The strange case of deserter Charles Jenkins
Given recent events, it probably is a good idea to look at history for the treatment of US deserters. Deserters like Charles Jenkins, a sergeant who had the brilliant idea, while stationed in South Korea, to defect to North Korea in order to avoid anticipated service in Vietnam. His plan worked so well that he evaded service anywhere besides North Korea for 40 years. According to our friends at Business Insiders;
Jenkins, who claimed he wasn’t a communist sympathizer, said he defected to North Korea because he was being ordered to lead increasingly provocative patrols. He also heard his unit might deploy to Vietnam.
Once in the enemy’s hands, Jenkins said he expected North Korea to give him to the Russians, who would in turn deliver Jenkins to America in a prisoner swap. Instead, Jenkins was brought to a house where he lived with three other U.S. military deserters — 19-year-old Larry Abshier, 21-year-old James Dresnok, and 19-year-old Jerry Wayne Parrish — who had all defected separately since 1962….
After 40 years in North Korea, he returned to Japan and turned himself in to American authorities who sentenced him to 25 days in jail and released him. According to an NBC report in 2004;
Jenkins, 64, left the prison at the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka and was taken by helicopter to the Camp Zama Army base, where he was to join his family for several days before moving to his wife’s hometown in northern Japan.
“Forty years is a long time,” a sobbing Jenkins, still in uniform, told The Associated Press after he arrived at Camp Zama. “My plan is to stay in Japan, if they will accept me. I want to go back to the United States, but only once. With my wife, I’ll live in Japan, with my family.”
It seems to me that these deserters all have a plan which quickly falls apart when they bump up against our enemies. I guess that’s why they’re our enemies.
Category: Historical
YEP! “They can run, they can hide but sooner or later they will return home to get some rest.” Quoting from an unknown Sergeant, E7 USA MP’s during an AWOL Apprehension briefing. I can’t begin to imagine what these mofo’s thought before and after they hauled ass into commie arms. It defies any logic I can come up with.
Of course Jenkins didnt desert in combat
Actually, sean – technically he did. The Korean War never formally ended; hostilities merely were suspended via an armistice. The Korean War technically still is ongoing.
Further, if I recall correctly at the time Jenkins deserted the Korean DMZ was one of the two areas in the world for which both combat pay and the CIB were authorized – though the rules for the CIB were a bit different (one had to come under fire during a patrol 5x vice once). The US took significant casualties (around 100 KIA in total) in Korea and surrounding airspace during the period 1954-1994 (when US DMZ patrols ended) “after” the Korean War ended.
DMZ combat patrols were considered combat missions. Jenkins deserted during one of those patrols, reportedly after telling his companions he had to go investigate a noise.
So yeah, I think one can make the argument that Jenkins did indeed also desert during combat.
Perhaps not combat in the strictest sense, but the KDSM (1954-present) does meet VFW eligibility.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea_Defense_Service_Medal
Really???? I’d be ashamed to present myself as a Veteran of Foreign Wars for serving 6 months at TDC and 12 months on Chejudo. I mean, those KCIA and ROK Marines are tough …. but let’s be real.
D’oh!
(_8(|)
Perhaps only those in the ROK who patrolled the DMZ should qualify.
KDSM — Hooah! That’s sorta like KMRIA, right? (^__^)
Yes you can argue that point, but, and this is a big but, no one died while searching for him, nor did the Combat tempo in the area increase putting more soldiers lives on the line.
That to me is the biggest distinction between bergenthal and other deserters.
A significant difference is none of the defectors to North Korea were considered POWs in the manner of Bergdahl. I’m not sure why that is, they all left posts and went to the side of the enemy on their own free will.
I don’t think Bergdahl is considered a POW except by the Media and some of the administration trying to show how awesome they are by engineering his release. The Army never classified him as such and they have the last word. If he is not a POW according to them he is at best AWOL and at worst a deserter
Actually, jonp – for VA benefits purposes, by Federal law the VA makes the call of whether or not someone qualifies for POW benefits and status. DoD does not.
This is why it’s so damn important that EVERY wartime deserter get a court-martial and a DD. Only a DD is a bar to ALL VA benefits. Even a BCD doesn’t bar all VA bennies.
Discharge “as a deserter” is a (statutory) bar to benefits, see this, even if the discharge is a BCD or an administrative discharge. The trick is making sure that “desertion” is unambiguously the reason (i.e., he is convicted of that crime, or the discharge paperwork specifically lists that crime), so that he can’t escape with claiming “it was just AWOL.” Also, a BCD issued by a general court-martial is a statutory bar (same regulation, same section).
‘course he can still try to get benefits by claiming he was “insane” at the time…
Alberich: you’re the lawyer, not me. But isn’t that section of the CFR specific to compensation, pension, and DIC only? I seem to recall that medical and National Cemetery burial were only barred by a DD, and could indeed be granted to those with a BCD on a case-by-case basis.
IMO wartime deserters IMO deserve absolutely nothing from the VA or the US government whatsoever. That’s why I was observing that the individual getting a DD is so important.
Jenkins walked away during the middle of a combat patrol in the DMZ, Ex-344MP. Doesn’t seem to me to leave much room for interpretation.
Ohhhhh I know and understand that Hondo, I guess I was trying to illustrate the differences between the two turds. Pardon my lack of thought, I had just started intravenous coffee drip. 🙂
25 days in jail!!!
Wow. That was brutal. Sure learned him, huh?
PS. There was a televised documentary about this particular scumbag and his cohorts some years ago. Showed them living the good life in the Norklands.
PPS. There are some issues where any attempts at compassion, understanding or leniency are as big a crime as the issue itself.
40 years in North Korea has to be its own special reward.
That and his legacy will be that he was just another idiot deserter!
Another deserter was Pvt Joseph White, who lasted three years in North Korea (82-85) before mysteriously drowning.
There doesn’t seem to be much information out there on Joseph White. His defection sounds very interesting and based on what I found on the internet he had been a big anti-Communist and conservative activist before joining the military. It would have seemed out of character for him to defect to North Korea.
A known deserter. Why did the Navy Base he reported to let him wear a uniform?
Typical treatment for deserters be tried it to issue them the proper uniform to wear during courtmartial proceedings.
Correct Old Dog
AR 700–84, Chapter 5, para 5-8
http://www.apd.army.mil/pdffiles/r700_84.pdf
No insignia, rank, or patches… arguably the only things that makes it a uniform and not just an ugly green suit are the buttons.
That James Drosnok was another prime A piece of dogshit. That assbag is stil over there. He appears in NK propaganda films teaches English and lives in a higher end apartment.
The difference to me is the political climate. Bergdahl is being hailed the hero. He was when “Obama” saved him. Now that, that has is kinda blowing up the the Administration’s face, maybe not so much. But Jenkins was not held out as a hero but a deserter, period and was sentenced, albeit not long enough. Bergdahl will continue to be the “hero” POW and not a deserter if Obama has his way. Obama cannot backup and look bad on this now. He has too much skin in this game with Bergdahl to say he made a mistake. Besides, Obama NEVER admits to mistakes, no matter how big or how many lives it cost.
To note, Jenkins wasn’t released in a deal, at least not one made publicly. According to the BI article he was released with his children when the NorKs sent his wife, an abducted Japanese citizen, home.
Deserter yes, but no one ever pretended otherwise.
Out of curiosity, what exactly qualifies as “high end housing” in Norkland? Does that mean you get your own bucket to crap in rather than sharing one with everybody else?
At any rate, anybody who would make Nork propaganda after growing up in America (or anywhere else in the Free World) and experiencing something other than the “1984 in the 11th century” that is North Korea has no morals of any kind. Nobody is that stupid, you have to have a real evil streak to willingly participate in that shit.
May this Drosnok assdouche burn in hell.
A documentary on shitbag Drosnok
I watched the whole thing. Hopefully Dresnok will die / died a lonely, miserable and very painful death.
Dresnok, was a knucklehead who probably would have ended up in jail or homeless in the US.
In a way he is right…he was able to gain fame in NK and earn a living just by his reputation as a douchebag.
He could always work for Commander Phil Monkress at All-Points Logistics.
Word has it that due was some kind of movie star over there.
Any info?
Gay porn, perhaps?
That’s funny but for once I am serious.
I heard that he was an actor in NK. Played the “bad guy – evil Capitalist/American” in their movies.
Anyone know for sure?
Apparently what you heard was more or less correct, GT.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsung_Heroes_%28film%29
I poted a You tube link above that covered his story… He was a popular US villian with 2 other turncoats in a series of propaganda movies by Kim Jung Il.
Maybe we should send them Phildo and Snowden as replacements.
I would probably watch and root for the North Koreans.
Piss on him!
Remember those ass clowns that defected to the Soviet Union when I was in Germany in the 80s. I think they all came crawling back to the evil capitalist empire.
Where are they now?
If Bargdahl should achieve a military burial. I believe that it would call for a bottle of Roundup and a bag of skunk glands on his plot.