Posted on 03/22/2006 6:05:03 AM PST by Kitten Festival
YAHK, British Columbia (AP) -- 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
He should be whipped.
His Canuck citizenship ended up trumping his Marinehood, politically.
I liked Col. Hunt's reply concerning this traitor. Do not waste our money trying him or putting him in prison, but brand him a deserter and never allow him back in the country. Stated the clown was on a 38 year vacation while he and his buddies pulled his load and some paid the price. Col. Hunt has nothing but contempt for him and so do I. I never had to go to war and I was in one of the easier services - Navy - but I volunteered several times and did 18 years. Most of it was pretty good and I met fine people and had great times and memories. Some commands sucked and the people sucked there too. But I did my time and did not run away. On second thought, this idiot needs to be horse whipped in the public square.
I'm not sure letting this jackass come back is worth it either.
Nonsense. Unless there was something especially agregious about the context of his desertion, the draftee has suffered enough and learned his lesson.
""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."…
Abney's younger brother, who had been ill with cancer, died while he was at Camp Pendleton this month. The Marines expedited his release so he could attend his brother's memorial service Saturday."
Put yourself in an 18-year old's shoes. All he sees and hears is how American soldiers are getting slaughtered as if they are cattle in a slaughterhouse. Every night images of the absolute worst of the worst are put forth in a media with only three networks for news, all colluding to put out the same liberal biased crap.
Then you have a young kid, who's lumped in with millions of others across the nation that have been taught either directly or indirectly to incorrect things and immoral things as the basis for everything, and to hate all that's good including belief in God.
Just as women that have had abortions and regretted it, at some point ya have to punish mildly, but let it go IMO fore people that admit that they were wrong. If this is simply a matter of he thinks he was correct but just regrets the fruits of his decisions, then that's a different matter.
I would think that having had to live in Canada is somewhat of a punishment as someone that was originally American. IDK...
You are right on. There were so many honorable options in those days, there's absolutely no excuse. That fire still burns strongly in most of us when it comes to those cowards.
If you are not a liberal at nineteen, you have no heart. If you are not a Conservative at twenty one, you have no brain.
...And you believe this? It doesn't strike you as a little convenient that his sudden patriotic enlightenment would occur just when he got caught?
imho the grew up in canada part is wherein lies the problem.
.
And in the end...
...some paid the greatest of prices when their Freedom was taken from them by our non-support in Congress:
Pictures of a vietnamese Re-Education Camp
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308949/posts
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I believe the military is much too advanced and professional than to lead it by "whipping” this guy. Our troops are not ignorant peasants motivated by fear, and I think most would laugh at your suggestion.
"Put yourself in an 18-year old's shoes. All he sees and hears is how American soldiers are getting slaughtered as if they are cattle in a slaughterhouse. Every night images of the absolute worst of the worst are put forth in a media with only three networks for news, all colluding to put out the same liberal biased crap.
Then you have a young kid, who's lumped in with millions of others across the nation that have been taught either directly or indirectly to incorrect things and immoral things as the basis for everything, and to hate all that's good including belief in God."
I didn't believe in the draft at the time, so with a number 14 in the first lottery I fought it for two years, won my permanent deferment, then enlisted in the army and went Airborne. During my time in the anti draft movement I met many guys that were living in Canada,but would make trips back here (the U.S.) I would call them cowards and anti- American, and tell them I was going to kick their ass if they didn't leave my presence. For me fighting the Draft was legit, but you had to do it inside the U.S., and go to prison if you failed, it was disappointing for me to discover how little principle was involved in the anti-war movement, outside of my self, I remember less than 5 or 6 guys that I believed were genuinely involved in a matter of conscience.
"And you believe this? It doesn't strike you as a little convenient that his sudden patriotic enlightenment would occur just when he got caught?"
This guy is a loser, but almost all males regret not serving when they hit their late 30s or 40s, that is why I advise every young man that I think has the right stuff, to join the military. I really had to work on my son to get him to enlist, he had all the usual arguments against it, but now that he is in his early thirties he is very happy he pulled a hitch with the 10th Mt., and he knows it will serve him well as a man, the rest of his life, that he is a veteran. We need to start pushing service to our Republican and conservative young men.
It wasn't worth taking him and his like in either.
Had Abney not been caught at the border on his latest entry to the States it's very likely that he never would have had his "Come to Jesus" moment. Your "empathy" is wasted on a deserter who finally got caught.
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