though this might be old-hat to some (tom b, you old counter cultural coot i’m looking at you!) the first earth battalion is new to me. it’s the product of a unique convergence of eras and ideas not likely to be arrived at again any time soon. the tail end of the u.s. military investigations into altered states, the increased esteem of psy-ops, the army’s hollywood connection, and both the environmental and new age movements which had been simmering in the cloudy minds of a generation of super-stoned, barefooted, longhairs. fed on this unholy placenta, a resulting birth was the First Earth Battalion Operations Manual
“the whaah?” well it’s a 1979 military document, by retired Lieutenant Colonel Jim Channon, which essentially laid out an idyllic vision of a future U.S. military, peopled by an elite class of tree-hugging, spiritually enlightened warrior monks, who would usher in an earthly paradise through love and (among other kooky methods) telekenisis.
really you have to read through it a bit to get the full weight of the bat-shit craziness of it all. i can’t really scratch the surface here. the fully hippie-come-star trek illustrated pdf can be downloaded here or the text version can be viewed here.
the vision that it lays out is comical to say the least. to my mind think the whole thing reads like a manual for a dungeons and dragons style role playing game (1st earth battalion: march of the telekinetic spirit lambs. a mmorpg, coming soon. it’s my idea! keep your grubby hands off it. ) take for instance this list of character classes which might have been torn directly from a d&d spin-off:
people
All warrior monks, but an interdependence of New Age skills as well.
Spirit wizard
Meditation leader
Martial arts wizard
Nutritionist herbalist
Vexillographer (flags and banners)
Cinematographer
Old tapes
Holographer
Printer
Minstrels
Video technoid
Satellite technoid
Laser technoid
General systems theorist
Physicist
Futurist
Builder
Conservationist
Indian tracker
thymelod the meek casts advanced herbalist spell, sneeze of confusion, for +12 allergy damage.
what might said earth warriors look like? take a look at this piece of artwork commissioned for a proposed movie version of the 1st earth battalion story-
yeah. anyhoo kooky though the whole thing may be it gets more interesting, and less amusing, when you take jon ronson’s very interesting sounding book the men who stared at goats into account.
blurb: In 1979 a secret unit was established by the most gifted minds within the US Army. Defying all known accepted military practice - and indeed, the laws of physics - they believed that a soldier could adopt the cloak of invisibility, pass cleanly through walls and, perhaps most chillingly, kill goats just by staring at them. Entrusted with defending America from all known adversaries, they were the First Earth Battalion. And they really weren’t joking. What’s more, they’re back and fighting the War on Terror. ‘The men who stare at goats’ reveals extraordinary - and very nutty - national secrets at the core of George W Bush’s War on Terror.
evidently some of the looniness from the first earth battalion seeped into the psy-ops groundwater of the pentagon, not as a utopian vision for peace, of course, but in the form of novel ways to torture people. the best documented tactic seems to be “torture by repetitive music” which you can read a little about on wfmu’s beware the blog in a march 2005 post titled: tunes for torture, as well as a little related info over at vice.
as for the fate of the creator of it all jim channon, well one need only check out this vid of him giving a keynote and all will become clear. (that’s him in thumbnail.)