Conscientious Objectors in the Military

It was 1944. The Allied strategic bombing campaign against Germany was at its height. Every day, Allied bombers poured tons of high explosives not only on military targets, but on cities of no military importance. Every week the bombers destroyed one or even two German cities.

George Wilson was part of an American bomber crew in 1944. One night the pilot called the crew together and told them he planned to refuse to fly missions against non-military targets. He would do so, he said, even if the military threatened to court-martial him. After a discussion that lasted almost until dawn, the crew decided to join the pilot in his refusal.

For George Wilson, and probably for most of the other crew members, it was a new experience. He had never thought about whether what he was doing was right; he had just followed orders. Now he had seen that there were some things he couldn't do, even if the military ordered him to.

George Wilson never faced a court-martial. A few days after the crew made its decision, their plane was shot down, and they became prisoners of war until they were liberated in 1945. But Wilson and the rest of the crew were never the same. All of them had drawn a line and said, "There are some things my conscience won't let me do, and I will not do them."

Conscientious Objectors Through the Years

Conscientious Objector Regulations

Conscientious Objectors in History

Conscientious Objection Today

About This Book

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