A Journey of Conscience: Ronald Marullo’s Story

A Quaker author chat. Ronald Marullo’s article, “I Ain’t Marching Anymore,” appears in the September 2025 issue of Friends Journal.

In this conversation, Ron Marullo shares his experiences as a Vietnam War resister and his journey towards conscientious objection. He reflects on the tumultuous 1960s, the impact of the Vietnam War on his life, and the bureaucratic challenges he faced during the draft process. Ron discusses the emotional and spiritual aspects of his decision to resist the draft and how it shaped his life philosophy. The conversation highlights the importance of personal conviction and the role of spirituality in navigating difficult choices.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Ron Marullo and His Journey
02:30 Reflections on the 60s and the Vietnam War
04:58 The Draft Process and Conscientious Objection
07:43 Personal Experiences with the Draft
10:38 The Decision to Resist and Its Implications
13:10 The Impact of Conscientious Objection on Life
15:49 Conclusion and Reflections on Spirituality

Bio

Ronald Marullo is a writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. He writes about topics that usually point out the ridiculousness or mistakes we, as humans, continuously make. He had a 33-year teaching career, has worked construction, and has been organizing and submitting his writings since the pandemic.

Transcript

Martin Kelley:

Hi, I’m Martin Kelley with Friends Journal and we do author chats and I’m very happy today to be joined by Ron Marullo. Welcome, Ron.

Ronald Marullo:

Welcome to you.

Martin Kelley:

Great to have you here. Ron is the author of, Ain’t Marching Anymore, a Vietnam War Resisters Journey of Conscience in the September Friends Journal. And I’ll just introduce you here, Ron, with their bio from the article.

Martin Kelley:

Ron Marullo is a writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. He writes about topics that usually point out the ridiculousness of mistakes we as humans continually make. Yes, I know this. He has a 33-year teaching career, has worked construction, and has been organizing and submitting his writings since the pandemic. So tell us why you want to write about your experiences with Conscience and Subjection.

Ronald Marullo:

Well, I was thinking about the 60s and I was thinking about our present state of affairs and I saw parallels. And for me, the draft notice was the end of the 60s and it was kind of a point on what happened during the 60s and the frustration level.

Ronald Marullo:

I was a sophomore in high school, went around, I was in American history class as a matter of fact, when the PA system came on and said that President Kennedy had been shot. About 20 minutes later, the PA system came on again and told us that he was dead. And we ran out into the halls. We were totally confused.

Ronald Marullo:

Totally overwhelmed, hysterical about what had happened. And then Martin Luther King, the civil rights movement, peace, love, change came to another demise, his, and then a few months later, Robert Kennedy. And at the same time, civil rights demonstrations were going on, peaceful.

Martin Kelley:

Mm-hmm.

Ronald Marullo:

And then Vietnam comes along and demonstrations continue against the war and the total upheaval, even the Chicago Democratic Convention. I mean, all these things shaped my life and pushed me towards making decisions about the type of person I wanted to be and what was right and what was wrong.

Martin Kelley:

Mm-hmm.

Ronald Marullo:

And that motivated me to become a draft resister and then to write this piece later on in my life.

Martin Kelley:

Right. It’d be good to sort of give a little background on what the draft was, what it meant to be a resistor, and what it meant to be a conscientious objector. As we read this article, actually one of the champions, I’ll give you behind the scenes for the editorial process, one of the champions was one of the younger members of the committee who didn’t really know much of this history and was just sort of fascinated by the process that you laid out that you had to go through for the status.

Martin Kelley:

Tell us a little, how did your notice come? How did you apply for this?

Ronald Marullo:

Well, I had the 2S deferment. And then when I married and I had two young children, I was given a 3A deferment. And I thought that I was safe from military service. I mean, the draft was big. And we even had a lottery system later on. And my lottery number was like number 12, which is the…

Martin Kelley:

And is that good or bad? Let’s give the context here. That’s very bad, I think, Yeah.

Ronald Marullo:

That’s bad luck. That’s the month of my birthday, December 12th. So all of a sudden, I mean, I’m thrown into this process that I had very little knowledge about. I mean, when I received the notice that I was reclassified from 3A to 1A, I was in a panic. I mean, I didn’t understand what was going on in terms of the process.

Ronald Marullo:

And that’s when I found a flyer for the Quaker interest in helping people who are going to be drafted or thought they’re going to be drafted or could be drafted, help them with the process. And so that’s when I made an appointment with a young Quaker and all of a sudden he laid out the whole process.

Ronald Marullo:

And what we could possibly do to at least stretch out the draft notice so that I wouldn’t be drafted immediately. And that’s how this.

Martin Kelley:

Great, so this is a service that these Quakers were performing. I know there were various Quaker organizations or heavily Quaker organizations, the Central Committee for Conscientious Objection and the National Inter-Religious Service Board for Conscientious Objection. I’ve been involved with some of these groups, so I kind of remember the names. And so this is a service Quakers were doing to provide information. So I’m happy that you got.

Ronald Marullo:

Right.

Martin Kelley:

In touch with this person who could give you that whole knowledge.

Ronald Marullo:

Well, it was a miracle because I had talked to one draft counselor prior to this. And when I told him I had a three-eight affirmative, he laughed. He said, unless there’s an invasion of the country, you’re fine. You have no worry. So I took that to heart. And then when I received the one-A notice, I was like, wait a minute, something’s wrong. You know, my whole life I’ve had instances.

Martin Kelley:

Okay.

Ronald Marullo:

Of crisis, crises. And, you know, I know that I was being directed by something other than myself, something very spiritual that was pushing me into different directions. I mean, why would all of a sudden I seek more draft counseling when the first one failed? And all of a sudden here’s a notice by the Quakers, free draft counseling.

Ronald Marullo:

And I just, for some reason, was motivated to try again, to see what the status was and the process was and so on. And I just became more more frustrated with the system. The fact that they just thought you can go off the war, you know, don’t worry about anything, just go out there. And then when my best friend brother was killed in Vietnam, that pretty much pushed me in a different direction.

Martin Kelley:

Yeah.

Ronald Marullo:

And, yeah, that was terrible. I mean, and I just was, I became angry about the political system that was involved with sending young people over to Vietnam and the death rate was incredible. If you watch the Netflix special on Vietnam, I mean, I can’t even watch, I have to watch it in short bursts.

Martin Kelley:

Sure, that would be rough, yeah.

Martin Kelley:

Mm-hmm.

Ronald Marullo:

Because it just lays out the ridiculousness of that war and the fact that over 50,000 of our brothers and sisters were killed in there. So all that motivated me to put together.

Ronald Marullo:

And I was only 20 years old at the time, you know, that was part of the shock.

Martin Kelley:

Wow, yeah, big decisions to be making,

Martin Kelley:

Well, it sounds like some of your frustration tied up the bureaucracy a little bit. I love the story of the questionnaire. Do you want to share that again?

Ronald Marullo:

That was just, that was another intervention of the Holy Spirit because the whole draft physical was just humiliating. And then we were herded into this room and we had a box on each desk and inside the box was a bologna sandwich, one hostess cupcake and an apple or something. I don’t know. And I just looked at it and I said, there’s no way I’m going to eat this. I mean, the army has given me this, forget it, you know.

Ronald Marullo:

And they started passing out this paper and the sergeant at the desk said, it’s entirely voluntary and we just want to, if you are inducted or when you’re inducted, you have to go through a security clearance and this is part of the process. It speeds it up. So I looked at it and it said, have you ever been a member?

Martin Kelley:

Mm-hmm.

Ronald Marullo:

Or are currently a member of any of the following organizations. Well, the Communist Party makes sense, the neo-Nazi party makes sense, but then the Daughters of Garibaldi, and I looked at that and I said, who are the Daughters of Garibaldi? And I just said, that’s it. I read a couple more and there was probably 20. And I just said, I can’t do this. I will not do this.

Martin Kelley:

Who are they?

Ronald Marullo:

And then when I was leaving, I gave it to the sergeant and he stopped me and said, you didn’t fill this out. And I said, no, it’s voluntary. He said, well, it is voluntary, but now you may be a member of one of these organizations and you don’t want to tell us. I looked at him like, get me out of here. And then they escorted me to another room and a captain came in and he said, I’m going to ask you some questions. My secretarial type your answers.

Ronald Marullo:

Now I’m really frustrated and I said, is it voluntary? And he said, yes, it’s voluntary. I said, well then no, I don’t want to. Right. And then the sergeant.

Martin Kelley:

Ben, no, all right. But that frustration was put to use there. Your frustration really came through.

Ronald Marullo:

Yes.

Ronald Marullo:

And then the sergeant said, we going to keep them overnight? Now I’m in a panic about being held overnight, iron me in Buffalo, New York. And he said, no, let them go. Well, when I went back to the Quaker counselor, he kind of laughed and said, you know what you did? And I said, no, not really. He said, you delayed your induction for approximately six months because we have to investigate.

Martin Kelley:

Sure.

Martin Kelley:

Right.

Ronald Marullo:

You have to investigate to make sure I’m not a daughter of Garibaldi. I mean, you know, this is just, so it just increased my willingness to find a different path. The path from, went to Canada. Um, I hung out with some draft resistance from the United States and it was very frustrating and depressing the life that they were living, the lives they were living in Canada. I mean, no jobs, no money. Um,

Martin Kelley:

Mm-hmm.

Martin Kelley:

Thank you.

Ronald Marullo:

It was very frustrating. I decided that was not an option. And that’s when I decided to apply for Conscience Subjector status. And that was even, I mean, that was even, I never realized how much was involved with taking that stuff. The questions, I mean, I had to soul search everything and go back and forth and back and forth.

Ronald Marullo:

I mean, because I was in fights, you know, I’ve hit people, I’ve, you know, and I mean, it was deep, very deep, very comprehensive to apply for that. For me, anyway.

Martin Kelley:

Yeah, am sure. No, it’s hard for everyone. You know, I’m sort of a younger generation here, but I had a similar experience a little bit in that my father really wanted me to go to the Naval Academy. And for a while I thought, well, you know, I get to dress nicely. I get disciplined. Sure. And over time I was like, well, you know, but they also, you know, are intimidating people. It’s, you know, all about creating a killing machine. And for me, I realized I couldn’t do that.

Martin Kelley:

It’s in motion a whole line of questions like what do I believe in and if I don’t believe in this what else I don’t believe in and You know, that’s kind of why I’m at Friends Journal now. Probably it’s you know, you can see a whole line So tell me how it was for you. What were some of the the thoughts that were going through your mind as you? actually decided to Take this step towards conscientious objection

Ronald Marullo:

Well, one of the major problems in the beginning was the fact that I wanted to be a teacher and involved in the educational system in some capacity and a convicted felon that’s out. So, I mean, that was the beginning of trying to decide what I was going to do and going to jail for two years, leaving my family, my children, you know, all that.

Martin Kelley:

Yeah.

Ronald Marullo:

Frustration led me to the fact that I had to take a stand, that I had to, I wasn’t going to run away to Canada. I was going to stay in the United States and I was going to apply for conscientious objector status. I had to go through my conscience and figure out exactly where I stood in terms of violence, in terms of fascism.

Ronald Marullo:

And, you know, it was quite the ordeal. I I was baptized a Catholic. I used to love the mass. I used to love the whole concept of Christianity, being in a church on a Sunday in a mass. So I had that background to deal with. Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, God, all of that.

Martin Kelley:

Mm-hmm.

Martin Kelley:

Mm-hmm.

Ronald Marullo:

But to actually put it down on paper and to try to somehow answer these questions with that kind of a background, I mean, it was very exhausting. It was exhausting. I have the copy that I actually put in for Conscience of Judgment. And I go back and I read it, you know, and I still pretty much do believe in all that, you know, obviously.

Martin Kelley:

Hmm?

Martin Kelley:

So well.

Martin Kelley:

Would great just to a statement of what you believed at that age. So you were 20 still at that point? Yeah, amazing. And as I recall, for formal conscientious objection status, it’s not just that you oppose the Vietnam War, you have to oppose all war. I guess it’s loosened a little bit, but you had to have a religious basis for a while.

Ronald Marullo:

It yeah

Ronald Marullo:

Yes.

Martin Kelley:

So you could have that and any other restrictions so you remember that you had to hoops that you had to go through to prove that you were sincere.

Ronald Marullo:

No, I don’t remember others. The big thing was whether or not you wanted to serve in the military as a non-combative, which would have, you know, eliminated the prison time and the felony conviction. And I had to struggle with that. I mean, I would be maybe a medic and I would be helping soldiers who were wounded and needed medical treatment.

Ronald Marullo:

So I thought about that for a long time too, you know, but then I thought the final determination was I would be supporting a military system. I would be supporting, you know, violence. And so I decided, and that took a while because I could have avoided a lot of stuff, but I decided, no, I didn’t want to serve in any capacity. That was part of the process.

Martin Kelley:

Yeah, so what was the result there? Did you go to jail? What was the process? What were the repercussions?

Ronald Marullo:

No. What was interesting was upfront, the counselor, Quaker counselor told me that it would go to the state level and the state would not overturn a local draft board’s decision normally under normal circumstances. There were five members on the state board. So.

Ronald Marullo:

My Conscientious Objective Status went to the State Board and instead of giving me Conscientious Objective Status, they gave me back my 3A deferment.

Ronald Marullo:

And that was pretty weird because that wasn’t supposed to happen. I mean, I had gotten it to us and I had signed a waiver and I wasn’t supposed to get any other deferment, blah, blah, blah. And yet the state five to zero gave me back my 3A deferment.

Martin Kelley:

I guess then they, you know, if they’re keeping records of how many people are conscientious objectors, you wouldn’t show up in that because they did the deferment. So maybe they had their own reasons for wanting to do that.

Ronald Marullo:

They didn’t want another CEO of Roaming the

Martin Kelley:

On the record books, yeah.

Martin Kelley:

So how do you feel that this process, change your life or influence you since do you feel sometimes still drawn to that, as you’ve gone about and had a career and family and everything.

Ronald Marullo:

Absolutely. I mean, that was a turning point in my life. I mean, I made decisions from filling out those forms and answering those questions actually made concrete what I had inside me, ideally. You know, I mean, you think about this and think about that and whether or not you hold it true. But when you have to put it all on paper and you have to submit it to the world, it changes you.

Ronald Marullo:

And I’ve lived by that philosophy since that age. I mean, I’ve done it in my educational experience with children. I’ve done it in my private life with friends, caregiving others. My wife and I have been doing that, you know, for decades.

Martin Kelley:

Well, that’s great. So in some ways there was a silver lining to having to go through all this

Ronald Marullo:

Connection with the Holy Spirit, I mean, I really believe that it started, really started with that process that I went through, the draft process. Because, I mean, there’s so many different points in my life where I know, I know that it’s a spiritual, a spiritual thing, a spiritual solution.

Ronald Marullo:

And I’ve been fortunate enough to know that.

Martin Kelley:

Wow, that’s very beautiful. Well, thank you, Ron, for coming on with us again, everyone. Ron Marullo, Ronald Marullo, author of I Ain’t Marching Anymore, A Vietnam War Resisters Journey of Conscience. It’s online at frenchjournal.org. And that and many other writings are there. And you can leave comments, and maybe Ron will see them and be able to answer them. So thank you, Ron, for joining us today.

Ronald Marullo:

Well, thank you, Martin. It’s been a pleasure. Thank you very much.