He was not "enlisted", since he was an officer. He was still on the inactive reserve list from 1970 to 1972, and then on the standby reserve list from 72 to 78. Is military service obligation would have expired in '72 which is probably what triggered his transfer to standby status. There are other ways to get put into standby, but that would be a typical progression. If he had resigned his commission in '72, which I think he could have, he'd not have gone to standby status. Perhaps there was some political advantage to still being a commissioned officer? In any event he still held his reserve commission when he lied to Congress and met with the enemy. But that's neither here nor there, since reservists not on active duty, nor performing inactive duty training (which is different than being an inactive reservist, it's typically the "weekend" in "weekend warrior") are not subject to the UCMJ. Meeting with the Vietnamese communists was still illegal, a felony I believe, for anyone, reservist, or active duty military, and if he was under oath when he testified before the Fulbright committee, it was still perjury.
> ... not subject to the UCMJ ...
Thanks for clarifying that (on both threads).
Since there's no evidence of a recall, there would have
been no standing for a court martial. There's also no hint
of another discharge hidden somewhere. So both of these
lines of speculation are just that until someone develops
some hard info.
Of course, an SF 180 from Kerry could put all such
speculation to rest :-)