West Point Graduate, Now Harvard Student, Seeks Army Discharge

A West Point graduate-and second-year student in the Kennedy School of Government-has requested a discharge from the Army on the basis of his conscientious objection to the Vietnam war.

Lt. Louis P. Font was ordered Friday to report to Fort Meade, Maryland, two weeks after he submitted his application for discharge.

A spokesman for the U.S. Military Academy said yesterday that he could recall no previous instance in which a cadet had sought discharge as a pacifist a category in which he included Font's selective conscientious objection.

On February 27, Font submitted his request for discharge from the Army, declaring that although he was not a "total pacifist." he could no longer "contribute to wanton destruction of life" as an army officer.

Cannot Kill

"In clear conscience I cannot participate in the Vietnam war in any form. I cannot squeeze the trigger that would unjustly take another life; I cannot command others to do so. I cannot participate in any way in a military organization where such things are being done," he wrote.

Font received no reply from his Army superiors until Friday, when he was called out of class by the commanding officer of Harvard's ROTC, Col. Milton S. Hochmuth, who informed him that the Army had terminated his contract at Harvard and was ordering him to report to Fort Meade.

Font, a 1968 graduate of West Point, said he began to doubt the morality of the war in his senior year. During his years in Cambridge, he said, he became more and more concerned with the con-

flicts between his religious ideals and his position in the Army.

After discussing his feelings with several ministers and rabbis, he concluded that "my religious beliefs compel me to regard the Vietnam war as immoral and unjust and I cannot contribute in any capacity to an immoral war."