Marine deserter caught after 36 years on run (Reuters)

[Up2Late]

(I'll leave it to our Vets to comment on this one, I was 9 when the Vietnam draft ended.)

Marine deserter caught after 36 years on run

Tue Jan 17, 2006 06:30 PM ET

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A U.S. citizen who deserted the Marine Corps 36 years ago rather than ship out to fight in Vietnam was arrested late last week and could face jail time.

Ernest Johnson Jr, 55, had been living as Ernest McQueen since he fled Camp Lejeune in North Carolina in 1969. He was arrested outside Fort Worth, Texas, where he lived with his girlfriend, according to Monday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Johnson joined the Marines in 1968, but said that news of the massacre of civilians by U.S. soldiers in My Lai, growing protests against the war across the United States and stories from Marines returning from the battlefield prompted him to leave.

"I just decided I didn't want to be part of killing anybody. That's as plain as I can say it," Johnson told the newspaper. He could face up to three years in a military jail and a dishonorable discharge, according to Marine Capt. Jay Delarosa. "But it's really too early to say exactly what's going to happen to him," Delarosa said.

(more at link below)

<http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=10880619&src=rss/topNews>

[LostinVA]

1. The Military's latest recruiting plan?

What's this, two in the last month or so?

[Canuckistanian]

2. Hey, I know where another deserter is

Go get him, boys!

[Centered]

5. LOL

That was great, thank you for the laugh. I needed one today :)

[pinerow]

3. More power to him...I wish I had his courage

at the time...

[saigon68]

4. This is meant to send a MESSAGE to those who skip the OILY WAR

It tells them, the draft dodgers (like cheney and the chimpanzee) running amerika WILL PUNISH you if and when they CATCH YOU

if you don't cooperate to kill (insert racial epithet here)heads

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. To fight for one's country is one thing - to blindly slaughter is another

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The United States is increasingly being recognized around the world as a Killing Machine -

Any person that doesn't want to be a mercenary for the PNACer's shouldn't be prosecuted

When a country that has as many benefits as the USA does has to FORCE it's people to fight for it

something is really wrong

that's my Canuk Opinion anyhoo . . .