Chapter V - - THE COURT-MARTIAL PROCEEDINGS (1979-1985)
1979-1981
After release from the Great Lakes Naval Hospital, PFC Garwood was sent on
30
days convalescent leave and then ordered to report to Camp Lejeune, N.C.
NLT
0900, 7 May 1979 for duties as a file clerk, until a date for his
court-martial
could be established.
While on leave, several dynamics began to take place: 1) civilian and
military
attorneys [165] began to prepare for the defense of their client PFC
Garwood; 2)
USG prosecution attorneys [166] employed the services of the Naval
Investigative
Service (NIS) to interview former POWs [167] and others who had
served in the USMC
with PFC Garwood prior to his disappearance in 1965; and
3) the DIA, as
intelligence agency for the DOD and POC for PW/MIA affairs,
began to anticipate
an early debriefing of PFC Garwood concerning any
information he might have on
MIAs and POWs--an opportunity which did not
occur until early 1986, almost 7
years later! [168]
Although PFC Garwood resumed USMC duties in early 1979 at Camp Lejeune, it
was
not until mid-November 1980 [169] that the court-martial actually proceeded
in
earnest. Part of the delay was due to disagreements among defense
attorneys
concerning the tack to take for PFC Garwood's defense. A
significant problem
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165. At this point, the military defense attorneys were then-Captains Joseph Composto and Dale
Miller, both USMC, and Mr. Dermot Foley, civilian counsel.
166. USMC prosecution attorneys were Major Werner Hellmer and Captain Theresa Wright.
167. The list of former POWs includes some already mentioned in this report:
Agosto Santos, Ortiz-Rivera, Tinsley, Strickland, Watkins--who were the five early
releasees--as well as those who had been with Garwood in the years after 1967, when it was
quite clear that he had crossed over to the enemy. This list includes CPT (Dr.) F.H. Kushner,
CW2 F.Anton, PFC J. Pfister, PFC 0. Harker, and many others. Also interviewed were
Garwood's tentmates from 1965, PFC J. Geill, PFC A. Braverman, and LCpl G. Smith.( Ref.DIA
Garwood File of 1979 ).
168. Although DIA was not to have the opportunity to debrief Garwood until early
1986, it had become involved in the Garwood case as early as 1971 when it cabled the U.S. DAO
in Moscow that it had information from released POWs that Garwood might have gone to the
USSR for political indoctrination. (Ref. 17 February 1971 cable from DIA to U.S. DAO,
Moscow). DIA was not successful in debriefing Garwood until seven (7) years after his return,
due to legal considerations posed by the USMC and then by Garwood's attorneys as the latter
continued to insist upon immunity for Garwood for the 1970-1979 Vietnam years.
169. The trial actually had begun in February or March 1980 but had to be delayed due to a
change in defense attorneys and to the number of motions presented to the court. Composto and
Miller removed themselves from the defense in April 1980 and civilian attorney Foley was to be
relieved by Garwood in June of that same year.
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