He attended basic training in Ft. Jackson, South Carolina, and graduated among the top of the class there, before attending the US Army Signal School in Ft. Gordon, Georgia, and graduating with honors. He returned home as part of the 305th Signal Company 392nd Signal Battalion in the US Army Reserves, and shortly thereafter volunteered to join the ranks of the active-duty Army in Germany. Shortly after arriving in Germany and being assigned to C Company, 440th Signal Battalion Chris Capps-Schubert was deployed to Camp Victory, Baghdad and served there from November 2005 to late September 2006.

Rather than be sent to 44th Signal Battalion in Mannheim and redeploying with them shortly after getting back from Iraq, Chris Capps-Schubert did not return from his leave in February 2007, and remained AWOL for over 60 days before turning himself in at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, to receive an Other Than Honorable Discharge. Today, Chris Capps-Schubert resides with his wife in Hanau, Germany and is active in the organization Iraq Veterans Against the War, being the regional coordinator for Europe, and counselling GI who want to get out of the military, or have already deserted.

Capps-Schubert made these remarks last Saturday at a rally organized by the Munich American Peace Committee which was presenting him with an honor:

To all of you here, at this protest: I would like to thank you, not just for awarding me this prize, but also for exposing and standing up to the arrogance of those leaders who commonly make decisions that destroy the lives of those who certainly are not a threat to their nations' security.

To be certain, it is the legitimate right of a just government to protect the lives of its citizens. However, this is not accomplished by bombing and invading countries on the other side of the world where the majority of their citizens live in poverty.

The kind of "security" policies my country, the United States, has pursued over the last few years has enraged much of the world's Muslim population, and brought more desperation to Iraq and Afghanistan; it has led to loss of privacy and liberty for American citizens, and it has reverted my country to the dark ages when torture was an acceptable form of interrogation.

Today, as it stands, America has invaded Iraq supposedly to defend its "national security". The allegations that Iraq was a threat to America have since been proven false. As a result, four thousand American soldiers have died in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are dead, over thirty thousand Americans are wounded, and millions of Iraqis have become refugees. It is time to show the people in there [indicating the location where the Munich Security Conference was being held] that military force should only be a very last resort, that it should not be used until all other options are exhausted, and until it is completely transparent and evident that we truly must take these actions to defend ourselves.

Thousands of soldiers have made the same decision I have: the decision not to do the bidding of those who consider them Federal property. Many more people have refused to pay their taxes until these wars come to an end; and then there are people like you who have taken to the streets to show their outrage about these destructive policies. It is going to take all of us and all of our efforts to put these policies to an end and hold our leaders accountable for them.