Camil was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish parents with origins in Romania and Russia.[1] His parents were divorced when he was four years old. His mother remarried and he, his mother, stepfather, sister moved to Florida where and two stepbrothers were born. Camil had a troubled childhood, frequently being beaten by his authoritarian stepfather, and occasionally getting into fights with school children who would harass him because he was Jewish. He was brought up to believe he lived in the best country in the world and that, as a citizen, he had a duty as a male—that duty was to go into the military to serve his country after high school. He enrolled in the Marines delayed enlistment program while still in high school, and entered boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island three days after graduating.
After his discharge from military service, Camil enrolled with Miami-Dade Community College on the G.I. Bill, and later transferred to the University of Florida. In a 2005 interview with UF's Samuel Proctor Oral History Program, he recounted that as a student he went to see Jane Fonda speak, "to see what a movie star looked like." Fonda spoke on the importance of an informed public in a democracy, and said, as paraphrased by Camil, "that it was the duty of every patriotic Vietnam veteran to make the truth known to the public." Camil agreed with that. He also felt that his sacrifices as a soldier had gone unrecognized in contrast to those of soldiers in past wars, saying, "I got two Purple Hearts, I was wounded, I killed lots of people [and] where was my thanks?"[2]
Recognized by the FBI as an "extremist and key activist," Camil was on President Nixon's "enemies list." On December 22, 1971, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover sent a classified memo to the Jacksonville office regarding Camil, referring to him as an "extremely dangerous and unstable individual whose activities must be neutralized at earliest possible time." Other memos about Camil used the same word, neutralize, less ambiguously: "Jacksonville continue to press vigorously to insure (sic) that all necessary action taken to completely neutralize subject without delay." Camil explained, "When you pin the government down, they'll say 'Well, "neutralize" just means to render useless.' But if you talk to guys in the field, they say it means to kill."[3] Camil was shot by federal agents on March 31, 1975, in a drug sting, and nearly died.
Winter Soldier Investigation
Camil became the Florida Coordinator for the VVAW, and was one of the most outspoken participants of the 1971 Winter Soldier Investigation, in which returning personnel recounted the atrocities they had been induced into committing against combatants and non-combatants alike. Camil (also referred to as "Camile" in the transcripts) testified of[4]
At Senator Hart's garden party during Dewey Canyon III, Camil wore two Purple Heart medals, a Vietnamese Cross for Gallantry with Silver Star, and a Good Conduct medal. He called the medals a farce which he would return on Friday. In the documentary "A Seasoned Veteran", Camil Stated: "The throwing away of the medals, for me, was the cutting of the umbilical cord between me and the government. I was now independent."[5]
Taking it to the source
In a 1992 interview, Camil revealed for the first time that he had considered shooting "the most hardcore hawks" in Congress as an alternative to returning medals during the Dewey Canyon III demonstration in April 1971. In Camil's words, "I didn't think it was terrible at the time ... I was serious. I felt that I spent two years killing women and children in their own fucking homes. These are the guys that fucking made the policy, and these were the guys that were responsible for it, and these were the guys that were voting to continue the fucking war when the public was against it. I felt that if we really believed in what we were doing, and if we were willing to put our lives on the line for the country over there, we should be willing to put our lives on the line for the country over here."[6][7] Six months later at a November 1971 meeting, after recruiting participants and describing his weapons training range, Camil proposed to the VVAW his idea about the assassination of the members of Congress who showed the most support for the war. The proposal was voted down.
University of Florida activism
At the 1971 UF homecoming parade, Quakers, Unitarian Church members and VVAW members, including Camil, created a spectacle. Dressed as rifle-carrying soldiers, some of them carried a coffin draped in an American flag, and carried a sign that read "The Impossible Dream - No More War." People panicked after smoke bombs were ignited and VVAW members pretended to stab civilians (VVAW actors) in the crowd who had packets of fake blood hidden beneath their clothing. They then passed out leaflets to the crowd informing them that if they lived in Vietnam, this could really be happening to them, their friends, their family, and their children.
It was during this period that the Orange County (FL) Young Democrats chose Scott Camil as their "Person of the Year" causing a rift between the Young Democrats and the more conservative Orange County Democratic Committee.
Gainesville Eight
Camil explained in an interview that the group received information that during the 1972 Republican National Convention, the government was going to shoot someone and blame it on the anti-war protesters.[8] They were also going to raise the five drawbridges so that antiwar demonstrators would be trapped on Miami Beach and shot by police and soldiers. In response, Camil's group planned to draw those police and soldiers away by attacking federal buildings, police stations, and fire stations in the two adjacent counties to occupy the government forces, then reopen bridges to aid escape of the demonstrators. These plans were typed up and distributed among the rest of the group by a member who was also an FBI informant. The eight members of Camil's group were charged with conspiracy to disrupt the Republican National Convention.
The jury got to read the letter containing all the plans on attacking the federal buildings, but they also got to read the constantly repeated admonition, "This will be done for defensive purposes only." The jury determined that their goal was to protect the rights of the protesters, and they found the eight men not guilty. In Camil's words, "We had no conspiracy to disrupt the convention. Our conspiracy, if you want to call it that, was to go down to the convention and exercise our Constitutional rights as citizens and to defend those rights against anybody who tried to take away those rights, whether it be the government or anyone else. And the jury sided with us."
The jury acquitted all eight after a long trial in 1973, taking only a few minutes to do so.
Ongoing activism
In 1987, represented the Veterans for Peace organization on a fact-finding trip to Central America
In 1989, represented the Veterans for Peace organization on a fact-finding trip to the Middle East.[9]
As of 2015, Camil lives in Gainesville, Florida with his wife Sherry, is active in local politics, and is writing an autobiography. He is the subject of the 2002 documentary film, "Seasoned Veteran: Journey of a Winter Soldier", by Benito Aragon, Melinda Kahl and Michael Kirschbaum.
Miscellany
Graham Nash wrote and recorded the song "Oh Camil! (The Winter Soldier)" in tribute to Scott Camil after hearing his testimony in the documentary "Winter Soldier". The song appears on Nash's 1973 album Wild Tales. The song is also on the DVD Winter Soldier.
^Aragon, B., Kahl, M. and Kirschbaum, M. (2002) Seasoned Veteran: Journey of a Winter Soldier
^Camil, Scott: Interviewee; Landers, Stuart: Interviewer. University of Florida Oral History Program. October 20, 1992
^New York Sun;Mar 12, 2004; How Kerry Quit Veterans Group Amid Dark Plot By Thomas H. Lipscomb
^Camil, Scott. "Interview with Scott Camil". George A. Smathers Library, University of Florida Digital Collections. University of Florida. Retrieved March 2, 2018.
Bud Schultz, Ruth Schultz (1989). "It Did Happen Here: Recollections of Political Repression in America" University of California Press. ISBN0-520-07197-2,ISBN978-0-520-07197-1
1972 – "Winter Soldier" Winterfilm Collective
1989 – "Peace Platoon" Produced and Directed by Heike Amelung, Gainesville Veterans for Peace
1996 – "Protest: The Story of the Gainesville" WUFT-TV, University of Florida
2002 – Seasoned Veteran: Journey of a Winter Soldier. Directed by Benito Aragon, Melinda Kahl, and Michael Kirschbaum. Short film contained in the extras of the Winter Soldier DVD.
2007 – "Cracker Crazy: Invisible Histories of the Sunshine State". Director:Georg Koszulinski Associate Producer and Narrator Scott Camil. Substream Films
2007 – "Gainesville Green", A film by Ana Paula Helal Habib & Joshua James Woltermann. The Documentary Institute, University of Florida
