Linley Lemburg; Air Force deserter arrested
Brown Neck Gaiter sends us a link to the story of 75-year-old Linley Lemburg, who his neighbors knew as 65-year-old William Robertson. Lemburg has been a deserter from the Air Force since 1972 until local law enforcement rolled up on his Ocala, Florida home the other day, according to News 96.5;
The Sheriff’s Office was contacted by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, which asked investigators to help track down Lemburg.
He was found living with his wife in the 7800 block of SW 5th Place in Ocala Tuesday morning, deputies said.
He was taken to the MCSO Evidence Division where his fingerprints were compared to Air Force records from his 1960 enlistment.
According to the Marion County Sheriff’s Department, he’s been transported to MacDill AFB. Fox35 reports that even his wife wasn’t aware of his deceit. I’m guessing that he did something really bad before he deserted, otherwise the Air Force wouldn’t be looking for him 45 years later. Or maybe they would, what do I know?
Category: Air Force
Yeah,
He probably owes them money.
This reeks of oddity.
From Fox 35.
“We learned from the U.S. Air Force that, ironically, Lemburg’s position when he was reported AWOL was that of an agent whose job it was to track down deserters.”
This is going to get interesting.
I wonder if someone he tracked down turned the tables on him… or he was so arrogant that he let his lie slip out?
Hope that there’s a follow-up on this…
45 years later, they finally found him living with his wife? Well, did anyone check with Social Security, fer Pete’s sakes?
I am really interested in finding out what he did that 1) has no statute of limitations on it, and 2) made it worthwhile to desert.
This is the stuff of Sam Spade novels. I can see the trailer now, all in black & white, of course, with in-your-face graphics…. “Landed and Caught Red-handed!” while some 1940s detective movie music plays in the soundtrack.
Does Desertion have a SoL on it?
That is what he is being charged with.
IIRC, there is no statute of limitations on desertion. Basically, your enlistment stops, and you still owe them whatever remaining time you have on your contract, plus whatever punishment they hand out.
I’ll bet he can still pass what passes for a PT test in the USAF….. 🙂
Like that guy from the Korean war (forgot his name.)
One each mess kit spoon not accounted for when his TA-50 was inventoried after being declared a deserter.
No, wait, do AF types draw TA-50?/smile
Damned supply weenies. They hang on to hand receipts till the grave.
Whose grave? The enlisted who signed for it? Or the POGue who issued it?
Hand receipts never die. They just go to the bottom of the pile.
And then the new Supply Sergeant flips the pile over and starts at the top.
Faked his own death?
https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/linley-b-lemburg_115271410
The news is reporting his age incorrectly evidently.
Marion County Sheriff’s Office | Facebook
https://www.facebook.com › Places › Ocala, Florida › Law Enforcement Agency
… of Special Investigations in locating Linley Benson Lemburg (DOB: 08/29/1941 ), who has been AWOL (Absent Without Leave) from the Air Force since 1972.
But the DOB from the Sheriff matches the birthdate of the guy that allegedly dies in 1971.
There is an ancestry entry for his real name saying that person died in 1971. Did he fake his death?
Also he is actually 75 (DOB 1941) not 65.
sorry, i thought the original didn’t make it while it was in the TAH ether.
I found it in spam and rescued it from annihilation.
You’re pretty good about that
Of course, you can guess who added that to Ancestry.com. There is nothing in the 1930 or 1940 online census records that I could find for him, Arthur, or Minnie, even under Minnie Reynolds, which was either her maiden name or, as I would guess, her married name the first time around. The only intriguing thing I did find was a Linley B. Lemburg behind a pay wall for the 1950 Census Substitute. The indication is that he was in Sacramento, CA at the time.(The 1950 census records will be released in 2022.)
He did not clear the base CIF before he deserted.
He didn’t turn in his window-mounted air conditioner before he left.
What? He didn’t manumet his slave with the fan?
Yeah. That’s weak, but I was going for the “ancient” aspect of this story.
Maybe he didn’t move the lawn before he checked out of government quarters?
Or his OD Suspenders.
Or didn’t pay his bar tab at the Top 4 Club.
He’ll get 30 days confinement (and only do 10 for good behavior with credit for time served) and a DD
An old shitbag.
Lets go ahead and give him a discharge upgrade and some benefits because he is a “Veteran”.
And then he can apply for a VA disability pension. He surely must have some of that PTSD from all that stress of being on the run from the “Man” for all these years.
Not if he’s convicted of desertion. Pretty sure that’s one of the few crimes that results in a statutory bar to receipt of ANY VA bennies.
Inshya Allah
Sorry I hit the report by mistake.
Yeah.
Wait to the SJW’s find out.
He had it tough so we need to help him.
It was the PTSD.
Fuck this maggot.
I’m sure we will see him again, probably claiming to be a Seal or a Ranger? Does the AF have anything like the Seals? At least he has 10 years of social security checks coming to him, I’m sure they can’t take that away from him?
He deserted in 1972 and the just now found him? S’ ABOUT TIME!!!!
YEAH, shit like this really renews my faith in the efficiency of Government bureaucracy.
The Army arrested Charles Jenkins about ten years ago. He defected to North Korea during a night patrol. He surrendered to the Army at Camp Zama. They slapped BDU’s on that guy and gave 30 days and a Big Chicken Dinner and reduction to E-1. That guy deserted to North Korea on purpose. I can’t imagine what this new guy did that was so important to arrest him this long after the fact. That’s a lot of work just to give him 30 days and a BCD and reduction. We shall see..
Was in for 12 years, then takes a walk. 45 years later Air Force
Comes-a-calling, he must have done some really stupid shit
He has a whole shitload of Powerpoints to sit through thats for sure. Also, they promoted Bergdahl to SGT when he deserted so this guy may be in line for SeniorMasterGunneryFlightChiefAirman of the Air Force.
45 years of Air Force Relief and Combined Federal Campaign solicitations to catch up on. He better have a pen with a lot of ink to fill out those allotment forms.
On a side note, OSI rocks. Most of the work they do you’ll never hear about, but it’s always in the nations best interest.
When I think of deserters, I never thing Air Force or Coast Guard. I guess this guy ruins that for me. Bastard.
I’m having serious spelling issues lately. Guess it’s time to get a new keyboard. Or something.
It’s the loose nut on the front of the keyboard that’s the problem.
At least on my keyboard.
It’s a malfunction between chair and keyboard.
You’re gonna have to take the spellchecker out behind the barn and have a serious discussion.
2/17 Air Cav, I just bought you that keyboard about a month or so ago. I was assured that it was “spell-check free”. Must be defective, was it made in Pakistan?
No. It was in Greek, dammit.
Did you swipe your typewriter from the office of a former senior executive in the Herndon VA office of All Points Logistics?
He’s been living under an alias. Something is afoot.
If I’m not mistaken, barring any other circumstances Deserters can be admin separated with a General under other than honorable discharge and paperwork mailed to their last home of record.
Deserters still count as a body for service end strength.
It was a USMC policy to have them dropped from their parent units and carried on the rolls of HQMC until apprehended or booted.
Ones that were caught after a certain time were often just sent to Sub Unit 1 or 2 ( Lejeune or Pendelton) and ad-sepped in a week or two.
I recall one wing of the reception barracks at Camp Pendleton, across from the (old) PX housed deserters pending discharge. They were treated like remedial boot camp recruits, sans uniforms. I had to pull firewatch when I was waiting to get to my command, and those deserters smelled worse than Daniel Bernath being held in contempt of court.
There’s probably more to Lemburg’s story than a simple Air Force dude walks and isn’t found for 45 years.
For example, did a real William Robertson exist and if so, who was he? Imagine Lemburg in 1972 at the age of 31. If you needed a new identity, would you invent one from whole cloth, and have to invent an entire background narrative, or would you use one that already existed?
What if the Ancestry.com record is correct, and the same Lemburg faked his own death? A problem with faking your own death if you’re a deserter is that people likely are not going to believe you actually died unless there’s a body. What if there was a body, but it was actually the real Robertson made to appear as Lemburg?
What triggered Lemburg’s arrest? It’s doubtful if some Air Force OSI guy was sitting around last month and suddenly wondered: Whatever happened to ol’ Linley Lemburg? Something sent up a red flag.
Also, why did Lemburg desert in the first place? After twelve years in the Air Force, it seems doubtful Lemburg was simply unhappy with being in the military. A more likely explanation is he was either trying to avoid punishment, or there was some sort of material gain involved.
As I recall he has to be placed back in a uniform during this proceeding. Get him the blue Class A
1″ thick horsehair . Looked like Greyhound bus drivers. But did have a cool service cap for enlisted.
He just may pass the USAF PFT.. or an array of ribbons he gets for just showing up….give it a go.
CAPT Bones
Any relation to Tempe?
They need to wander over to IAVA and do a round up over there next.
45 years? Really? This guy has a skeleton (or six) in his gear locker. Did he abscond with money? Sexual transgression? There’s something more than just trying to find him after this period of time. Would love a follow up on this, Jonn.
“Bill Robertson” was one of my closest friends for the last 10 years. I can truthfully say that I have never know a person who was more friendly and sincere. If he said he would be there for you at any time, you could count on it. He was always the first to offer help to anyone that needed it and never expected repayment of any kind. A person like that has to have a clean heart. He had spoken of being in the Airforce but of course he never mentioned what he had did, but I believe he “thought” at the time that it was what he must do. I will know sometime in the near future what his reason was, because I intend on visiting him at the Air-force base, but I kind of think it probably has something to do with him having a new wife at the time. My heart bleeds for her now, she isn’t in the best of health now and depends on him to take care of her.
For all of you that are first to condemn & crucify him before you even know his side of the story, I hope you don’t find youself in a situation someday that attracts the same time of comments from others for deeds that you aren’t guilty of. If you are cruel then you will be cruelly treated.
You’re fucking kidding me, right? I don’t give a fat rat’s ass how “nice” this guy is. He’s a scumbag at heart. He had an obligation to his country and he skipped out on it. That doesn’t equate to nice in my book. Think about this next statement long and hard; if he would have done the right thing all along he wouldn’t have his sorry ass in a sling right now.
and the sock puppet appears.
Do you take us for a fool?
How’s it feel to be a tool?
“He is a good boy”….”he turned his life around”…
Where have we heard that before.
Deserter = Loser.
He’s so sincere that he lied to you for 10 years. You didn’t even know his real name. Works for me.
“Ron” – he had an obligation to the “Air-force” and walked away from it. He had every opportunity to go back over 45 years and turn himself in, and he didn’t. He even went as far as to go track down and turn other people in who had deserted from the military, and HE DIDN’T. He threw 12 years of honorable service down the drain because he QUIT on the “Air-force”.
He put himself and his wife in the situation that he’s in now, and duped people about himself. That’s why there isn’t any sympathy for him here or probably in the community he lives in.
I think it’s funny (odd not ha-ha funny)that no matter how guilty a poser is, someone always comes forward to defend them. A sad statement about the current state of the culture.
Is your name Ron or Hanover Fist?
Well, RON, since you didn’t even know Lemburg’s real name, it’s obvious that he had you completely fooled. If you had taken the time to read any of the comments for comprehension, you would know that deserters are not nice people and the charge doesn’t just die away.
This Lemburg dumped a 12-year military history over something that must have been REALLY bad if he went to the trouble to use an alias to hide from punishment. If you don’t get that part, you are not paying attention.
I can only guess why he wouldn’t have turned himself in. Once he got married (around the time of his AWOL) is that doing that would not only be detrimental to his own life, but also would have been a terrific hardship on his wife. As time went on, his wife developed physical problems and to leave her then would have been devastating to her.
Always someone else’s fault right Ron? Go fuck yourself.
There’s ex-OS2 coming off the top rope with a flying head scissors!
WHAM-KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
(and the crowd goes wild)
He’s a fucking DESERTER “dude”. He walked out on his brothers. Fuck him and the bus he rode out of town on.
All that have made a “really” bad decision at some point in their lives, please stand up.
Wow, did we just have an earthquake?
Like putting diesel in a gas engine bad, or deserting your country bad?
Take your time and think about it.
“If he said he would be there for you at any time, you could count on it.”
And where was he when the Air Force needed him while he was a deserter, Ron? He made the decision to QUIT on the Air Force – and now he’s paying for it 45 years later.
You would probably be better off making your pitch somewhere else, Ron. I was in the Army in Viet Nam in 1972, the same year your pal “Bill” decided to skate from the Air Force. For some of us, desertion during a war is an unforgivable form of cowardice, and puts Lemburg down about the same level as carpet mold or Nancy Pelosi.
I retired from the Army several years ago.
At one point in my career I had several problems thrown at me at once. I had a couple options that I pondered. One was to take my own life, the other to run from it all. Although I got through it all, I could have easily chosen one of the more drastic options. As with other vets, I get the “Thank you for your service” handshakes etc.
If I had chosen the alternative to run, I would be getting dirt slung at me.
It could have come down to an instant decision. I am the same person, even though the dirt slingers will say otherwise.
No matter how bad shit gets and how much you lose, nobody can take your honor away.
If you want to get sick to your stomach, go to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page and see how many people are saying this is all a waste of tax money. This is what our country has come to. Disgusting.