Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1949-12-01
Shonghoied Sailor Ryan, Freed
By Navy, HOPES to Clear Record
Ends 4-Month Term
In Norfolk Brig
On AWOL Churqe

FdGl lCh OdlIleo IVY I'LL, SifAloAA'
passed through Washington yes
terday dreaming Of a white
Christmas at his mothers home
and trying to forget all the things
that have happened to him since
he quit school and enlisted in
the Army early in 1943.
It's a big job of forgetting he
has before him. There are men,
cries of Casino, Anzio and the
Normandy beachhead. the bru-
tality of the French Foreign e.
gion, days and nights of escape
through the jungles Of 1ndo-
China, filth and starvation IN
Chinese prisons.
But Ryan is cocky young man
of "a, with a ready smile. and he's
sure he'll be able to file those
nightmares away where they won't
be bothersome.
It's such a good life now, he
says, being able to walk down the
street in a neat blue suit with
a bright Powered yellow tie and
the knowledge that you're a free
man and that no one Is going to
shout at you or jab a rifle butt
in your back.
But the job Of forgetting would
be a whole lot easier, he says. If
he didn't have that yellow slip
from the Navy reading bad con-
duct discharge" in his pocket.
Released Yesterday.
The Navy gave him that yellow
slip, $25 and an ill-fitting gray
prison suit wherf 1t turned him
out Of the brig at Norfolk yester-
day.
So far as the Navy is concerned
the books are closed on the fan
tastic case Of the bearded and
emaciated man In rags who stag
gered into the American consulate
In Canton. China, last February
and said he wanted to surrender
to an American naval officer.
The Navy aursed him pack to
health and lew him to Washing
ton to be arraigned before a gen.
eral court-martial at the Ana
costa Receiving Station last Sep
TENDER, charged with desertion.
The general court believed his
story that he was shanghaied into
the French Foreign Legion while
trying to make his way back to his
ship in Nice. France, in July. 1947.
A bit shamefacedly, the Navy De-
partment opened its records to
show it had received note which
Ryan had managed to smuggle out
of a Legion outpost in North
Africa, in August, l947. appealing
for help. The Navy had made
representations to the French gov
eminent to obtain his release. but
they came to naught. Ryan was
shipped to Indo- China to help the
Legion fight its jungle war. He
was an expert bazooka man and
the Legion needed such men.
Sentence Cut to 4 Months.
But the Navy said that. after all,
he had been AWOL from his ship
for three days and 20 hours before
he was shanghaied. The fact that
a black-eyed girl had fed him
knock out drops in San Reno,
Italy, and robbed him while he
was on leave was not considered
q mitigating circumstance.
So Ryan was sentenced to serve
six months in the brig and get a
yellow discharge. Later the SEN
tence was reduced to four months.
The yellow discharge wipes out
the CT benefits Ryan earned with
his honorable discharge from the
Army.
He had hoped to be able to go
to school and learn to be q pho
tographer-a lifelong ambition.
He had hoped he could get treat
ment at q veterans hospital for
the recurring attacks Of malaria
he picked up in North Africa.
Attorney Walter Norman told
Ryan to rest at his mothers home
in Huntington. Pa, while the
fight to have the stigma of that
bad-conduct discharge stricken
from the record continues.
Mr.. Norman says eventually
he hopes to be able to appeal to
President Truman. also veteran,
to restore Ryan's CT rights.
In Vigo. Spain, the sardine run
reappeared recently after an abb