COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Leaving Military: AWOL
B.C. man nabbed at border for deserting Marines in 1968
ROD MICKLEBURGH, www.theglobeandmail.com
March 13, 2006
VANCOUVER -- The peaceniks and draft resisters who flooded into
Canada during the Vietnam War grew up long ago. Now they are aging,
their hair grey. Many are grandfathers.
But the long arm of justice in the United States is forever vigilant.
Late last week, U.S. authorities nabbed a quiet, 56-year-old retired
Canadian as he headed into Idaho from his home in B.C. They quickly
hauled him off to prison.
Allen Abney's crime? Thirty-eight years ago, while still a teenager,
he deserted from the U.S. Marines as he was about to be sent to
Vietnam and took refuge in Canada.
Today, he is being held in a military prison at a large Marine base
in San Diego, where he faces the possibility of a court-martial.
When they took him into custody, U.S. authorities confiscated his
shoes, his suspenders, his reading glasses and his false teeth, said
his distraught daughter, Jessica Abney.
To make matters worse, Mr. Abney's brother, Gerry, died Saturday in
hospital, and by late yesterday afternoon, his family had still not
been allowed to tell Mr. Abney.
The official who answered the phone at the prison told them to
contact the American Red Cross.
"This is a nightmare out of nowhere," Ms. Abney said. "My mom can't
eat or sleep. They've never been separated this long before."
Mr. Abney, a grandfather, was arrested as he went with his wife,
Adrienne, across their local border crossing in the East Kootenays
region of B.C. for a brief holiday in Reno, a crossing they had made
many times without any problems.
Not this time. Border officials ran the couple's passports through
their database, and Mr. Abney's 1968 desertion showed up.
His last words to his wife were: "They're putting me in jail."
U.S. Marines spokesman Lieutenant Lawton King said the Marines never
forget.
"Once a Marine deserts his unit, 30 days after the fact, a federal
warrant is issued," he said. "That federal warrant is outstanding
until the Marine is apprehended.
"It's filed on all federal computers and that's how most deserters
are caught."
He said, "Allen Abney is currently quartered here for desertion. He
is receiving fair treatment."
Lynn Gonzalez, a volunteer with the GI Rights Hotline in San Diego,
had a brief visit with Mr. Abney on Saturday.
"He seems very sweet. He tried to let on that he wasn't afraid, but I
think he is," she said. "This is heartbreaking. It's heart wrenching.
Right now, we're trying to get him some reading glasses and a phone
call to his wife.
"But there's a very unco-operative staff sergeant here."
Although Mr. Abney was born in the United States, his family moved to
Toronto when he was 10 years old. The move did not stop his brother
from receiving a U.S. draft notice, however, and Mr. Abney decided to
enlist in the Marines.
But he decided to desert when his unit was posted to Vietnam, his
daughter said.
"He is a man of few words and never really talked much about it. But
I gather he did not want to be part of the war. He got to know some
guys who had been there [Vietnam], and it really screwed them up,"
she said.
"He was just saying: 'I can't do this.' He made the same decision so
many other young people did. Now, to have this come back all these
years later, when there are so many other crimes in the world, is
really a wrench."
Ms. Abney criticized Canadian officials for doing little to help. She
said her mother was told they could tell her nothing about Mr.
Abney's situation or what they might be doing on his behalf because
of "privacy rules."
"That's so ridiculous. Nobody is closer to him than my mom. I want
the country I live in to really step it up. Show us that you care.
We're not seeing that."
The Abneys live a mere 100 metres from the U.S. border in the small
community of Kingsgate, B.C., just outside of Yahk, 40 kilometres
east of Creston.
The United States eventually offered amnesty to all deserters and
draft resisters who came to Canada to escape the Vietnam War, but Mr.
Abney apparently never went through the proper procedures to have his
name cleared.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060313.BCDRAFT13/TP
Story/National
This archive consists of a topically organized selection of
articles culled by members of the Counter-Recruitment List Serve from printed
publications and web sites. The archive is not complete. We have chosen
material relevant to the work of