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 ...
Remember that show "Branded". Stand him up and rip off his rank badges and strip him of his firearms. Or let him serve his time now in the Marines.
Just the draft dodgers.
I would have paid big money to have been present when they cut his hair, and got him into Uniform...
I do not think kindly of the draft dodgers or the protesters who spit on our heroes when they came home from Viet Nam.
Not all that much time either, if he booked on a weekend pass in basic.
"We didn't draft 17 year old kids so his "younger" brother could not have been drafted."
since our calender has 12 months and not less than 9, i beleive 2 brothers can be born at different times and be 18 at the same time...for up to 3 months if my math is correct.
While the deserters went to Yahk, B.C. CA.
Geez, I ain't that old!
I was a young stud (E-5) know-it-all at Fort Rucker, then.
Was the Cav at Hood in 70-71?
I thought the colors came back in '72.
I worked for an E9 there who could be your dispositional twin...
E-9's are required to take secret classes, given at a secret location, to ensure that we all are equally curmudgeonly, patriotic to a fault, meaner than hell, can curse in at least six languages, know how to kill with a Snickers Bar and a paper clip and have rapier tongues with which we rip young soldiers under the grade of E-7 apart with.
The curriculum hasn't changed in 40 years.
If you're that E9, all I can say is that I know now that I was an idiot then.
As I said, hindsight is always 20-20.
It's what you did with yourself in between your blind spell and the here and now that matters.
Buzz off, sarcastic one.
And your point would be?
They were pathetic old men that looked out-of-place, in their new crisp uniforms.
All of them lacked that distinctly devil dog confidence and hardness that even the most boot marine acquires upon graduating boot camp. In its place was a ghostly, "oh shit!" expression.
Jail might be fitting, but a return to active duty. Their heart would never be in it and no one would ever trust them.
I drove through Yahk two weeks ago en route to Calgary on #3.
There ain't much there - even for a hick settlement in B.C. mountain country.
No offence meant to any lurking Yahkites.
ok
I'm willing.
It's likely you can attribute the weekend pass from basic at Pendleton to the typical lamestream media-idiot J-school grad reporter ditto alluded to. Other articles implied he deserted on receiving orders to VN.
well, i also think that all illegals should be given the opportunity to earn the right to become citizens by serving in the war, and possibly some ex-cons that want to earn back their rights.
a special platoon of very basic grunts/ wall fodder/ manual laborers, with jobs that do not put them in a position where they may be privy to any secrets or orders, or a position that someone else may have to rely on them for their lives.
example.. send a group of these type of people for construction. have them over there rebuilding homes, schools, public buildings.
I don't know how long you jail him for, it should be commensurate with similar cases. I'm not sure how reliable the article is, but it appears they gave him a pass on criminal charges. That's wrong, even if he serves no time, his criminal activity should be documented.
OR
"Oops! I got caught so I better act contrite."
My teenager is good at that act.
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