"What's a rifle for?" I answered, "To kill!"

[Shepherd]

"What's a rifle for?" the drill sergeant barked at our squad. "To kill!" we responded. "Not loud enough, pussies," he responded. "TO KILL, SERGEANT!!!" we answered, on and on hundreds of times. Such is the basic training for the U.S. Army, in which I served as an officer in the l960s.

I liked playing cops and robbers as a boy and then in the woods as a teenager. Only these were real rifles. Born and raised on military bases around the expansive American Empire, I was conditioned and militarized for the first 25 years of my life. I've spent nearly half a century de-militarizing myself. But as they say, "You can take the boy out of the military, but not the military out of the boy."

So on Oct. 22, former combat vet and now sheriff's deputy Erick Gelhaus pumped 7 quick, deadly shots from his handgun--after finishing his tours of duty in Iraq--into the small body of brown-skinned 13-year-old Andy Lopez, who fell to the ground after the first shot. Instead of being de-militarized--which happens to warriors in indigenous cultures when they return to civilian life--he is a trainer of law enforcement officers. Instead of a law enforcement office committed to "protect and serve," the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office demands that civilians "comply or die."

How many more boys and other humans do we need to wound, paralyze, and kill until we put an end to this slaughter? For the last 20 years, my vets group has met, without judgment, to tell and listen to our stories. Many tears are dropped, as well as lots of laughter. We have a book out and a website, which is www.vowvop.org.

Happy Veterans Day. Andy Lopez, Presente!