"I'm
deeply
happy"
Posted on 08/22/2003 4:04:04 PM PDT by bicycle thug
ANOKA, Minn. - A Marine who had told authorities he had been shot while trying to help a stranded motorist has now admitted that he shot himself to avoid being shipped overseas.
The Anoka County sheriff's department said Wednesday that Adam Welter, 20, acknowledged the gunshot wound was self-inflicted. He was treated and released from a hospital Monday.
Welter was reportedly scheduled to ship out for Hawaii that day. He called an investigator Tuesday to take responsibility, said Capt. Robert Aldrich, a sheriff's department spokesman.
"He was extremely remorseful for this and the commotion he caused," Aldrich said. "I don't think he anticipated it would become as large a story as it did."
Welter told investigators he was shot in the left shoulder early Monday after stopping to help a pickup truck driver on a remote road near his home. Authorities found no blood, shell casings or other evidence at the scene. Welter also couldn't give a detailed description of his alleged assailant or the truck.
Welter's family did not answer its door or phone calls from a reporter Wednesday.
A sheriff's department statement said Welter's motive "appears to be a sense of despondency about an impending long-term overseas military assignment."
A military law expert said Welter, who enlisted in October, could face a court martial for faking a disability to avoid his duties.
The Anoka High School graduate had been in training for about a year and came home for two weeks before he was scheduled to ship out, Welter's mother, Valerie Welter, earlier told the Star Tribune. It wasn't clear where he was to be sent from there.
Capt. Nat Fahy, a spokesman at Marine Corps headquarters in Washington, said it was not immediately clear what sort of military discipline Welter might face, if any.
The offense carries a maximum punishment of a dishonorable discharge, forfeited pay and allowances, and up to 10 years confinement.
"Because it's occurring during a time of war, the commander will not look at this very lightly," said Grant Lattin, a retired lieutenant colonel and Judge Advocate General lawyer in the Marine Corps. "They're going to consider making an example of him."
In February, a U.S. soldier in Germany admitted he shot himself in frustration over his Army career. The 26-year-old initially told police he was attacked by an unknown assailant while standing in a parking lot near his barracks.
Roger that...
Now, counterpoint that to a guy in our own platoon who decided he didn't want to go to Bosnia a couple weeks before we actually deployed. He just went and got some rope and fashioned a hangman's noose. Then he went down to the "4th Floor" of the local health clinic and gave his suicide spiel to the headshrinker types. By the time they had contacted our CO, he had already engineered a couple guys finding him hanging from the rope and they "just managed to get him down in time". He didn't go to Bosnia. It was better he did it there in garrison than on the mission like that cook.
But having said that, we did manage to put a scare into him by spreading the rumour that we were going to actually kill him by hanging him and that since the incident reports were already there, people would think he committed suicide. He didn't sleep well until we left.
I'm really relieved that he punked out now, rather than when he got to the infernal hell-hole combat zone of Hawaii! :)
OK, all kidding aside, this Marine must be punished. It is not acceptable to avoid any assignment by self-inflicted injury. The LIES he told only complicate the matter and deepen his culpability.
I don't know how this boy got past the recruiters, the screening system, and the drill instructors.
If it was up to me (and it ain't) I'd just give him a dishonorable discharge and let him go.
Some males don't really have the guts to be a Marine.
Note that I said 'males'. He may be a male (bioligically) but he is no man. At best he is a little weenie-boy.
LOL! Oh yes, I suffered horribly there and on Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands when I was sent there for military exercises. Yup! Sure hated it there, especially during my time off. This guy sure thought things out well. ;-)
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