Posted on 09/15/2006 7:52:40 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SAN DIEGO
A man who deserted the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War was arrested as he entered the United States from Mexico, authorities said Friday.
Victor Aguirre, 63, was wanted on a 1966 felony warrant for desertion, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection bureau. He was arrested Thursday at San Diego's San Ysidro border crossing.
Aguirre will likely be taken to Camp Pendleton Marine base, about 50 miles north of San Diego, for processing and release, said Capt. Jay Delarosa, a Marine spokesman. He will likely be discharged without facing formal charges.
The circumstances of Aguirre's desertion were unclear.
"One of the first things we instill in young recruits is to take accountability for their actions," Delarosa said. "This guy getting caught is just an end to the decision he made a long time ago."
Deserters can face punishment ranging from discharge to five years in jail. In March, a man who fled to Canada at the height of the Vietnam War was arrested after he and his wife tried to enter the United States at a border crossing in Idaho from their home in Kingsgate, British Columbia. He was held briefly at Camp Pendleton before being discharged and released.
CBP agents make daily arrests after routine ID checks turn up outstanding warrants, said spokeswoman Angelica De Cima. But, she said, warrants as old as Aguirre's are unusual.
I thought Carter pardoned all these cowards.
What's the odds he has a pony-tail?
No not deserters. He did pardon draft dodgers that fled to Canada.
I'm not sure how aggressively you punish desertion 40 years after the fact, but I don't think you completely forgive it.
I doubt he'll get a sentence at all. The one mentioned in the article was discharged and released and this one will probably be the same. This other one arrested in Idaho happened within the last year IIRC.
Carter pardoned all the draft dodgers, resisters, and rioters. It was the very first thing he did and was a thumb in the eye of the professional military, which has set the tone for Democratic Party relations with the soldiery ever since.
But Carter did not pardon military deserters. My understanding is that his first drafts did, but some of his little elves talked him out of that.
You may remember that the Marines tried Garwood.
There was some precedent for letting these traitors walk, even in Carter's black day. When the POWs came back from Vietnam, Nixon was in the throes of Watergate and he stopped the planned trial of the six "Manchurian candidate" collaborators who helped the torturers.
One of them, an enlisted Marine, capped himself anyway. Several of the others remain active in far-left groups -- closely allied with Jimmy Carter.
For the same reason, political weakness, no one pursued a treason indictment against Jane Fonda and various others who went to NVN to aid the enemy.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
He should be subject to courts-martial, and all back-pay and privledges should be revolked!
Well being a deserter that would be a moot point. He has no back pay or privileges anyway. He will plead guilty to the charge and that will probably be that. There really is no rational defense he could make.
If we didn't try Fonda for treason, it's questionable whether we ever will do to anyone in the future. It just wouldn't be PC, I guess.
I'm gonna bump this one until tomorrow. I should at least be given a day to decide. He took a lifetime while my brother had half his life blown away!!!!
I don't know anything about the six people you mentioned. Do you have a link to a story about this? I'd like to find out more.
Punishment: He should be fined an amount equal to the cost of training his replacement, in todays dollars.
This clown will wind up on "Nightline" or "Good Morning America" in the near future portrayed as some hero protester. PUKE!!
Flogging with the cat o' nine tails will do nicely.
Deserters are scum and should be treated as such.
My question would be if he was a volunteer or a draftee? If he was drafted I would let him walk since the military of today recognizes the superiority of volunteer over conscript forces.
Well, at least somebody is being arrested at the Mexican border. They should release him after making him promise to show up for court and then just forget about it, that way he won't foul up the machinery.
If nothing else, at least they are doing background checks. I doubt this was the first time this guy crossed the border.
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