What’s Called “Mutiny” In the U.S. Army

Twenty-seven young soldiers have been standing trial for “mutiny” allegedly committed in the Presidio, an army installation in San Francisco. The issues raised by this trial extend far beyond the immediate events.

The Presidio, headquarters of the U.S. Sixth Army, sits on the Northern tip of San Francisco within a bazooka’s shot of the Golden Gate Bridge. It is a beautiful spot, noted for its Officers’ Club, golf course, winding drives, and cypress trees. It also contains a stockade. Since Haight-Ashbury, the graveyard of the Love Generation, is still a Mecca for very young soldiers gone AWOL, the stockade population tends to run to men charged with going AWOL. The stockade is extremely crowded, the fog-chill from the nearby Golden Gate is often bitterly cold, and what passes for food would constitute an insult to a Berkshire hog. The guards have a reputation for brutality. Prisoners complain that certain guards have a habit of chambering a shell in th...