The 40-year-old Hudson native enlisted in the Army as soon as he got his high-school diploma. For four years, he took pride in keeping Black Hawk helicopters airborne.
But when his wife Yvette became pregnant in 1990, Coil began to rethink his profession. “I had a huge moral awakening,” he says. “I just couldn’t find a way to justify taking another person’s life anymore. It was clearly wrong to me.”
So the day Josh was born, Coil swore he’d never carry a weapon again. But four days later, he was shipped off to the Gulf War.
Fellow troops weren’t happy to have a conscientious objector in their midst. To his unit, Coil was little more than a dangerous and cowardly nuisance. He received death threats. His closest friend promised him the beating of his life. And his sergeant major gave him the worst duties, ordering him to drive fuel trucks through enemy fire. “I felt like I was being held hostage,” Coil says. “Everyone was my enemy — not only the Iraqis, but just daily life in the unit. I never knew who had it out for me.”
Life wasn’t much better for Yvette back at the base in Germany. She was shunned by the other wives for being married to a “chickenshit C.O.” They refused to give her rides to the store, forcing her to walk in the snow with her newborn in one arm, her groceries in the other.
Still, Coil refused to surrender his beliefs.
When he returned from Iraq, Coil was honorably discharged. But the war’s effects were far from over back in Hudson. “I know the Gulf War looks lightweight, compared to this war,” he says. “But for us on the ground, it was not.”
He suffered from bouts of anger and anxiety so debilitating, he became a recluse, locking himself in a room for days at a time. It wasn’t until 2003 that he was finally diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder.
So on March 12, when Coil and his wife went to the Stow-Munroe Falls Library, it was a rare day out of the house. As Yvette worked on her laptop, Coil read magazines — until he noticed two Army recruiters walk in with a new enlistee.
Sergeants Daniel Skywatcher and Rodger Stephenson were meeting with Tim Ellis to finish up some re-enlistment paperwork. As they closed the door to the study room, Yvette turned to her husband, who appeared panicked. “We should do something,” she said. “We can’t just let this happen.”
Yvette quickly scribbled phrases like Don’t do it! onto note cards and posted them in the study-room window. Skywatcher wasn’t pleased. He asked the couple to stop. When they refused, he complained to library staff.
Director Doug Dotterer approached to find four more anti-war slogans in the window. “My husband is a Gulf War vet — he can tell you the truth,” Yvette wrote on one.
Dotterer scooped up the cards and told the couple to stop, or they’d have to leave. “Why don’t we have our right to freedom of speech?” Yvette asked.
Dotterer was clear: “My library, my rules.”
Coil slowly lifted his 300-pound frame from a chair. “I don’t recognize your authority,” he told Dotterer. “Give me back my cards.” He towered over the bespectacled librarian, his steely blue eyes bloodshot with adrenaline.
Dotterer handed over the cards, then called the police.
When Officer Paul Schultz arrived, Coil and his wife were sitting quietly in their chairs. “May I see some identification?” he asked the couple.
“Did we break any laws?” Yvette responded. “Are we being arrested?”
Schultz said no. “I just like to know who I’m speaking with.”
Coil refused to show his ID, growing more aggressive with each refusal. Schultz recommended they take things outside.
As he escorted the couple from the library, Coil stopped outside the entrance, raised his fist in the air, and shouted, “No recruiting at the library!”
For Schultz, that was too much. Coil was arrested for disorderly conduct. “His demeanor and his voice were such that I had no other option,” the officer says. “His actions were not appropriate for a library.”
While restricting free speech in a library may seem a contradiction, Dotterer says that’s not the issue. “If you come into a public space and scream and intimidate others, I have no recourse but to get the police involved,” he says. “Many people were afraid and didn’t know what he was going to do. This was never about the First Amendment. This was about the safety of my patrons and staff.”
On June 15, Cuyahoga Falls Judge Kim Hoover agreed. “This has little to do with expressing his political views and more to do with venting his anger,” the judge ruled. Coil has yet to be sentenced.
As he sits in a diner next to his son Josh, now a teenager, Coil makes it clear he’ll appeal. Josh proudly notes that people worldwide have been sending Dad money to fight the case, including a $350 check from England.
“They tried to portray me as a left-wing extremist,” Coil says. “But I’m just a Christian, trying to stop young men from coming back in a box or becoming as emotionally damaged as I was. I want to prevent someone from having to see horrors that they’ll never recover from. It’s my duty.”
This article appears in Jul 4-10, 2007.
So, … what happened in the court case? Where ‘s the ‘rest of the story’ ?
Every Christian has been comanded to stop war. “Though Shalt Not Kill”. C’mon “Right To Lifers” or is it just babies lives that are important? I believe in fighting to protect our time honored way of life, but not at the expense of civilian lives, and my civil liberties. Remember what being a Patriot really is. It is not mindlessly listening to a government that was barely elected.It is for standing up against opressive government,
taxation without representation, and more than anything else Religious Freedom, for us and them. There is no embarrasment to a country that tries to fix an error, just to one that continues to make them. I have lived long enough to remember the struggle the Vietnam Vets have gone through. Where are these young Americans going to get the mental and physical rehabilitation they need? From the VA hospitals that have been shut down? from our already overtaxed Social Security System? War Debt + Medical Burden = A Country full of Paupers.
Talk about a lazy reporter. The article wasn’t as one-sided as one might expect, but when she wrote that Mr. Coil “towered over the bespectacled librarian” she lost all credibility. Gimme a break, for Mr. Coil and his “300-pound frame” to tower over that “bespectacled librarian” he’d have to be well over seven feet tall. Anybody who’s ever met Mr. Dotterer would get a good laugh out of this, obviously the reporter hasn’t.
There seems to be a few things left out of your story:
#1, Mr. Coil took an oath when he swore in to the military. Him vowing to “never carry a weapon again”, occured after he took that oath. If this ‘man’ can disregard his first vow, then why should anyone respect his second. Seems to me he lacks a bit of honor.
#2, the ‘bespectacled librarian’ served in the military as well. He was a Major in the Army – not the nerd your story depicts him as being.
#3, does ‘Freedom of Speech’ allow for someone to disrupt others? In my opinion, this is just rude behavior.
I respect the Constitution and the Its first 10 amendments; however, when they are used as justification for obnoxious and rude behavior it really upsets me. Mr. Coil should be quite happy, given his history of breaking vows and voicing his opinions whenever and wherever he deems fit (whether appropriate or not), that there are people who will join the military and defend his right to do so. There are some countryies on this fine globe that would have stuck him in prison for breaking his oath when he was collecting a paycheck from the Army [tax free, I might add, for he was in a combat zone], his wife and child were living in government housing and recieving free medical care, and various other benefits, and he chose not to honor his oath by refusing to carry a weapon.
In my humble opinion, Mr. Coil is a coward. How dare he receive an Honorable discharge and the G.I. Bill, access to VA housing loans, etc.? These should be reserved for those soldiers who live up to their oath – not those fickle individuals who go back on their word. Who knows, given Mr. Coil’s history, he may be calling for Nuclear war against Iran next week. He doesn’t seem to be an individual who can ‘stick to his guns’.
Kuddos to Sergeants Skywatcher and Stephenson, to director of the library, and especially for that young man who was meeting with those recruiters. He was enlisting into the Army during a time of war. That, my friends, is the definition of a hero and the actions of someone who deserves an Honorable discharge.
Coil is nothing more than a self-pitying coward. His conscience didn’t stop him from accepting Uncle Sam’s paychecks for 6 years, until he was called on to actually do his job. I suspect his “issues” pre-date the Army. PTSD my ass.
/Why yes, I am a veteran who didn’t chicken out. You’re welcome.
I respect Mr Coil for for his vow to be peaceful and I am apalled by people who believe that he “chickened out.” Talk about a lame macho thing to write. I thank Mr. Coil for his actions at the library that day. I hope that I can be as brave.
To Andy Sole,
Regarding your #1 – Army Regulation (AR) 600-43 is the regulation for filing for Conscientious Objector status. In that regulation it reads:
Chapter 1
General
1–1. Purpose
This regulation sets forth policy, criteria, responsibilities, and procedures to classify and dispose of military personnel who claim conscientious objection to participation in war in any form or to the bearing of arms.
1–2. Applicability
This regulation applies to commissioned officers, warrant officers, and enlisted members of the Active Army, and the Army National Guard of the United States (ARNGUS). It does not apply to members of the Retired Reserve. This publication is applicable during full mobilization.
Learn the rules Andy, so you won’t look so ignorant before speaking. I’m not being malicious, just honest. If it was dishonorable to leave as a CO, then the military would have never put such a rule for this occasion. So Mr. Coil did stay true to his oath, and also to his morals. Says a lot more about him than it does about you. For it is easy to take the cowards way out and blame it on obligation than to challenge the wrong and take ownership for your part in it. I hope you learn this lesson some day.
#2 It would only stand to reason if Mr. Dotterer was a major in the military that he may not be anti-war and would lie for the institution he believes in. I have met many nerds who were officers in the military, so being in the military does not keep one from being a nerd.
#3 Freedom of speech most certainly allows for someone to disrupt others. I’m sorry if your comfort does not allow for you to be bothered with the truth of the death of our youth based on lies from an administration who have stolen the values this country was supposedly founded upon. Bitter you are that you should want others to experience the crap you know you did while in service. How dare you want to give that horrible legacy to our youth. I would rather be considered rude in behavior than a person who lets others die for a lie, if it disrupts others then good. Maybe they will all wake up and see this war for what it is, a sham to bankrupt our nation of money, it’s resources and most importantly valuable lives. Mr. Coil obviously see’s the truth and I am honored that this man says it like it is.
When you took your vow to protect the constitution against ALL ENEMIES foreign AND DOMESTIC, you didn’t get to pick and choose which amendments to protect and for whom they applied, so suck it up and deal with it. Stop sounding so bitter.
Funny you say that Mr. Coil is a man who doesn’t seem to be an individual who can stick to his guns. He’s been an anti-war activist for over 16 years, if that’s not committment, I certainly don’t know what is.
And you are so naive to try to stick out your chest and beat on it. I surely hope that readers of Cleveland Scene can see through your hypocritical patriotic BS.
Peace always!
YAH! 🙂
Denise, how is it that you can take artistic license to an article and lie in your magazine. This man was well over 6.5 feet tall, and I don’t have “steely” blue adrenaline filled “bloodshot” eyes, they are hazel, which is a mix of green and brown and they weren’t bloodshot or adrenaline filled.
Thanks for portraying me as some sort of rabid dog. Why didn’t you throw in seething and foaming at the mouth while you were at it!!!
How does a 5’10 man tower over a man who is 6’5″ tall? It is a physical impossibility unless I had a stepping stool to stand on, which I didn’t.
Third, I stood up, and asked for MY PROPERTY back, wouldn’t you do the same if someone was stealing your property? Do I not have the right to my personal property? I had every right to ask for my property back, and every expectation to receive it back since we had broken no laws and he was violating my right to peaceful protest, which up to that point we were doing.
Again, I never said I don’t recognize his authority, but I did say I didn’t recognize his “authority” to take away my freedom of speech as any and every good citizen should do. Even in the judges verdict, he said we were violating no law when placing the cards in the window. So I ask you then, who exactly was protecting our freedom of speech? It sure wasn’t you, the police, or the director.
Were we expected to lay down our rights to freedom of speech just because it hurt someone’s feelings?
Now, I will ask you to place a retraction in your paper in the name of honesty and objectivity, please don’t refuse to do so.
I’m extremely ashamed how you wrote this article, it’s poor fictional sensationalism and a total fabrication, and I can prove it. It’s a shame you don’t actually seek the truth, but seek to disparage me, and taking freedom of speech issues in such a cavalier manner.
Freedom of speech is afforded to all in this country, as a matter of fact, freedom of speech is the reason you have a job, stop abusing it, and find some integrity in what you write.
1) Author wrote: “growing more aggressive with each refusal. Schultz recommended they take things outside.
How could I grow more and more agressive while sitting down? We were putting cards in a window and asked for our first ammendment rights be enforced, which they refused. They visited the situation on us, we asked them to enforce our rights to freedom of speech. We didn’t get up and dance around the library yelling things, the police were standing over us, they were talking low, we were talking low, we went to leave, the police refused to let us depart by pushing me down in my seat, illegally detaining me.
Author wrote: “For Schultz, that was too much. Coil was arrested for disorderly conduct. “His demeanor and his voice were such that I had no other option,” the officer says. “His actions were not appropriate for a library.”
What is more innapropriate, using your freedom of speech, or being denied it in a library. The law was first broken when the recruiters denied my right to freedom of speech by confiscating my cards illegally. They were in military uniform, on duty, and representing the military, they violated posse comitatis. Yet they didn’t get charged for that did they?
The Library director violated my freedom of speech by trying to silence our peaceful protest, which we were attempting to do, but THEY wouldn’t let us, but even the judge said we were within our rights to do, yet the director hasn’t been brought up on charges for breaking the law, did he?
As for Mr. Schultz, he lied from the get go, he claimed I was a threat to the patrons of the library…. really!!! How much of a threat can I be walking out the door? He even testified that he didn’t even hear what I actually said as I was leaving the library, so his testimony was a total fabrication of the facts.
Author wrote: “While restricting free speech in a library may seem a contradiction, Dotterer says that’s not the issue. “If you come into a public space and scream and intimidate others, I have no recourse but to get the police involved,” he says. “Many people were afraid and didn’t know what he was going to do. This was never about the First Amendment. This was about the safety of my patrons and staff.”
This is and always has been a first ammendment issue, we had the right to place the cards. We were not disturbing the peace by doing so, as per the judge.
We didn’t scream and intimidate others in the library, 3×5 cards make no sounds, therefore it was peaceful protest. The director denied us our right to freedom of speech, plain and simple, he aided the recruiters in their crime. In fact, the only patrons that needed safety were my wife and I, from the recruiters, the director and the police.
Last but not least. A library employee gave us permission to put the cards in the window and she told my wife she didn’t think it right that the recruiters were recruiting in the library either, that’s how peaceful and thoughtful we were being to the patrons and employees of the library there. She didn’t testify in the case, what cowardice to deny true justice in this case. She is just as guilty of this crime as the rest, because she was afraid either for her job, or of the director, at the expense of the first ammednment and the rights of all of us under the constitution.
There are many more inconsistencies and lies in their testimony or lack thereof, but I won’t be going into them here. that will remain with me for other purposes.
Now, lest anyone try to say what I reveal here is a lie. I can prove it all.
I served with this man. Half of the things he says are outright lies.