The GI Rights Hotline

The GI Rights Hotline provides free and confidential information on US military regulations and practices to service members on a variety of issues, including conscientious objector discharges, medical and mental health concerns, family hardship situations the delayed entry program, entry level separations and AWOL/UA questions.

These pages about the GI Rights Hotline provide one example of how the issues of conscience so prominent in the Civilian Public Service experience of WWII are expressed today in the context of an "all-volunteer army" and nearly constant warfare. While WWII-era conscientious objectors needed to express their opposition to military service in explicitly religious terms, today's conscientious objectors may cite moral or philosophical objections if they are sincerely held and central to one's life.

The video clips below are from presentations by Logan Mehl-Laituri and Joe Gibson at the Mennonite Church USA Youth Assembly in Pittsburgh, PA, July, 2011. Logan and Joe both contacted the GI Rights Hotline during their discharge process.

Why We Joined:  Joe Gibson, Logan Mehl-Laituri

How We Became Conscientious Objectors: Joe Gibson, Logan Mehl-Laituri

The Conscientious Objector Application Process:  Joe Gibson

Moral Injury:  Logan Mehl-Laituri

What Is Our Calling?:  Logan Mehl-Laituri

GI Rights Hotline Counselor Profiles

Description of the conscientious objector discharge process for military personnel

Timeline of Advocacy Efforts to Obtain Military Conscientious Objector Discharges, 1949-1960

Timeline of Legal Developments on Conscientious Objection for Military Personnel

The content of these pages was developed by Titus Peachey, Director of Peace Education for Mennonite Central Committee U.S., and counselor on the GI Rights Hotline