Chris Parks, the Capitol Hill man who was arrested and detained by the Army for several weeks earlier this summer due to an apparent clerical error, is still waiting to find out whether he’ll receive a proper discharge.
From my story:
Parks spent a week in the county jail. After two days, he found out why:
At customs, a computerized database had flagged Parks as an AWOL U.S. Army soldier who’d been missing since 2002. Because of his “fugitive” status, he would eventually be transferred to the personnel control facility at Fort Knox. The problem: Parks says he was never in the army.
While Parks has been waiting for word from the Army, his story’s been picked up by a few other media outlets, including KOMO, ABC News, and CNN, which all ran stories on Parks case last month.
Despite the media attention, it doesn’t appear the case is any closer to resolution as, according to Parks, the Army has lost his discharge paperwork. “Apparently it’s disappeared or something,” Parks says. “I don’t know why that would be.”
If you’re interested in following Parks’ case, you can catch the latest updates on his Twitter feed.
And he can’t provide copies of his discharge paperwork? A friend of his can’t go to his home and find it?
I’m sorry, but there’s something wierd about this story. At first I thought it was a total military fuck up but now I have some doubts. Just some doubts is all.
Oh man.
You know, read one way, this is rather funny. Read another, merely ridiculous.
I prefer to imagine that last quote is a sarcastic comment in reference to the imaginary discharge papers the army might have had if Parks had actually gone AWOL.
how can he have discharge papers if he never was in the army?
Exactly, Lurleen.
It’s funny to imagine that when Parks says, of the missing paper, “apparently it’s disappeared or something. I don’t know why that would be,” he’s sarcastically referring to the imaginary AWOL charge he was arrested for.
@3: According to him, he started the process of enlisting when he graduated high school, but changed his mind early on. He never went through basic training or anything that.
Yet another reason why the term “military intelligence” is still considered an oxymoron.
KOMO’s story says he was released after a week with papers to show he isn’t AWOL. Of course since it’s the army and we live in a nearly fascist country by today’s standards there’s nothing he can do about recovering costs, let alone punitive dammages, for false imprisonment.
Is there a corollary to Godwin’s Law for the tired joke about the phrase “military intelligence?”
There should be. Credit to #6 for getting THAT part of this discussion out of the way.
i’d hit it