In the early days of my career, I was a defense counsel.  The worst cases were AWOL and desertion cases.  An AWOL could be proved by submitting a couple of morning reports – one showing the soldier wasn’t present and one showing when he came back.  Talk about exciting – I went to law school for this!  If a soldier was gone for over 28 days, the morning report would show that he was dropped from the rolls as a deserter.  Almost all of these exciting cases ended up with a guilty plea and a conviction for AWOL.

Then one day at Fort Hood, Texas, everything changed.  I was advised that Private Clarence Westmoreland was down at the Fort Hood Stockade and that he had deserted from the Army five years ago.  I went down to see him.  He was a soft spoken guy who told me he didn’t know that he was in the Army.  He told me that he tried to enlist, but the Army wouldn’t take him.  I didn’t know if he was telling me the truth, but if he was lying, he had a great imagination.  A few days later, his wife showed up and told me the same story.  I decided to check it out. 

Neither Clarence nor his wife was a spring chicken.  I suspected they were both about forty, but they had been rough years.  His wife had moved into transient billets awaiting Clarence’s trial.  She told me not to worry about her safety, because while down in the billets, she was taking her teeth out, so she would not excite some young soldier.  She told me when she was a much younger girl, she had been married to a TV western star (I can’t remember his name).  But, believe me, she had traveled many dusty trails since then.

So here is the Private Clarence Westmoreland story, most of which I was able to verify.  Clarence was drafted and served two years in the Army during the Korean War.  He then got out and enlisted in the Air Force for three years.  Then, he reenlisted for three more years.  With less than a year left on his Air Force obligation, he received orders to Greenland.  He was advised that he would have to extend his enlistment to cover the two year tour.  Failure to extend would result in immediate discharge.  Clarence decided not to extend and was subsequently honorably discharged from the Air Force.  His discharge papers stated that he could not enlist for 90 days.  He was a sergeant and by staying out for 90 days, he lost all his rank.

Clarance and his wife and son went back to their home town in Arkansas (I no longer have a clue as to the town’s name) and he looked around for a job.  He also bumped into the Army recruiter.  He told the recruiter that he wouldn’t mind enlisting in the Army, but his discharge papers stated he couldn’t enlist for 90 days.  The recruiter looked at the discharge and explained to Clarence that the 90 days only applied to the Air Force.  So Clarence enlisted in the Army  They took him up to Little Rock where he had his physical and was sworn in.  He was given orders to report to Fort Polk, Louisiana and sent back home.

He didn’t have any money to drive to Fort Polk, so he took his wife’s silver service to the bank and using it as collateral, borrowed enough money to get down to Fort Polk and survive until the Army paid him.  With his wife, his son and all their worldly possessions, they piled into their VW bus and drove to Fort Polk.  It was about 9:00 in the evening when they arrived.  He took his records and orders and reported to the headquarters.  We never determined who he talked to, but an NCO in charge insisted that Westmoreland could not enlist for 90 days and consequently his enlistment was illegal and he was not in the Army.  They looked around for a place to spend the night, but anyone who remembers Fort Polk in the late 50’s will verify there wasn’t much, if anything.  The Westmorelands ended up driving back to their home in Arkansas.

Clarence went to see the recruiter and told him what happened.  According to Clarence, the Army recruiter said, “Well, I guess we’ll have to wait until the 90 days are up to enlist you.”  Clarence told him that if he wasn’t in the Army, then he wasn’t going through the drill again.  Clarence found a job as the handy man at a local motel and stayed there for the next five years.  His son enlisted in the Navy.

After about five years, Clarence’s aunt started looking for him.  She wrote to her congressman and said she knew he was in the Army, but didn’t know where he was assigned.  The congressman asked the Army.  The Army determined that Clarence had enlisted in Little Rock and was assigned to Fort Polk.  Fort Polk advised that he never reported and prepared the necessary paperwork showing Clarence was AWOL and a deserter.  After that, the FBI picked him up.  The sheriff told the FBI that Clarence wasn’t hiding.  In fact, Clarence cleaned up the jail every Saturday morning.

I explained everything I had discovered to the powers that be in the JAG office.  I didn’t think that this case needed to go to trial.  I was officially designated as gullible and a bleeding heart.  Me?  The case was going to trial for desertion.

We were scheduled for trial right before Christmas (not a bad time to try such a case) and I brought his son in from Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida.  We were ready to go and then, we couldn’t find Mrs. Westmoreland.  Had she slipped her teeth back in and run off with some young soldier?  It appears that Mrs. W. had been living off of money she was receiving from the Army Emergency Relief (a wonderful organization that provides money to soldiers and families who are in trouble).  They told her that they couldn’t give her any more money, but they would provide her with a bus ticket to anywhere she wanted to go.  She decided to go to Pensacola and spend Christmas with her son (who now was at Fort Hood).

Well, Clarence got to have Christmas dinner at the Fort Hood Stockade.  We started the trial the third week in January and Clarence, his wife (with teeth) and their Navy son all testified consistently as to what had happened.  I even brought in to testify the owner and manager of the motel where Clarence worked.  He was right out of Mayberry RFD.  Based upon his testimony, Clarence could have been elevated to Eagle Scout.

The court didn’t waste much time in finding Clarence not guilty.  That entitled him to back pay for the three months he spent in the stockade.  I was also able to get him time in service for the years he was found not guilty of being AWOL.  So I figured Clarence needed about seven more years to retire.

I never found out what happened to my 40-year-old private.  His Navy son flew back to NAS Pensacola and I guess Clarence and his bride headed off for their next Army station.  I hope they didn’t send him to Fort Polk.  The cycle might start all over again.