NAVAL CAREER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26532, 6 August 1947, Page 8

NAVAL CAREER

SOLDIER’S DESERTION

QUICK PROMOTION GAINED

EVIDENCE AT COURT MARTIAL

P.A. AUCKLAND, Aug. 5. . The successful career of a New Zealand serviceman in the American Navy in which he rose to the rank of chief petty officer after he had deserted from the NZ.E.F. in Italy last year was described at a court martial at Papakura Military Camp. The accused was Driver Stephen Ronald Albert Stevens, aged 20 years, formerly of the 19th Army Service Corps, who pleaded guilty to a charge of deserting his unit while on active service. . When the war broke out m 1939, Stevens enlisted, first in the navy and then in the army, and finally in the air force, but .was declined for all three services, said _ Captain Perrett, who appeared for him. He obtained a job driving for the American Red Cross and went to the South Island where he made a false declaration of his age and was accepted for the army. The accused left New Zealand with the fifteenth reinforcements and hostilities ceased before he reached Egypt and he eventually went to Italy where he was detailed for J Force. Escape from Detention During the Christmas and New Year period of 1945-46, Stevens was serving 14 days’ imprisonment, Captain Perrett continued. The fact that he was in detention was overlooked during the celebrations and the accused broke out on January 1 and six days later reached Le Havre, in France. He told the United States military police there that he was a distressed Canadian merchant seaman. The authorities provided him with the necesary papers ‘and he reported to the United States War Shipping Administration who gave him a position in one of their ships. He served with an American coastguard until he surrendered in Montreal on April 27 last. Captain Perrett said that Steven* married an American girl on March 8, 1946, and a son was born on February 7 next year. The birth of his son, coupled with his past life, brought to the accused's mind the responsibilities which he owed to his wife, and he did not want the child to be placed in the circumstances which he had experienced. Decision to Surrender During this time he had lived_under the assumed name of Robert J. McGowan and was issued with the necessary identity papers, Captain Perrett added When he realised his position he decided to surrender, which was a step he had no need to take as it was improbable that he would have been found out. His wife was not well after the birth of the child but was working to maintain a home until her husband returned. . . Appealing for leniency, Captain Perrett said that Stevens’s job in the navy wa9 probably more dangerous than that he would have undertaken in the J Force. He had a good record in the navy, having risen to the rank of chief petty officer and the service wanted him back. It was not a case of desertion under fire or when hostilities were still on. Cases of men being absent without leave were common in Italy after hostilities ceased. .