A Wanna-Be Who Barely Was a Marine

He did it again the other night. William Andrew Masters II, dubbed the “tagger vigilante” on TV news, wrapped himself in the flag of the United States Marine Corps. If those gangbangers come after him for killing their homeboy, Masters told the reporter, they better be prepared to die.

“Well, yeah, that’s pretty much the Marine Corps motto,” Masters explained with a swaggering nonchalance. If anybody wants to take him on, Masters vowed to “take them to hell with me.”

The Leatherneck shtick is good copy. “I’m a Marine,” he’d told reporters earlier. He promised to eliminate “the enemy.”

From the halls of Montezuma, to the streets of Sun Valley. . .

What a tough guy. And what a crock.

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William Masters may well be telling the truth--or at least, his truth--about what happened the night he killed 18-year-old Cesar (Insta) Arce and wounded David Hillo, 20. Masters says he acted in fear for his life, thinking that Arce and Hillo perhaps had lethal intentions with that screwdriver.

It’s his word against Hillo’s, and prosecutors say that Masters, unlike Hillo, told a consistent story. Be that as it may, you still have to wonder about someone with a history of weapons violations who goes for a post-midnight stroll in a tough neighborhood with a pistol in his fanny pack. Could it be that Masters was looking for a fearful situation? A chance to act out his combat fantasies?

Since the shooting, Masters has shown himself to be a great one for invoking the proud tradition of the Marine Corps. But let’s get something straight: Masters may be a hero to some people who love guns and loathe graffiti, but he is a Marine in his mind only. The truth is that he didn’t measure up. So when Masters calls himself a Marine, be aware that claim too is merely his truth, and no one else’s.

Rather, Masters is a Marine wanna-be. He might accurately call himself an ex-Marine but just barely. Records show that he enlisted on May 20, 1986, and was discharged 41 days later. He didn’t even finish boot camp.

Why? As a matter of policy, the Marines won’t say. But Masters has an elaborate explanation. It seems that he was discharged because a background check revealed that he had been arrested for carrying a pistol into a federal courthouse in Texas--a charge that, according to Masters, was later dropped.

Masters was spending a lot of time in court back then. In 1981, Austin police had arrested him for walking down the street carrying two martial arts swords in his belt--weapons that Masters says he needed for self-defense. Masters subsequently waged a legal challenge, claiming that his desire to carry weaponry was protected by the 2nd Amendment. (He lost.)

The Marine Corps, as a matter of policy, would not discuss the specifics of Masters’ dismissal. But upon reviewing Masters’ colorful background, the Corps evidently decided he wasn’t worthy of “the few, the proud.”

“Someone who has a genuine problem with following the letter of the law--those kind of people are probably not going to be predisposed for military service,” explained Sgt. Dave Hiersekorn, a spokesman at the Marine Corps Air Station in El Toro. “We’re not looking for tin soldiers or windup robots. But we need people who can understand and interpret regulations that are meant for good order and discipline in the military.”

Marines, he added, are “expected to live up to the standards of society to the utmost level. A Marine is supposed to be a model citizen.” A Marine, then, is not the sort of person who would carry a concealed weapon without a permit.

And contrary to Masters’ suggestions, the Marine Corps motto has nothing to do with killing, though there’s plenty of that in times of war. The Marine Corps motto is semper fidelis , or “always faithful.” As Sgt. Hiersekorn suggests, the words signify a code of duty, courage and honor. Not all live up to it, but those who try often police each other by saying three words: “Be a Marine.”

Masters isn’t the first non-Marine to claim this tradition.

“Whenever you have a reputation, a standard that people look up to,” Sgt. Hiersekorn said, “people who may not live up to that standard may attach themselves to it. . . . We have a saying: ‘Once a Marine, always a Marine.’ . . . But you can relinquish that right if you’re not going to live up to the standard.”

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Just to be on solid ground, I asked another expert whether William Masters had the right to call himself a Marine. He’s a retired chief warrant officer named Dawson Harris, a 30-year man who defended his country during the attack on Pearl Harbor and participated in the invasion of Okinawa. Thirty years after his retirement, he is still 100% Marine.

His buddies call him “Gunner.” I call him Dad.

His answer, for the record, was an unequivocal no.