Dear Sgt. Grit,
Saw the story about the lad who was arrested for "being AWOL at Sea…" Marines can and do fall between the cracks.
I had graduated from MCRD in August of 1968, but a paperwork snarl kept me at Graduate Casual for three months instead of going onto ITR immediately. First thing the following morning a Corporal approached me at 3rd Bn. HQ and advised me that I was on the morningreport as UA…
I looked and saw that while the last name was the same, I was J.F. Owings and the lad reported UA was C.A. Owings. The Corporal took note. Weeks later the Battalion Adjutant tried to get Depot to cut me a check… they did… in the name of C.A. Owings.
I was in Graduate Casual for three months before being sent to ITR. A few weeks before the paperwork unsnarled I was called into the Battalion Commander's office. He and the Adjutant had been talking… They asked me if I was related to C.A. Owings… Not that I knew about…
Turns out that the day before he went on report he had been hit by a truck. He was immediately taken to sick bay and from there sent to the Naval Hospital in San Diego. Somehow nobody notified his superiors. For weeks he was in a coma. At ten days missing the Battalion had sent his folks a Ten Day Letter… at 30 days they were mailed a copy of a declaration of desertion… and just now Battalion had learned that Private Owings was not a deserter, but had been in military "custody" the entire time.
His folks lived in Oklahoma City, so someone from the Officer Selection Team there went out to have a talk with his parents. The Marine Corps decided to try to make it up to his folks. After graduation and ITR, he would not be sent to FMF PAC but to Sea School.
James F. Owings
0311 1968-70