thedrifter
01-31-06, 08:32 AM
Posted on Tue, Jan. 31, 2006
Vietnam-era deserter says he doesn't regret his flight from the military
By DEANNA BOYD
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
FORT WORTH -- Ernest McQueen knows that some people will always consider him a coward.
He knows that many will never support the decision that he made in November 1969, when he left his military base at Camp Lejuene after almost two years in the Marines and never went back.
He knows that some believe he should have been court-martialed after his arrest this month in Fort Worth, instead of being discharged by the Marine Corps and allowed to return home.
Still, the 55-year-old man said Monday that if given the choice, he would do it again.
"I was trained to be a killer, but I just decided I didn't want to be a killer," McQueen said. "Am I sorry about it? No, I'm not sorry about it. I'm glad it's over with, and I'll always be classified as a coward, a criminal or whatever. In God's eyes, I was acquitted. I was found not guilty and that's the only one I care about who judges me."
"My only crime was not to kill anybody," McQueen said. "If I'd went to 'Nam and killed everybody, I'd been a war hero."
McQueen apparently skirted authorities for so long because military officials recognized him as Ernest Johnson Jr., the name on his birth certificate.
McQueen said his mother had begun calling him Ernest McQueen -- her married name -- while he was still a toddler after his biological father left. He said the Marines insisted that he go by Ernest Johnson Jr. when he enlisted in January 1968 and that he simply reverted to McQueen after leaving the military.
But on Jan. 12, Fort Worth police arrested McQueen at the request of the Marines, who had learned where he was from a relative.
He was taken to the Mansfield jail, where he was held for six days before being transported to Camp Pendleton in California by military officials.
There, he was issued a military uniform and placed in a Separations Company, where he slept in a barracks alongside 27 other men accused of unauthorized absences from the military who had been deemed a low flight risk.
McQueen said he spent the days chatting with other men in his company, including one 19-year-old, and a 36-year-old who had served in Kuwait.
One joked that McQueen was the oldest Marine private around. A staff sergeant called him Grandpa.
McQueen said he spent some of his time visiting the military library, where he looked up Ernest Johnson Jr. on the Internet and was shocked to see how many hits the name returned.
"I spent quite a bit of time looking at the computer, reading where people said they ought to shoot me and where people said I really wasn't a criminal," McQueen said.
McQueen returned to Fort Worth last week after learning that his request had been approved and receiving an other-than-honorable discharge.
He said that he plans to use the spotlight his arrest has brought him to speak out against the Vietnam and Iraq wars, which he said were motivated by money and greed.
He's also planning to write a book that will include letters he has begun collecting from the other men assigned to the Separations Company at Camp Pendleton, explaining their reasons for leaving the military.
As for his own reasons, McQueen said he still stands firmly behind them.
"I talked to my daughter, my son, all the people that mean the most to me on this earth, and none of them say they're ashamed of me," McQueen said. "And that's enough for me."
Deanna Boyd, (817) 390-7655 dboyd@star-telegram.com
Ellie
Vietnam-era deserter says he doesn't regret his flight from the military
By DEANNA BOYD
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
FORT WORTH -- Ernest McQueen knows that some people will always consider him a coward.
He knows that many will never support the decision that he made in November 1969, when he left his military base at Camp Lejuene after almost two years in the Marines and never went back.
He knows that some believe he should have been court-martialed after his arrest this month in Fort Worth, instead of being discharged by the Marine Corps and allowed to return home.
Still, the 55-year-old man said Monday that if given the choice, he would do it again.
"I was trained to be a killer, but I just decided I didn't want to be a killer," McQueen said. "Am I sorry about it? No, I'm not sorry about it. I'm glad it's over with, and I'll always be classified as a coward, a criminal or whatever. In God's eyes, I was acquitted. I was found not guilty and that's the only one I care about who judges me."
"My only crime was not to kill anybody," McQueen said. "If I'd went to 'Nam and killed everybody, I'd been a war hero."
McQueen apparently skirted authorities for so long because military officials recognized him as Ernest Johnson Jr., the name on his birth certificate.
McQueen said his mother had begun calling him Ernest McQueen -- her married name -- while he was still a toddler after his biological father left. He said the Marines insisted that he go by Ernest Johnson Jr. when he enlisted in January 1968 and that he simply reverted to McQueen after leaving the military.
But on Jan. 12, Fort Worth police arrested McQueen at the request of the Marines, who had learned where he was from a relative.
He was taken to the Mansfield jail, where he was held for six days before being transported to Camp Pendleton in California by military officials.
There, he was issued a military uniform and placed in a Separations Company, where he slept in a barracks alongside 27 other men accused of unauthorized absences from the military who had been deemed a low flight risk.
McQueen said he spent the days chatting with other men in his company, including one 19-year-old, and a 36-year-old who had served in Kuwait.
One joked that McQueen was the oldest Marine private around. A staff sergeant called him Grandpa.
McQueen said he spent some of his time visiting the military library, where he looked up Ernest Johnson Jr. on the Internet and was shocked to see how many hits the name returned.
"I spent quite a bit of time looking at the computer, reading where people said they ought to shoot me and where people said I really wasn't a criminal," McQueen said.
McQueen returned to Fort Worth last week after learning that his request had been approved and receiving an other-than-honorable discharge.
He said that he plans to use the spotlight his arrest has brought him to speak out against the Vietnam and Iraq wars, which he said were motivated by money and greed.
He's also planning to write a book that will include letters he has begun collecting from the other men assigned to the Separations Company at Camp Pendleton, explaining their reasons for leaving the military.
As for his own reasons, McQueen said he still stands firmly behind them.
"I talked to my daughter, my son, all the people that mean the most to me on this earth, and none of them say they're ashamed of me," McQueen said. "And that's enough for me."
Deanna Boyd, (817) 390-7655 dboyd@star-telegram.com
Ellie