A Life Wasted

AWOL continued...

I have no memory of the days immediately following my escape from the Navy stockade in Orlando, but I know from the federal background investigation that on July 11, 1974, nine days after the escape, I turned myself in to the U.S. Army at Fort Gordon in Augusta, Georgia. The Coast Guard must have picked me up pretty quick because twenty days later, on July 31, 1974 I was officially transferred to a small search and rescue base in Maryland. The only real memory I have of this time is of a kind Coast Guard Captain saying I was just a confused kid who needed a chance to straighten up. I was never charged with being AWOL for nearly three months. Nor was I charged with escape from the Navy. There is an official record of both events, but never a conviction, both of which would have been felony charges.
So when I reported for duty at the wonderful search and rescue station on the Chesapeake Bay, twenty-six days shy of my eighteenth birthday, I had no felony or even misdemeanor convictions. After all that I had done, all that I had been caught doing, my record was clean. I was stationed at a base that I loved, doing an important job that I enjoyed. I had my car back, I had my life back. I was in a perfect position to put my mistakes behind me without affecting the rest of my life.
For seven months it was a good time for me.