US deserter weeps upon release in Japan

[Rose Siding]

Free for the first time in nearly four decades, US Army deserter Charles Jenkins sobbed with joy as he was released from a military jail on Saturday after serving 25 days for abandoning his squadron and crossing the border into North Korea in 1965.

The frail 64-year-old, still in uniform and carrying a heavy duffel bag, broke down in tears after arriving at this U.S. Army base, where he was flown by Blackhawk helicopter after completing his sentence at a nearby naval prison.
........
The release ends the longest desertion case on US record. American deserters from the 1940s are still on the military's wanted list, but not one has turned himself in.

Jenkins, a native of Rich Square, N.C., testified in his Nov. 3 court-martial that he fled his Army post in South Korea on Jan. 5, 1965, because he had heard rumors that he was to be reassigned to combat in Vietnam. He said he didn't intend to stay in the North - instead, he had planned to defect to the Soviet Embassy there and eventually make his way back to the United States.

http://www.csmonitor.com/newsinbrief/brieflies.html#USA10:20:30

[mr_hat]

1. I wonder if they got any useful "intelligence" from him?

Seems unlikely that NK would have hosted him all this time, absent some kind of... I don't know what.

[ScrewyRabbit]

2. Maybe some propaganda value

eom

[0007]

3. Usually the SC Monitor doesn't put out propaganda....

'Tis a little strange!

[Ima]

4. Your link

doesn't point to the article.

[0007]

6. What link? I didn't put a link in my last post!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. This has gotten huge play in the Japanese media, not only because

Jenkins was released to Japan but because he married a Japanese woman who had been abducted to North Korea. His wife was sent back to Japan first and reunited with her family, and Prime Minister Koizumi was able to negotiate the release of Jenkins and the couple's two university-age daughters.

I've seen him on Japanese TV, and he does not look healthy. It could be that the U.S. officials decided that there was no point in holding a sick man and released him in return for about 25 days worth of inside information on North Korea.

[steely]

7. Surprised he wasn't activated 'n sent to Iraq.

<sarcasm directed at shrub>

I'm glad they let him go.

[lies and propaganda]

8. I cannot believe us..

We put that man in jail??? He was damn near a hundred!

The repugs must control with fear, they know no other way.

[hinachan]

9. Yet AWOL Bush walks free

And gets selected to the Oval Office twice! :mad: