Army Lieutenant Dismissed from Service for Refusal to Fight in Vietnam

June 26, 1965 - United States Army Lieut. Richard B. Steinke (pictured) was sentenced today to dismissal from the service and forfeiture of all pay and allowances for refusing to join a counter-guerrilla unit in South Vietnam.

Steinke, 27, of Milwaukee, Wis., could also have been sentenced to five years imprisonment. The lieutenant, who was graduated 55th in the 600-man West Point class of 1962, was charged with refusing to obey a written order and “willful disobedience to expose himself to hostile elements and hazardous conditions.”

Steinke, also a graduate of Army guerrilla and airborne schools at Fort Bragg, N.C., had been in Vietnam since July 1964. After completing a brief course in directing civil affairs in combat zones in January, he was ordered to transfer from his original Special Forces “B” team unit to another “A” team detachment at remote Camp Gia Vac. He refused to accept the assignment, saying he disagreed with U.S. policy in Vietnam and that the Vietnamese war was “not worth one American life.”

His commanding officer, Lt. Col. Charles E. Spraggins, was a key witness at the trial. Spraggins termed his reaction at the time as one of amazement. He said that “only once in my lifetime have I ever been confronted with this type of case.”

Steinke was examined by an Army psychiatrist who found him legally sane but suffering from an “adjustment problem.”

In Milwaukee, Steinke’s father, Raymond, said: “All he wrote us is that he disobeyed a direct order.” 

Steinke is married to the former Marjorie Freese, of Lynchburg, Va. The couple has one child, Susanne, who was born March 25, 1964.

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