Air Force veteran has informed them for 18 months they can refuse illegal orders.
PARATROOPERS ORDERED TO MINNEAPOLIS
MIGHT JUST SAY “SIR, NO SIR!”
FAIRBANKS – Some 1,500 paratroopers from the Army’s 11th Airborne Division at Fort Wainwright are on standby for immediate deployment to Minneapolis. Many of them will have seen the signs and read the flyers a military veteran has taken to base gates since July 2025, telling them “REFUSE ILLEGAL ORDERS. IT’S THE LAW AND OUR DUTY!”, “THE PATH TO FASCISM IS PAVED WITH ILLEGAL ORDERS!” and “SIR, NO SIR!” the title of a documentary about GIs who refused to fight in Viet Nam.
Rob Mulford, a 73 year-old Air Force veteran, and former coal miner, has maintained his monthly vigil outside Ft. Wainwright, near Fairbanks, with large signs and literature dozens of paratroopers have taken inside. His flyers have included phone numbers for G.I. rights counselors prepared to advise troops questioning orders to support Israel’s genocide in Gaza or arrest U.S. citizens domestically.
Mulford, who also spent five years in the Army National Guard, is a member of Veterans For Peace. He considers it his duty to inform young, active-duty soldiers that the oath they took to defend the Constitution does not include breaking the law, no matter if the Commander in Chief orders them to do so.
Explaining his motivation, Mulford paraphrased labor organizer and socialist presidential candidate, “Like ol’ Gene Debs, I’ve come to recognize my kinship with all living beings. I am convinced I am not one bit better than those living under the most wretched of circumstance. ‘
“As long as there is an underclass, I am in it. As long as there is a criminal element, I am of it. As long as there is a soul in prison, I am not free. And, as long as there is a class that profits in the making of war against any of my relatives, I will fight them nonviolently until I draw my final breath.”
