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Soldier Without a Gun: Life as a Conscientious Objector ~ by Jan Parkinson, 2021, memoir, 178 pages

In 1968 at the height of the Vietnam War, an estimated 1,300 soldiers who had enlisted in the U.S. Army declared they were conscientious objectors and petitioned the Army for their release from the service.  This powerful memoir shares the true story of one of those men — Jan Parkinson.  Through his book, Parkinson shares a true act of courage to stand up for what was right.

Jan had grown up believing that we — the Americans — were always the good guys, resorting to violence only when necessary.  But from the moment he got off the bus at Fort Dix, New Jersey, to begin basic combat training, he found the Army's focus on the use of violence to resolve conflicts between people or nations was deeply disturbing.  "We are all here to learn to be killers," one of the drill instructors bragged as he was teaching the new soldiers how to make a bayonet wound more gruesome and painful for an adversary.

Although he recognized the need to serve his country, it did not override his Christian faith which he believed did not give someone the right to take another person's life, regardless of who ordered it.

Courageously, he informed his company commander — Captain Douglas — that he was a conscientious objector, and he would not use a weapon even in training exercises.  He also refused to accept his Army pay since it would indicate his acceptance of the Army's actions and motives.  Douglas considered that an act of defiance and removed him from all training, had him housed in isolation, and falsified his records so he would be transferred elsewhere and become someone else's problem to solve.

He ended up in Fairbanks, Alaska, where his situation changed dramatically.  Although he was still part of the "war business," he was not confined to an army base twenty-four hours a day.  So he was sometimes able to reconnect with the civilian world.

Ironically his new commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Colonna, believed he was sincere and — as a result — he was one of the very few conscientious objectors released from the military.

Stealing ~ by Margaret Verble, 2023, fiction, 247 pages

Kit Crockett lives on a farm with her grief-stricken, widowed father, tending the garden, fishing in a local stream, and reading Nancy Drew mysteries from the library bookmobile.  One day, Kit discovers a mysterious and beautiful woman has moved in just down the road.

Kit and the newcomer, Bella, become friends, and the lonely Kit draws comfort from her.  But when a malicious neighbor finds out, Kit suddenly finds herself at the center of a tragic, fatal crime and becomes a ward of the court.  Her Cherokee family wants to raise her, but the righteous Christians in town instead send her to a religious boarding school.  Kit’s heritage is attacked, and she’s subjected to religious indoctrination and other forms of abuse.  But Kit secretly keeps a journal recounting what she remembers — and revealing just what she has forgotten. She unravels the truth of how she ended up at the school and plots a way out, if only she can make her plan work in time.