SwiftVets.com

[I B Squidly]

I was in the brig at Great Lakes serving 30/30 for dereliction. I'd been 30 minutes late after celebrating Hitler's 100th birthday too excessively. "Disrespect' brought by supercargo was dismissed. Under guard I was delivered to my daily duty, my Good Conduct Award and Commiskey Park to photograph the Admiral commanding tossing out the ball. Irony abounds but I met Joe Blow.

Joe Blow had walked off his ship 9 years earlier as it lay in Boston. No one came looking and he went on with his life. Now he he had happy employment, happy marriage, two children and wanted to buy a home. But his soc' was screwed up by the desertion and couldn't get a mortgage. So, to clear the record and set it all straight he turned himself in. The Navy put him in the brig, put his wife and children in housing, initiated his Comrats, pay, and exchange privledges. It took 3 weeks for the Navy to find his records and then they were mad! If he had stayed away another 5 months limitations would have lapsed but now they were faced with a Courts Martial. He was convicted with 90/90 and Dishonorable though the Comrats and Housing were unabridged.