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Sgt. Charles R. Jenkins |
Former U.S. Army Sgt.
Charles R. Jenkins, who was
convicted in 2004 of desertion and aiding the enemy after crossing into North Korea in 1965, has died in Japan at age 77. His
New York Times obituary refers to him as a "Cold War enigma." Excerpt:
At his court-martial, he pleaded guilty to desertion and aiding the enemy. He was demoted to private, stripped of back pay and benefits and given a 30-day jail sentence along with a dishonorable discharge.
“I was released five days early, for good behavior,” he wrote [in “The Reluctant Communist: My Desertion, Court-Martial, and Forty-Year Imprisonment in North Korea,” a 2008 autobiography co-authored by Jim Frederick].
His wife and two daughters survive him.
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