Failure to obtain the specific approval of the post commander to go to First Army Headquarters;

Failure to obtain specific permission of the commanding officer of the building to go into First Army Headquarters;

Failure to obey the order of the commanding officer of the building to leave the building.

Font has labeled these charges "Mickey Mouse and fraudulent." He pointed to the fourth charge and said, "This would be like me going to Gen. Westmoreland before I go into the Pentagon." He has also noted that "since all this has been going on people have been working like hell to get these barracks in shape."

Font has found support for his allegations in many areas, including two former classmates at West Point, Captains Jon C. Anderson and Donald J. Millus, whose letter from Vietnam was published on Feb. 25 in the New York Times. The letter read in part:

The fact that a product of the most cherished of Army institutions should have moral beliefs so contrary to those of his superiors is hardly reason enough for the five picayune charges that were recently filed against Lieutenant Font. Four of the five "offenses" were of such an arbitrary nature that the majority of today's officers might be charged with an occasional violation of one or more of them. While charges of murder at My Lai are dropped in case after case and the mass relocation of Vietnamese peasants is considered, the Army plays games with an individual who is attempting to make himself heard as a man of conscience.

FONT HAS SAID he believes the charges stem from his Jan. 11 request that the Secretary of the Army convene a board of inquiry to investigate responsibility for alleged atrocities in Vietnam, including some said to have taken place during operations commanded by Seaman.

Font's request was based on the December testimony before the Vietnam Veterans Commission of Inquiry of 40 Vietnam veterans that My Lai and other atrocities against Vietnamese civilians grew directly out of top-level U. S. military policy.

Some of the veterans testimony concerned Operation Cedar Falls, during which about 40 square miles of the so-called Iron Triangle in Vietnam were cleared of "enemy" forces by bombing, artillery and infantry attacks. A former lieutenant in a unit that participated in Operation Junction City said that orders for the operation were that "villages, hamlets or any other signs of life were to be completely destroyed."

Font stated in his allegations that an inquiry should follow from the Yamashita rule, under which the U. S. hanged the Japanese commander in the Philippines in 1946 for atrocities his men committed without his knowledge or authority. The U. S. Supreme Court has upheld a military court ruling that a commander is responsible for the conduct of his men whether or not he is aware of their activities.

On Feb. 3, three freshman Congressmen, Representatives Parren J. Mitchell (D-Md.). Bella S. Abzug (D-N. Y.), and Ronald V. Dellums (D-Calif.) asked Secretary of the Army Stanley T. Resor to investigate charges that Font is being harassed because of his antiwar activities and the housing report that he compiled.

Then on Feb. 17, Font filed charges against Major General Samuel W. Koster for "dereliction of duty" for allowing war crimes to be committed under his command, and against Seaman for "conspiracy to commit war crimes" and for "dereliction of duty" for allowing his men to commit war crimes in 1967, with regard to Operations Cedar Falls and Junction City, which he planned and executed.

Font has also charged Alexander with "dereliction of duty" for failing to "properly inspect and maintain" barracks at Ft. Meade, and Ciccolella with "assault and battery" committed during the incident at First Army Headquarters on Jan. 21.

Since that time, Alexander has written Font asking him to resign from the Army because of alleged overuse of the telephone and incompetence in performing duties. Instead, Font has chosen to sever himself from the Army through elective discharge, the difference being that the latter would provide him with about $1700 in back pay and an honorable discharge.

Font's letter of discharge, which the Army ruled on last week, read in part: