The Call to Arms: Micronesians in the Military

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The Call to Arms: Micronesians in the Military

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Francis X. Hezel, S.J. (October 2005)

Micronesian Seminar

The Cost of War

This past year has been a tough one for Micronesians serving in the US military. Skipper Soram, a Pohnpeian, was killed by a car bomb in September 2004. Within days of his death, a Palauan Marine, Ngirmidol Meluat, lost his life in a roadside bombing. Some months later Steven Bayow from Yap, who had served in the Army for 16 years and was already looking forward to retirement, was the victim of an attack. Within the last twelve months, three islanders have been killed in Iraq.

But the tally doesn't end there. Two others lost their lives during the first year of the

war in Iraq, and a number of enlistees have been wounded. The most celebrated of the injured is probably Hilario Bermanis, Jr, who lost both legs and an arm in a grenade attack in June 2003. Bermanis made national news in the US when he was presented with the Bronze Star by an Army General, granted full US citizenship, and was visited during his convalescence at Walter Reed Medical Center by President Bush and his wife. Young Bermanis, who was serving in the 82nd Airborne Division when he was maimed, became an instant celebrity. When he returned to Pohnpei some months later, he held the place of honor, seated in a wheelchair and fitted out with prosthetic limbs, at the Independence Day celebration sponsored by the

US Embassy in FSM. His example of heroism was cited again and again-by the head of the Office of Insular Affairs at Interior Department, by representatives of the US State Department, and in congressional committee hearings on the new Compact funding provisions. For many Americans and Micronesians, Bermanis came to symbolize the commitment of those hundreds of Micronesian islanders in uniform-as well as that of their governments-to what the US government and many in Micronesia would call the global war against terrorism.

Bermanis's maiming, tragic as it was, strengthened the case to be made for extending the Compact funding for another, 20-year period to his island nation. The provisions of the Compact, after all, made it possible for young islanders like Bermanis to enlist in the military from their own islands. Bermanis paid for the hero's status conferred on him with three of his limbs, but five men from the region paid an even higher price-their lives. An article in USA Today on war casualties, headlined "From tiny Pacific islands comes outsized sacrifice," shows the comparatively high death rate suffered by troops from these islands. While the average death rate in Iraq for individual states in the US is 5 per million, the figure for Micronesia is 25 per million, or five times the US rate. The death rate for Guam, at 20 per million, is only slightly lower.

To Fight or Not to Fight

The recent deaths have sparked a heated discussion, perhaps even a debate, on whether Micronesians ought to be joining the US military. In an article published in Pacific Magazine last January, former FSM president John Haglelgam reflects on his reactions while watching a local telecast of Skipper Soram's funeral service on Pohnpei. "It was a US military funeral in a foreign country; and it was completely out of place in the serene and peaceful surrounding," Haglelgam writes. "Duty, honor and country," the commander of the military honor guard barked as the flag that had draped the coffin was being presented to Soram's family. But whose country was Soram serving? Haglelgam asks. While acknowledging the real benefits the military offers young Micronesians, Haglelgam points out that the motto so proudly barked out by the commander has "a ring of irrelevancy" for FSM citizens. Meanwhile, parents, family and friends are "left alone to deal with the psychological impact of the loss of their loved one," the author reflects. Young people will inevitably be wooed into military service by recruiters who, as part of their job, "must paint a rosy picture of military life in the US Armed Forces and emphasize only the benefits offered." Yet, the island governments should at least remind those young people who enlist of the realdangers

involved, Haglelgam urges, even while informing them that "they are not serving their own country" as members of the US military.

Two months later, Willy Kostka, director of the Conservation Society of Pohnpei, followed this up with an impassioned article appearing in The Kaselehlie Press. Although Kostka admits that he is disturbed at the casual way in which young Micronesians seem to talk about war, with a disregard for the effects it could have on them, his issue is less with the way young people flock to join the military than with the war itself. The Iraq War, he maintains, is a "preemptive act that goes against the core values of Christianity and our Micronesian culture." A cavalier attitude towards war, "an activity that usually results in the death of another human being," is unacceptable, in his view. "True Christians do not fight aggressive and/or preemptive wars," he argues. The present war also violates Micronesian norms inasmuch as islanders traditionally "only fight or draw blood for two reasons: land and blood"-that is, when family land is being seized or the blood of a relative has been wantonly shed. Kostka writes that "he does not know of a single Iraqi trying to take my family land or who has killed a family member." Does anyone else?

Kostka writes in a graphic and feeling way of the horror of war: Imagine the long dark

nights, the eerie sounds of sirens and gunfire, the roar of the jet fighters and

helicopters, the bombs. Then imagine your little family, your own children, crowded in the corner of your little house, and you looking at the fear in their little eyes, their little

pale lips, and the silent tears coming down their little cheeks, with little trembling hands trying to grab onto you for security... Then the big bang, with the door ripped from its rusted hinges and falling right into your living room, with half a dozen uniformed men with big guns storming into your house and pulling you away from the trembling little hands of your babies. You are dragged a few feet away and you can hear the terrified cries of your babies, and you are powerless.... Then imagine a young Micronesian man standing in full military uniform pointing a gun at your head. How unchristian! How un-Micronesian!

These articles drew an equally passionate but mixed response. In a letter to Pacific

Magazine, Hibson Palik of Kosrae chided Haglelgam for his "discouraging comments" at a time when all Micronesian soldiers need "our salutes, our prayers for protection, and our thanks for their service." Why? Because they are fighting "to protect and preserve the democratic principles and freedom" that everyone in the FSM enjoys. "This is just a part of the global war on terrorism," one individual writes in the MicSem forum discussion. "Somebody's gotta do it." As another poster in the forum puts it, "the Army's goal is to save you and me from the bad guys out there." He goes on to point out that the US military is entrusted with the responsibility of protecting Micronesia's sea lanes and territory. Shouldn't we be ready to assist? he asks.Furthermore, he argues, "Why not learn from the US military" so that we are

prepared to set up a military of our own someday? Another respondent, moving beyond the arguments that military service is helping the islands, suggests that Micronesia's support in this war is repaying a debt to the US. He says that he intends to keep doing what he feels is right: "serve the country that freed my ancestors and everyone else's."

Not everyone agreed. Why should Micronesians make up for the shortage of recruits, one person asked, "if no American is willing to stand up for their own freedom and way of life?" He concludes his posting with the admonition: "Stop glamorizing war!!!" Another poster who identifies himself as a "vet" echoes this message. Military recruiters, when they return empty-handed from their assignments in the US, "are turning to make up the shortfall...in Samoa and Micronesia." While admitting the need for jobs that islanders face, he urges that Micronesians "get an education or work hard to create income, but do not go to war!"

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