Charles Robert Jenkins

Jenkins, 64, left the prison at the U.S. Navy base in Yokosuka and was taken by helicopter to the Camp Zama Army base to join his wife, Hitomi Soga, and daughters Mika, 21, and 19-year-old Brinda for several days before moving to his wife's hometown of Mano on Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture.

"Forty years is a long time," said a sobbing Jenkins, still in uniform, after arriving at Camp Zama. "My plan is to stay in Japan, if they will accept me. I want to go back to the United States, but only once. With my wife, I'll live in Japan, with my family."

The release ends the longest desertion case on U.S. record. Jenkins testified in his Nov. 3 court-martial that he fled the Army on Jan. 5, 1965, to avoid service in Vietnam.

The Japan Times Weekly: Dec. 4, 2004
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