A Vietnam-Era Deserter Comes Full Circle

When a 19-year-old private from Ohio named Randy Caudill deserted from the Marine Corps and fled to Canada, it was 1968 and America was beset by anger in the streets, assassinations and bitter divisions over the war in Vietnam.

The year began with the bloody Tet offensive, the relentless siege of the Marine base at Khe Sanh, and the aerial bombing of Hanoi. A spreading antiwar movement drove President Lyndon Johnson to forswear a run for reelection.

The war is long over, America has sent an ambassador to Hanoi, and an antiwar protester is in the White House. But some accounts, it seems, from those days long ago still must be reckoned.

Almost three decades after his personal farewell to arms, Caudill spends his days under a kind of house arrest at this sprawling base, awaiting punishment, a remnant from an era of turmoil and tragedy in American history.

He was arrested a week ago at the northern border of Washington as he attempted to return to Canada after a trip to visit his grown daughter. A routine Immigration and Naturalization Service computer check found a warrant for desertion from the Marine Corps.

Caudill offered no resistance. Now 48 years old and suffering from severe arthritis, he spent two days in a prison cell in Washington before being flown under guard to San Diego and then taken to the brig at Camp Pendleton.

“He is just a quiet small man who in 1968 made a decision,” said Maj. Daniel Lecce, Caudill’s military attorney. “He is not a political person. He is very shy, a good and decent man who raised a family and created a life for himself.”

One irony is that if Caudill had fled to Canada to avoid military service, he would have been covered by an amnesty granted by President Jimmy Carter. Military personnel who deserted were not covered by that act.

Caudill has come full circle. He had been stationed at Camp Pendleton as a radio operator in early 1968 when his unit was given orders for Vietnam and sent on furlough before deployment.

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He spent a week in Ohio with his family. And then, like a number of others of his generation, some in uniform, some not, he chose to flee to Canada rather than obey an order from his commander in chief.

“We’re all very worried about him,” said his wife, Twylla, a Canadian citizen and teacher who sponsored him for landed immigrant status in Canada. “We love him. Why can’t they just leave him alone after all these years?”

At a press conference Tuesday outside Camp Pendleton’s main gate, Marine Corps officials said they are considering what charges to press against Caudill. The most likely charge is desertion, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. A decision could come within days.

“The Marine Corps takes this very seriously,” said base spokesman Capt. Scott Lopez. Still, because Vietnam was not a declared war by Congress, desertion in time of war, which carries a death penalty, is not an option, he said.

But even as the Marine Corps talks tough about desertion and five years in prison, there were indications that the military is not eager to revisit the divisiveness of Vietnam.

Lopez and Capt. Joe Lisiecki, a base legal affairs officer, were at pains to emphasize that Caudill is no longer in the brig and that he is not considered a flight risk. Caudill was given a physical and prescribed medication for his arthritis, they said.

“He’s being treated with dignity and being treated fairly, as any Marine would” be, said Lisiecki.

In a similar case of a Vietnam era deserter last year, the Marine Corps gave Donald Bailey, a onetime corporal, a bad-conduct discharge but spared him any time in prison.

But Bailey’s case was different in one key respect--he turned himself in after 25 years in Canada--and both Lopez and Lisiecki noted that each desertion case is judged individually.

In Winnipeg, where Caudill has lived since shortly after fleeing, his wife, three daughters and two granddaughters fearfully await word of his fate. The decision on what charges to bring, and whether to seek a prison sentence, will be made by the commanding general at Camp Pendleton.

Lecce, Caudill’s attorney, said he is hopeful that the Corps will not seek to imprison Caudill. The lawyer said he has no indication that his client deserted because of opposition to the war or any other political motive.

“I always knew why he came here, and I supported him fully,” his wife said, adding that he simply did not want to go to Vietnam.

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Born in Oklahoma and reared in Ohio, Caudill joined the Marine Corps in 1967, fresh from high school. He finished basic training, infantry training and advanced communication training.

In Canada, he earned a college degree in psychology. He worked as a farm equipment mechanic until arthritis in his hands forced him into disability retirement.

Caudill had visited his daughter on Vancouver Island when, after a sightseeing drive that took them into Washington state, they were detained while trying to reenter Canada by car ferry at Port Angeles.

While a resident of Winnipeg, a city of 560,000 about 60 miles north of the Minnesota and North Dakota borders, Caudill often visited the United States to shop, relatives said.

Lecce said the fact that Caudill deserted so long ago may actually work in his favor when the Corps decides his punishment. A key factor, he said, in deciding how to punish deserters, or Marines guilty of the lesser offense of unauthorized absence, is how their absence hampered the operations or morale of their unit.

“It’s hard to say that a desertion in 1968 hurts a unit today,” Lecce said.

The attorney is also heartened by how his client is being treated at Camp Pendleton, where Caudill spends his days in a room at the bachelor enlisted men’s quarters. When Caudill leaves his quarters to go to the mess hall or church, he is escorted by other Marines.

“I think there is actually sympathy and compassion for him here,” Lecce said. “The Marine Corps doesn’t want to reopen the Vietnam War. My hope is that they would just like to send him home to his wife and family as soon as possible.”