An introductory note. My intent in this diary is to be as free from written opinion as possible since this story not only infers many layers on its face, but contains enough blame to go around with or without me. I'll leave that to you in the comments and will take great interest in reading your take.
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Joshua Fry was first diagnosed with autism at the age of 3 and had taken prescribed psychotropic drugs for years. When he turned 18, the courts determined him unable to care for himself or enter into contracts on his own behalf, and his grandmother was granted limited conservatorship.
On Jan. 4, 2008, a Marine recruiter drove to a group home for the mentally disabled where Joshua Fry was living, and brought him to the recruiting station to enlist. Fry became one of the few, the proud, then spent a year locked up in the brig at Camp Pendleton.
Chapter 2-27, item p of the Physical Standards for Enlistment, Appointment, and Induction in the Armed Forces states the following (pdf):
"Current or history of other mental disorders...that in the opinion of the civilian or military provider will interfere with, or prevent satisfactory performance of military duty, are disqualifying."
Joshua Fry's introduction to the world epitomizes the darker corners of the American dream. Born to a crack addicted mother and heroin addicted father, he was a homeless baby of the Los Angeles streets for the first year of his life. After his parents were arrested for shoplifting, he was sent to live with his grandmother.
"He was like a wild animal," said Mary Beth Fry, his grandmother.
By the time he was 18, Fry had spent years on psychotropic drugs. He finished high school in a lock-down facility for troubled youth, where he also received treatment for an attraction to child pornography.
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Nine days before he was approved for federal long-term disability, a Marine recruiter picked Fry up from a group home in Irvine and helped him enlist. Court papers allege the recruiter told him to lie about his mental problems. The recruiter has declined to speak with the reporters.
It did not take long for Fry's life to be turned upside down by the regimen of the Marine Corps. After two weeks of basic training, Fry told Corps officials that he had autism. They either didn't believe him or didn't care. He urinated in his canteen, returned to his old addiction of pornography, and finally, went AWOL.
Last week the 21-year-old Orange County resident pleaded guilty to fraudulent enlistment, possession of child pornography and unauthorized absences. He was sentenced to 4 years but released, last week, after spending almost a year in the brig at Camp Pendleton.
The Marine Corps is still investigating how the mentally troubled and developmentally challenged young man was recruited and how he made it through training.
With the military stretched thin, it's not difficult to imagine that some recruiters may have looked for creative ways to hit quotas.
But far from being a routine instance of a young man unable to adjust to military life, the Fry case has exposed an awkward issue for the Marines and other military services: Recruiters sometimes take ethical shortcuts to make their quotas at a time when Americans have tired of the nation's wars and finding recruits is difficult.
According to court documents, Fry's recruiter knew he was autistic. The Marine Corps is investigating the recruiter's conduct.
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But Kevin McDermott, an Orange County lawyer who is familiar with Fry's case and has represented military clients who felt misled by their recruiters, said potential enlistees who would have been rejected a few years ago are now allowed to enlist, as recruiters struggle to fill their quotas.
"These recruiters are under enormous pressure," he said.
According to the Pentagon, there were 2,426 claims of recruiter misconduct in fiscal 2007, when 22,218 recruiters brought 319,229 recruits into the all-volunteer services. Of the claims, 593 were substantiated. The Marine Corps, with 43,562 recruits and 2,783 recruiters, had 211 claims of recruiter misconduct, with 118 substantiated. The Marines were the only service where more than half of claims were substantiated.
Last week, Fry's enlistment finally came to an end.
Pvt. Joshua Fry, who has been in the base brig since last year, received a three-year suspended sentence and bad conduct discharge after also pleading guilty to desertion and fraudulent enlistment.
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Fry, who could have faced a 42-year prison term, could still go to jail for three years if he violates the terms of the plea agreement, which includes a requirement that he register as a sex offender. Fry had been in the brig since he was arrested last July, as authorities conducted the investigation and the plea agreement was worked out.