Posted on 03/21/2006 10:51:36 AM PST by wallcrawlr
YAHK, British Columbia A Vietnam war-era deserter who was caught crossing into the United States and held for a week says he made a mistake when he fled the Marine Corps in 1968.
"When I was 18, I wasn't aware that duty and honor would mean as much to me as they do now," Allen Abney, 56, said Monday in this southeast British Columbia town.
"Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have done what I did 38 years ago," he said. "It wasn't worth it, all the pain I caused my family."
Abney was arrested March 9 while crossing the border to Idaho, something he had done countless times before, but he said that was the first time he was asked for birth certificate as identification. When the Customs agent asked him to pull over, Abney said, he knew he was in trouble.
After a night in custody in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, two Marine investigators took him to a cell in Camp Pendleton, Calif.
"I was read my rights and told of the charges," Abney said. "I was once again a Marine."
He said he was issued combat fatigues and boots, given a haircut and told to trim his mustache to military standards or shave it off altogether. Despite the strain, Abney said he was treated with respect.
"The (Marine Corps) is one of the finest military organizations in the world," he said. "Good or bad, they take care of their own and I feel privileged to have shared some time with those fine young warriors."
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1596276/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1595937/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1598054/posts
You'll never hear that from Bill Clinton.
"Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have done what I did 38 years ago," he said. "It wasn't worth it, all the pain I caused my family."
The wisdom of age speaking.
I think that did not include active-duty deserters.
I wonder how much of his poor judgment was due to anti-American propaganda by liberal student demonstrators, the useful idiots of the American left.
ping
You know I have lived in British Columbia all my life and I never knew there was a town named Yahk.
I was astonished to read that they are clearing his record. Makes no sense at all. He made his canadian exile bed now he should be forced to either serve his prison term (or firing squad) or lie in it and stay in Canada until he dies..
It wasn't exactly a "pardon."
Military deserters and AWOLs could apply for a limited pardon if there were no other charges pending. Under the Carter program deserters would automatically receive a less than honorable discharge ("Undesirable"), but could apply for an upgrade later. The upgrade would not be automatic and few veterans received them. They were barred from receiving veterans benefits, unlike many other vets with less than honorable discharges. Military resisters had to apply for relief within a certain time frame, about 5-6 months, during 1977. Only 4,200 of them were considered eligible for the program; less than 25% of them were processed and received the less-than-honorable discharge. The program allowed for a case-by-case review of potentially another 430,000 cases of veterans with bad discharges; yet only 16,277 benefited from this procedure.
He should have been hung on national tv instead of being turned loose.
But Jimmy was so against war, I though he pardoned everyone in all countries, from the beginning of time till now. I thought it was a UN sanctioned world wide blanket pardon??? /sarcasm still on. :)
See my response @ 11. :)
Hindsight is always 20-20, bozo.
Too little, too late.
Go to hell.
Something wrong in this story or this guy is bull s***ing.
He's 56 years old, joined the Mariens in 1968 at the age of 18, after his "younger brother" got his draft notice.
We didn't draft 17 year old kids so his "younger" brother could not have been drafted.
I suspect the reporter is just a typical lamestream media-idiot J-school grad.
It's near Yada-yada-yada.........
Well,
It's been 38 years. He's old. He regrets his actions or at least pretends to.
What should we do? Hes no NAZI war criminal that executed thousands. He didnt do any evil onto others per say.
I think at this point the only right thing to do is to publicly humiliate him. Show his face, his name and publicly disclose what he did. Let him live the rest of his life with a paper bag over his head. Besides, hes been living the life of a semi exiled criminal for these 38 years. Going further than public humiliation would be to make ourselves into the bad guys here.
Apply the Heinleinian solution: One hundred lashes from a whip, a dishonorable discharge, and barred from voting forever.
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