20 Years Ago: 5-2-93 — Sailor deserts his ship after orders to dump trash into the ocean

“In what may be the first case of its kind, Ahearn said he
will file for an honorable discharge as a conscientious objector
based on environmental concerns if Navy officials do not transfer
him to a non-polluting assignment.The news report is below.”

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Sailor deserts his ship after orders to dump trash into the ocean
May 2, 1993, The Houston Chronicle

A surfer who joined the Navy to learn welding but instead
says he was ordered to dump tons of plastic, broken equipment and
toxic waste into the ocean faces court martial for deserting his
ship.

Aaron Ahearn, a 20-year-old Santa Cruz native who claimed his
conscience could not allow him to continue throwing waste from the
decks of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, returned to the
Alameda Naval Air Station last week to turn himself in.

“It was demoralizing,” said Ahearn, a competitive surfer
who has ridden waves from Hawaii to Mexico. “It went against
everything I believe in. I still feel like I can never forgive
myself.”

In what may be the first case of its kind, Ahearn said he
will file for an honorable discharge as a conscientious objector
based on environmental concerns if Navy officials do not transfer
him to a non-polluting assignment.

He expects to spend time behind bars.

“People don’t have any idea this is going on,” he said.
“”They need to know. ”

Government vessels, including the Navy and Coast Guard, are
exempt from a 1987 federal law that bans cruise ships and other
boats from discharging plastics in U.S. waters.

“It’s legal. That’s the problem,” said Maria Brown-Babcock
of the Center for Marine Conservation in San Francisco.

Naval officials in Washington, D.C., and on the Abraham
Lincoln said they did not have enough details to discuss Ahearn’s
charges.

“Let me assure you, we are in full compliance with Navy
regulations” said Lt. Kent Davis, public affairs officer on the
Abraham Lincoln.

“We recently had a trash and toxics inspection, and we
passed without a hitch.”

According to a 1990 Coast Guard study, the Navy dumps 63,356
tons of garbage a year into U.S. waters, more than all commercial
passenger ships combined. But by comparison, recreational boaters
dump 421,371 tons a year.

Ahearn said the public would be appalled at the Navy’s
garbage habits.

He enlisted last April after talking to his grandfather, a
former Navy welder who served during World War II. Assigned to the
Abraham Lincoln in October, Ahearn worked sewage maintenance tasks
and later garbage disposal from the ship’s galley, as is customary
for junior sailors.

His job included heaving up to 200 plastic bags a day
overboard when the 1,092-foot ship was in open sea off the
California coast, he said.

The bags contained the trash from 5,500 crew members, Ahearn
said in an interview. Food packaging and grease from deep fryers
were common.

Sailors also threw unwanted desks, chairs, doors and
computers into the Pacific Ocean.

“I saw a filing cabinet go over one day,” he said. “They’d
throw anything — metals, plastics, whatever. All of it is in these
huge plastic bags.”

Navy officials disputed the charges. They said the Navy
requires furniture to be salvaged for reuse or public auction.
“I wasn’t there,” said Lt. Matt Brown, a Navy spokesman at
the Pentagon. “But I can’t believe someone would throw a desk
overboard.”

For years, environmental groups have cited plastics as a
major threat to the ocean. Not only does the refuse entangle
wildlife and boat propellers, it also kills whales, seabirds and
turtles who ingest it.

Naval officials said most plastic is brought back to shore on
voyages shorter than 20 days. Plastic contaminated by food is
thrown in the water after three days for health reasons, they said.
On long voyages most trash is dumped overboard, at a distance
of at least 50 miles from shore, said Brown. Treated sewage is
released three miles or more out to sea, as is common with most
private boats. Navy regulations require all toxics and medical
waste to be brought ashore.

In congressional testimony last September, Assistant
Secretary of the Navy for Installations and Environment Jacqueline
Schafer said the Navy has cut its plastics use by 70 percent in
recent years. The Navy will install new plastics compactors by 1998
on all ships and has aggressive recycling programs, she said.
Ahearn tells a different story.

Recycling programs on the Abraham Lincoln were largely
ignored, he said.

Special hazardous waste containers also went unused in some
cases, he said. Paint and toxic chemicals were tossed overboard
when sailors too lazy to use specially marked hazardous waste
containers simply dumped the liquids in the plastic trash bags.
Upset at his assignment, Ahearn requested a transfer but was
rejected by superiors. Once he attempted to photograph the dumping.
A petty officer noticed and angrily tossed his disposable camera
overboard, he said.

Ahearn grew up in staunchly environmental Santa Cruz and
participated in yearly public beach cleanups. Since the age of 13,
he has been a member of the clean-water advocacy group, the
Surfrider Foundation.

A practicing martial arts expert, he described himself as
“not anti-military, just anti-pollution.”

As to critics who say he just wanted a way out of the
military, Ahearn said he hopes to stay. “If I wanted out, I would
have said I was gay or something,” he said.

He deserted the ship Feb. 13 when it docked in San Francisco
Bay. In the interim, Ahearn hid in Santa Cruz. He was escorted back
to the base by Doug Rand, a staff member at the Resource Center for
Nonviolence, a Santa Cruz peace advocacy group.