Oh, Jeff, we hardly knew ye.

Yes, Paul H., that makes me angry, as if I needed another reason to feel that way. I’m glad the US Army did do something right and saved the taxpayer some money by holding this trial. The names and photos of all these traitors are lovingly hanged on the walls of inteliigence installation high-security boxes for generations to scorn, along with the endless briefings and new regs young soldiers will have to endure because of him.

As for the information he might have, how much information do we need to know its bad there. He won’t have the econometric data we need to know how much Pyongyang diverts for military purposes, he had no access to government or corps-level personnel and documents, and he saw very little. If not for the sentimental value he has for the Japanese public this man is worse than useless. His published accounts will only cause more debate about the best way to handle the problem, because he doesn’t have the hard data we all need. The man is about as useful as a blurry satellite photo or a garbled radio message.

You’re also missing the point about the practicalities of confining a 65 year old man in extremely poor health. Since the end of the Cold war there have been some other obscure desertion cases (at least one GI who had deserted to East Germany decades ago “came in from the cold” and was quietly plea bargained and released). This one was essentially no different and would have been handled the same way even if there had been no Japanese family involved.

A lengthy sentence would have to be served back in the US at the military confinement facility in Leavenworth. The senior militar commanders and their JAG advisors want to keep the limited space there for younger prisoners who could be repeat offenders.

Had Jenkins shot or injured an American or ROK soldier during his desertion I think he would have got hard time, but this didn’t happen and he didn’t have access to any secret information that significantly harmed US/ROK defenses in 1965.

The 30 days can be done in whatever temporary confinement facility the US military maintains in Japan.

The important part of the punishment was to get an accurate confession as to his motives, convict him with a trial if he failed to plead guilty, and get an unfavorable discharge and forfeiture of pay. Had this not happened, 40 years of back pay would have been a significant sum; it was legally necessary to convict him in order to have this forfeited as part of the punishment authorized under the UCMJ.

The Japanese are welcome to him. I’m sure the government there will find a way to support him and his family (who are innocent victims).

I hope you guys who are outraged were also aghast at the fact that the FBI mole Hanson was able to keep his retirement pension as part of his plea bargain (so his wife and 4 (?) kids could be supported while he did a life sentence). That’s the sentence I find unbelievable.

Japan - right to the top, the PM of Japan - wanted him released. Japan, the nation which America quietly owes a lot.

Then, Jenkins confession and his bizarrely lenient pro-Japanese sentence is timed for the day after the US elections. Wow, what a coincidence!

People, it is missing something to talk about this without mentioning Japan’s wishes and influence.

BTW, I served in the military, and my family has, too, for generations, in worser situations than this man ran away from. Unlike this scumbag, I didn’t break my oath. I’ll accept your taunt and the fact that you are wrong, but you deserve what you got, and should get more. If you want to debate this point further, don’t insult people. Don’t take youe ex-law student pose for some counter-cultural, amoral flight. Frankly, I find your defense of this man reprehensible, considering that there are plenty of good people whose lives are not interesting enough to warrant the type of media hype this man can generate and the damage his story causes (obviously, he now has you defending him). As I said, forgiveness is earned, not bestowed, unless, of course, yu believe you are God. perhaps that is your problem,