Former Sailor, Accused of Desertion, Calls It a Snafu

On Jan. 3, 1978, at 7:20 a.m., Ben Borg deserted the Navy after 14 years of service, five months shy of completing his final tour, Navy officials say.

Nov. 1, at 3:45 p.m., local sheriffs in Clifton, Ariz., using helicopters and dogs, hunted down and arrested the 44-year-old electrician and brought him here, where he is now locked in the brig at the 32nd Street Naval Station.

In the time between leaving the Navy and his arrest earlier this month, Borg says, he nearly drank himself to death, recovered, got a good job at a copper mine, married, adopted two sons and lived as a patriotic war veteran in Clifton.

He acknowledges that he once was known as Charles Bartley Berg and served as an electrician with the Navy. Borg says, however, that he never deserted. He says he was discharged from the Navy in January, 1973, after 10 1/2 years of service, including one year in Vietnam.

“I’m ashamed to say I ever was a sailor,” said Borg, during an interview with The Times at the brig on Saturday. “This is shameful, disgraceful and humiliating.”

Borg claims a clerical error has put him in jail. “If you have ever been in the military and seen some of the paper work, you wonder how they ever pay the electric bill,” Borg said. “Somebody made a hell of a mistake with my records.”

Navy officials, however, say a trial will prove whether they have the right man. Borg, who has already been in jail three weeks, will probably not come to trial for at least another 30 days, said Julie Swan, a spokeswoman for the naval station. Under military law, the Navy has 90 days to bring an individual to trial. If found guilty, Borg faces a maximum punishment of three years in prison.

When informed that Borg says he was discharged, Swan said: “That’s what the trial is all about. That will all be resolved as he presents his case.”

For Borg, the arrest and jailing already has cost him his $14-an-hour job at Phelps Dodge copper mining company, his wife, Terry Borg, said.

“Why do the draft dodgers who went to Canada just have to come in and sign a paper to become free men, and my husband went to jail and has lost his job?” Terry asked. “It’s not fair to slap a vet in the face.”

The Navy, however, was not actively pursuing Borg, officials said.

“The Navy doesn’t spend taxpayers’ money seeking people,” Swan said. “But, when persons are apprehended and returned to military authorities, then the procedure is activated to close the enlistment in a proper way.”

Cases such as Borg’s, in which the alleged desertion occurred more than a decade ago, are unusual. Two years ago, Navy officials charged a 38-year-old Lancaster man with deserting in 1976. Guiles Gadsby, who served in Vietnam for the Army, was held in jail 38 days. At his trial, officials realized they had no case, he was freed and given $303 as compensation for time spent in jail.

Today, there are 2,613 Navy deserters; of those, about 70 have been listed for at least 20 years, said Lt. Greg Smith, a Navy spokesman in Washington. In desertion cases, there is no statute of limitations. During 1978, the year that the Navy alleges Borg left, desertion cases had soared to 13,948, the highest in the past two decades.

Borg, a 6-foot-2 man who wears a hearing aid in his left ear, has always been patriotic, his wife and friends say. Every Veteran’s Day, he hoisted a flag outside their three-bedroom mobile home. He encouraged his eldest stepson to join the Army and helped him train for boot camp. Every morning, he would coax him into running several miles, swimming and make him take apart and put back together the rifles that he had collected.

Several years ago, he took his family to see the ships at San Diego’s Navy base, his wife said. And Borg, a gaunt man who looks far older than his 44 years, usually wore either a Navy or a veteran’s hat, with his name embroidered on it. But today, he has changed his mind about his country and the military.

“If I could find a job in Canada, I’d leave,” Borg said.

Neither Borg, who served as a petty officer 2nd class, nor the Navy disputes that he put in more than one decade of service and received five medals: two Good Conduct Awards, Vietnam Service Medal with a bronze star, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal and National Defense Service Medal. But they disagree on how much time he served and whether he had been discharged when he left.

After 10 years of service, he had re-enlisted for another four-year stint on May 16, 1974, said Swan, spokeswoman for the Naval Station. Navy officials say Borg left, without authorization, his last assignment at the Naval Inactive Ships Facility in Bremerton, Wash. He was reported missing Jan. 3, 1978, at 7:20 a.m.--five months before completion of his final tour--and declared a deserter one month later.

Borg has a different story. He says he departed in January, 1973, after being discharged and after 10 1/2 years of service. Borg decided to leave the Navy when his first wife wrote to say she was leaving him and selling his property, he said.

Despairing over his personal problems, Borg said, he began drinking. He went on the wagon after several years of heavy drinking, he said.

He said he changed his name in 1975 to Ben Borg to shake his reputation as a drunk.

He moved to Clifton, Ariz., where he met Terry, a 37-year-old co-worker at the copper mine. He married Terry after nursing her through a battle with cancer, in which she had tumors removed from her arm and leg.

This fall, Borg legally adopted his wife’s two younger sons, Ray, 17, and Michael, 15. In the process of adopting the two boys, officials conducted a routine background check that included his fingerprints. Seeing nothing untoward, Borg was given custody of the boys, said Andy Anderson, acting program manager with Arizona’s Department of Economic Security.

The background check may have alerted local police that, under the name Berg, he was wanted by the Navy, said a Naval Investigative Services official.

On Halloween, local sheriffs questioned Borg, who agreed to return for fingerprints. Late that night, however, he took a pistol and hiked six hours into the woods. When deputies learned that Borg was no longer at his house, they went after him. Using a helicopter and 10 men on foot, including two with dogs, they found and arrested Borg, who made no attempt to resist.

In the small town, population 4,200, almost 200 miles from Phoenix, the arrest was big news.

“The most excitement we’d had was when a truck driver went nuts and went through a red light. We only got four lights,” said Ted Johnson, 40, who works in a gun shop and also installs lights. But Borg’s “arrest outdid that. He was the talk of the whole town.”

And the townspeople quickly took sides. At work, a colleague tore the license tags from Borg’s truck and tossed them to the ground, telling Terry that her husband was a liar, she said.

But others, including Johnson, stood by Borg.

“The man is the nicest, gentlest person you could meet--he never raised his voice,” Johnson said. “I’m not trying to make it sound like he was God and walked on water, but he did always tuck his shirttails in.”

Navy officials and Greenlee County Undersheriff Larry Gale said they were uncertain about how Borg reached the attention of local authorities. Once arrested, Borg was turned over to Navy officials in San Diego, the closest Navy base.

Terry visited her husband in the brig Saturday, seeing him for the first time since he was taken from home. The two sat across a table from one another, clasping fingers as Terry fought tears.

“Yes, I’m very angry,” said Borg, who laced his rage with humor and added, “I’m getting tired of being called ‘Pops.’ And the coffee hasn’t improved.”

Terry and her husband both worry that the Navy has ruined their lives in the small town.

“You ever been slapped in the mouth?” Borg said. “This is a lot worse.”