by Michael Vuolo
NARRATION: In the Spring of 2002, Stephen Funk enlisted in the Marine Corps reserves in San Jose, California. He was 19 and, he would later write, needed discipline, direction and a sense of belonging. In the first weeks of boot camp, yelling "kill, kill, kill" during drills and singing cadences about death and war, Funk was repulsed.
TAPE: FUNK: The violence you're exposed to is almost immediate and I really rejected that. At first, I was trying to say well this is just the training but being forced to do violent things made me really sick … and I realized it was a mistake like right then.
NARRATION: Funk confided in military chaplains, who encouraged him not to leave and said the feelings would pass. A month before the war in Iraq started, Funk's reserve unit was activated, but he decided not to report to base. For 47 days he remained AWOL, and began to define himself as a conscientious objector. Attorney Stephen Collier represented Funk at the time and later at court martial.
TAPE: COLLIER: Part of that process, he looks into himself and determines the basis for his objections to war. The regulations require that the service member have a firm, fixed objection that is based on religious training or belief.
NARRATION: The courts have chosen a liberal interpretation of what constitutes religious belief. Funk cited his Catholic childhood and Christian principle of non-violence and consulted with a local activist priest. In the early morning of April 1st, 2003, Funk was interviewed at the NBC studio in San Francisco on the Today Show. He then drove down to San Jose, stood outside his base and delivered a statement with the media and his unit looking on.
TAPE: FUNK: I couldn't make the speech in uniform, so I was in civilian clothes and I made the press conference … I went into a car and changed into my, um, camouflage and turned myself in with my application.
NARRATION: Some of Funk's fellow Marines were angry at the theatrics and at the media attention. Sergeant Jesse Magana is part of the active duty staff of the 1st Beach and Terminal Operations Company, Funk's former unit.
TAPE: MAGANA: We didn't agree with the way he went about it. If he would've brought it a different way, things wouldn't have worked out the way they did. He's gettin' a bad conduct discharge from the Marine Corps so I guess in the end he got what he wanted, maybe not how he wanted it but he got what he wanted.
NARRATION: Funk was charged with Desertion under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. He was convicted of the lesser offense of AWOL, or what the Marines call UA, Unauthorized Absence, and sentenced to a half-year in the brig. Now a free man, Funk is back in California where he plans to study at UC Berkley and continue his activism. One-quarter of Funk's former unit was deployed in Iraq and Kuwait during the war. The unit suffered no casualties and most of the men are now back home in San Jose. For Columbia Radio News, I'm Michael Vuolo.
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