Norfolk-based sailor uses Web to channel opposition to war

According to Navy regulations, Jonathan Hutto is allowed to run his antiwar campaign, but it must be done on personal time, out of uniform and off base. STEPHEN M. KATZ/THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

By LOUIS HANSEN, The Virginian-Pilot © November 5, 2006

NORFOLK - Jonathan Hutto graduated from Howard University with a degree in political science and a résumé of social activism.

He worked for the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International after college. He whipped up grass-roots protests against police departments and college administrators.
One day in 2003, broke and seeking direction, Hutto enlisted in the Navy.

The Navy couldn't have known it then, but they know it now: They had signed up a sailor strongly opposed to the Iraq war.

Seaman Hutto pleated his uniform, memorized naval history and won sailor of the quarter among his junior enlisted shipmates.

Then he appeared on CNN, the BBC and in the pages of The Washington Post and The Navy Times.

But he wasn't reciting the Sailor's Creed.

Hutto was organizing again. This time, against the U.S. involvement in Iraq.

"We're not trying to embarrass the military," Hutto said during an interview last week at a local restaurant. "At the same time, we live in a democracy."

Hutto, 29, lives and works aboard the Norfolk-based aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt. When he enlisted, the Navy trained him as a photographer. He writes for the ship newspaper and anchored its shipwide television broadcast.

Off-duty, he shifts between the campus of Old Dominion University and the cafés and bookstores in Ghent. Armed with a laptop and cell phone, Hutto leads a group of volunteers in an online campaign against the war.

Supported by antiwar military family and veterans organizations, Hutto and a handful of other service members created a Web site called An Appeal for Redress. Activated in October, it allows active-duty and reserve troops to e-mail their representatives in Congress for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. >>>cont

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