Man Jailed in Desertion Denies Ever Being Sailor : Has Honorable Army Discharge

Guiles L. Gadsby served a year in Vietnam, eventually signed a veteran’s loan on a two-story house in Lancaster and settled down to civilian life as a reservoir operator for the Las Virgines Water District.

But the tranquility of Gadsby’s life was shattered this week when U.S. Navy authorities accused him of having deserted 11 years ago and locked him in the brig in San Diego.

Only one problem: Gadsby, 38, says he was never in the Navy. He enlisted in and was honorably discharged from the Army.

Yet after showing investigators his Army discharge papers--documents that his wife of three years, Vickie, said are evidence of his innocence--Gadsby remained in the brig Thursday.

The Navy was waiting to compare fingerprints taken in October, 1976, when Gadsby allegedly volunteered to become a sailor a year after serving as a soldier.

Hinges on Fingerprints

Those fingerprints, military authorities believe, will prove this is no case of mistaken identity or bureaucratic bungling.

“As far as we’re concerned,” said Lt. Cmdr. Scott Wilson, a Navy spokesman in Washington, “we have the right person.”

If convicted of desertion, Gadsby could be sentenced to five years of hard labor.

Gadsby’s arrest this week was the second time in seven years that he has been taken into custody on military charges, according to his wife. In 1980, he was stopped for a traffic ticket in Los Angeles and jailed when a routine records check indicated that he had been absent without leave from the Navy for four years.

Gadsby was released after his parents, who live in Downey, produced his Army discharge papers and convinced police that their records were wrong, Vickie Gadsby said.

“The records (at that time) said he had enlisted in Detroit,” she said. “My God, he’s never even been to Detroit. . . . When he got out of jail, he was aggravated at the time, but he let it go. He thought that they had straightened everything out and that was the end of it.”

Wilson said the military has no record of such an incident.

Gadsby’s records show that he served in the Army as an enlisted man, Wilson said. Gadsby was in Vietnam from 1970-1971 with a supply unit and was honorably discharged from the Army Reserve in August, 1975.

In October, 1976, a man with Gadsby’s name, appearance, signature, Social Security number and military history entered a Navy recruiting office in the Denver area and enlisted for a two-year hitch, according to Wilson. That man was inducted and given a one-way plane ticket to San Diego, where he was to report the next day for further orders.

Declared a Deserter

He never arrived. Three weeks later, the Navy declared Gadsby a deserter. He was located this month in Lancaster after a special team of Navy investigators hunting deserters reviewed California Department of Motor Vehicle records and got Gadsby’s address, Wilson explained.

On Wednesday morning, the Navy teletyped a message asking that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department pick up Gadsby. Deputies from the Antelope Valley substation were dispatched that afternoon to his home, about 50 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

“But after comparing some records that he showed them, they felt something wasn’t clear and they did not arrest him,” said Deputy Pete Fosselman, a sheriff’s spokesman.

That evening, Gadsby went to the sheriff’s substation with additional papers “in an effort to clear up some of this confusion,” Fosselman said. Not sure that the documents were valid, deputies then telephoned military police at Edwards Air Force Base, who came and took Gadsby into custody.

Certain of Error

Naval authorities would not let him speak to reporters on Thursday.

His wife and mother, meanwhile, said they were certain that the Navy was in error and were hopeful that Gadsby would soon be released.

“If he was guilty, would he have gone down to the sheriff’s station after they left here?” an exasperated Vickie Gadsby asked.

“The only thing we can figure out is that he had his wallet stolen once and evidently somebody was using his name,” added Gadsby’s mother, Nancy. “This is all a terrible mistake.”