A man was being held in a United States military prison on Monday for deserting from the marines 38 years ago after being caught on the American-Canadian border amid a new drive to track down Vietnam-era deserters.
Allen Abney (56) who lives in British Columbia and who is now a Canadian citizen, had frequently crossed into the US without incident. His family was caught by surprise when he and his wife were stopped by immigration officials on Thursday on their way to a social event in Reno, Nevada.
”They were crossing British Columbia-Idaho border, and they handed in their passports and they were told they would have to come inside,” Jessica Abney, the couple’s daughter told The Guardian. ”I don’t think he’d been worrying about it, because he’d been in the states hundreds of times since he deserted. I don’t think he lived his life that way.”
Abney is not the only ex-marine to have been tracked down for desertion recently. Since he took over the marine corps Absentee Collection Centre in 2004, chief warrant officer James Averhart has reopened cold cases and claims to have tracked down 33 deserters. ”I have a different leadership style than the guys who have had this job. My job is to catch deserters. And that’s what I do,” he told Florida’s St Petersburg Times.
The army, navy and air force are less determined, shelving cold cases after an initial inquiry. Last year, a 65-year-old man from Florida, Jerry Texiero, was arrested for desertion 40 years earlier. But instead of being prosecuted, he was released with an ”other than honourable discharge”, after being held in jail for five months.
Legal observers said the new drive to hunt down Vietnam deserters is designed as a deterrent for soldiers being sent to Iraq. ”They’re really hardcore about this,” Ms Abney said. ”I think there have been a lot of these young guys now trying to get refuge in Canada, and they decided they were going to set an example.”
Abney had fled while in Mexico in 1968, on leave from basic training. – Guardian Unlimited Â