselves, but it
helps to know that the old Mountain Home
movie theatre, which housed the original
Covered Wagon, was burned to the ground
in November, 1971. Also, that Swede's Bar,
down the road, was the meeting place for
assorted drunks, "cowboys," and—it is
rumored—police officers during their
planning of various attacks on the Wagon
and its people. Many of these plans were
actually carried out, with the participation
of Swede himself at times. Finally, you
should know that "Covered Wagon" is an
Air Force security term, to be shouted three
times while waving one's arms wildly in case
of trouble.
Well way back a long time ago when the
only connection between the city folks of
the East and their brothers and sisters who
were farming and mining and 'sploring and
planting sagebrush in the west was an old
stage coach line. . . .
There was a little stage coach stop located
up in the hills overlookin' the Snake River
ragin', the antelope a prancin' and the Merc
department store a sellin' by the name of
Rattlesnake Station.
But as fate would have it, the times were
changin' and some fancy Dan invented an
engine train and they decided to put in a
railroad to replace the stagecoach and the
pony express and that was the end of
Rattlesnake Station.
And thus began the long and thrilling and
exciting history of the little Idaho desert
town what was about to play a large and
important part in the history of the potato
state and the entire United States Air Force.
... but I'll tell ya 'bout that later___
Now they brought these here jet-plane F-
111s to this town called Mtn. Home to play
flying and fighting and bombing and burnin'
and lootin' and rapin' and all those nasty
things those nasty generals have a tendency
to do.
And nobody figured they better oughta
say nothing about it 'cept how real it was
leastwise not till some folks decided they
been listenin' enough and they better do
some talkin' because it was high time . . .
Now all this time throughout the world there
was people fighting and killing and bloodyin'
up the brothers and sisters and developin' a
general attitude what was detrimental to the
health and well-being of the entire human
race . . .
And here comes old progress again
developing a technology which would find
better ways of killing and fighting and
bloodyin' up the people and their brothers
and sisters by inventing somethin' what was
called the F-111 . . .
But all over the plant there was people
gettin' together and thinkin' and talkin',
discussin', dissentin', repentin', revolvin',
revolutin', and buildin' coffeeshops and
puttin' out newspapers and just generally
thinkin' up better ways.
And that brings us back to that little fly
speck of a town which seemed to the
government as good a place as any for
defendin' the country's land, water and air,
and flag and national anthem and George
Washington, the Constitution and even
some of the people . . . the one called Mtn.
Home.
So these here folks built a coffeeshop and
started putting down the war and the whole
entire mess that the government over the
ages seems to have made of things and
started askin' people to think, and be aware,
and love .... just askin' for trouble . . .
14
Now in this town there was a little local
saloon where the talk ran high regarding
issues of a political and moral nature among
a very unique and usually intoxicated group
of responsible cowboys . . . and they called it
SWEDES Bar . . .
Now I ain't namin' names or pointin' fingers
or making accusations but somebody
decided to celebrate Thanksgiving in 1971,
by having a great big bonfire ... it was a
alcohol fire . . .
But not be discouraged they picked up and
moved to a new location where the eternal
struggle rages on and on with the only
difference that old Swedes is about a mile or
so further on down the road . . . and that's a
long way to stumble . . .
And the simple moral here is that if you ever
see anyone stand up, wave his arms over his
headland yell Covered Wagon three times,
you just know there's gonna be trouble . . .
better look for a change . . . they're trying to
make people think!
Band 5: BRING OUR BROTHERS HOME
(1:30)
words and music: A1C George Herkert
sung by The Covered Wagon Musicians
George Herkert was one of the first
singers at the Wagon. He led group singing
at the first public meeting of the Wagon and
although he has long since left the Air Force
and Idaho this song of his remains with us.
You sent us off to fight this war:
BRING OUR BROTHERS HOME!
Now we don't want to fight no more!
BRING OUR BROTHERS HOME!
(Chorus:)
Bring 'em home,
Bring our brothers home.
Bring 'em home,
Bring our brothers home!
Nixon you're a bloody man,
BRING OUR BROTHERS HOME!
To make us fight in foreign lands.
BRING OUR BROTHERS HOME!
You say we're fightin' to be free.
BRING OUR BROTHERS HOME!
That ain't what it looks like to me!
BRING OUR BROTHERS HOME!
(Repeat first verse, end with 2 choruses.)
Band 6: NAPALM STICKS TO KIDS (4:14)
collectively written by Air Force and Army GIs
attached to the 1st Air Cavalryin Vietnam
Recited by Sgt. John Boychuk
A group of Air Force and Army GIs
assigned to the 1st Air Cavalry sat down one
night in a hootch in Vietnam to write these
words. Each person made a verse about an
incident in which he had taken part, and the
poem expresses their collective bitterness
toward the military that had turned them
into murderers. They agreed they would not
rest until somehow it was published.
One man, Sgt. Mike Elliot, returned from
Vietnam to the Mountain Home Air Force
Base, and the poem was published in
Volume 1, Number 1 of the Covered Wagon
Newspaper, Helping Hand. It has been
reprinted in scores of GI newspapers all
over the world, probably the most widely
quoted poem to come from the GI
movement.
Sergeant John Boychuk, who recites it
here, is a veteran of Air Force activity in
Vietnam. After joining the Wagon, John
arranged for a three-week leave so that he
could meet with his former "enemies" in
Paris. He spent a week in conference with
veterans of the war from Cambodia, Laos,
the National Liberation Front of South
Vietnam, and North Vietnam. He is possibly
the only active-duty GI to ever do so.
We shoot the sick, the young, the lame
We do our best to kill and maim
Because the kills all count the same,
Napalm sticks to kids.
15
Flying low across the trees,
Pilots doing what they please
Dropping frags on refugees,
Napalm sticks to kids.
Flying low and looking mean,
See that family by the stream
Drop some nape and hear 'em scream
Napalm sticks to kids.
A group of gooks in the grass,
But all the fightin's long since past
Crispy youngsters in a mass
Napalm sticks to kids.
Drop some napalm on the barn
It won't do too much harm
Just burn off a leg or arm
Napalm sticks to kids.
CIA with guns for hire
Montagnards around a fire
Napalm makes the fire higher
Napalm sticks to kids.
A baby sucking on his his mother's tit
Children cowering in a pit
Dow Chemical doesn't give a shit
Napalm sticks to kids.
Eighteen kids in a "no fire zone"
Books under arms as they go home
Last in line goes home alone
Napalm sticks to kids.
Gather kids as you fly over own
By tossing candy on the ground
Then grease 'emwhen they gather round.
Napalm sticks to kids.
Ox cart rolling down the road
Peasants with a heavy load
They're all V.C. when the bombs explode
Napalm sticks to kids.
Cobras flying in the sun
Killing gooks is macho fun
If one's pregnant, it's two for one
Napalm sticks to kids.
There's a gook down on her knees
Launch some fleshettes into the breeze,
Her arms are nailed to the trees
Napalm sticks to kids.
Blues out on a road recon
See some children with their mom,
What the hell, let's drop the bomb.
Napalm sticks to kids.
They're in good shape for the shape they're in
But, God, I wonder how they can win
With napalm running down their skin
Napalm sticks to kids.
Recorded at the Covered Wagon
Mixing and re-engineering by
Jonathan Thayer, A-l Sound Studio
Booklet edited by Barbara Dane
Photographs by Carolyn Mugar
and Covered Wagon
Booklet production by
Collective Graphics Workshop
Printing by Faculty Press
Production supervised by
Barbara Dane
16
|