Better late than never.
Vietnam deserter says going to Canada ‘wasn’t worth it’
YAHK, British Columbia (AP)—A Vietnam war-era deserter who was caught crossing into the United States and held for a week says he made a mistake when he fled the Marine Corps in 1968.
“When I was 18, I wasn’t aware that duty and honor would mean as much to me as they do now,” Allen Abney, 56, said Monday in this southeast British Columbia town.
“Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t have done what I did 38 years ago,” he said. “It wasn’t worth it, all the pain I caused my family.”
Abney was arrested March 9 while crossing the border to Idaho, something he had done countless times before, but he said that was the first time he was asked for birth certificate as identification. When the Customs agent asked him to pull over, Abney said, he knew he was in trouble.
[…] He was released Thursday after being discharged without a court-martial …
[…] Abney was born in the United States and grew up in Canada, but he retained his American citizenship and enlisted with the Marines in 1968 shortly after his younger brother received a draft notice. He was sent to boot camp at Camp Pendleton but fled to Vancouver during a weekend leave. He became a Canadian citizen in 1977.
Vietnam war-era deserters and draft dodgers were given the opportunity to apply for amnesty in the 1970s, but Abney didn’t think it was worth turning himself in.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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