61 lines
2.7 KiB
Plaintext
61 lines
2.7 KiB
Plaintext
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UFO-SEEKING SOLDIERS CHARGED WITH DESERTION
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GULF BREEZE, Fla. - Six soldiers, reported to be on an unofficial mission to
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kill the Antichrist, were charged Thursday with desertion from their
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intelligence unit in West Germany, a Pentagon spokesman said.
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A friend told one of the newspapers that one of the soldiers arrested in this
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Florida Panhandle city, a hotbed of UFO sightings, was interested in
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unidentified flying objects and wanted to attend a UFO convention in nearby
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Pensacola.
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Army spokesmen did not immediately return calls concerning the newspaper
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reports.
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The five men and one women, all members of the 701st Military Intelligence
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Brigade at Augsburg, West Germany, are being held at Fort Benning, Ga. They
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were arrested Friday and Saturday after police stopped one of them for a
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traffic violation.
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They were charged with desertion rather than the lesser offense of being
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absent without leave because they help top-secret security clearances, said
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spokesman Pete Williams at the Pentagon.
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The six are being segregated from other prisoners at the Fort Benning stockade
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but otherwise are treated like other inmates, said Lt. Col. McDonald Plummer
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Jr., a spokesman for the post. He said the parents of three of the alleged
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deserters tried to
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telephone them, but the soldiers refused to take the calls.
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A counterintelligence investigation is being conducted as a matter of routine
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because the six, all analysts assigned to intercepting, identifying and
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exploiting foreign communications, had handled classified material, military
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spokesmen said.
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"There still appears to be no independent evidence of any espionage or
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security related problem here," Williams said Thursday.
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A member of their unit told the newspaper Stars and Stripes that the six were
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out to find and destroy the Antichrist, the figure the Bible says will
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challenge Christ. He spoke on the condition his name would not be disclosed.
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Maj. Joe Padilla, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, Wednesday retracted an
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earlier statement that the six were members of a group known as "The End of
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the World."
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But Stars and Stripes quoted the soldier from the Augsburg unit as saying that
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the cult has additional members in the area.
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"There are others who are upset because they didn't get invited" to go along
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on the search for the Antichrist the newspaper quoted the soldier as saying.
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The six have been identified as Pfc. Michael Hueckstaedt, 19 of Farson, Wyo.;
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Pfc. Kris Perlock, 20 of Osceola, Wis.; Pfc. William Setterberg, 20, of
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Pittsburgh; Specialist Vance Davis, 25 of Valley Center, Kan.; Specialist
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Kenneth G. Beason, 26, or
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Jefferson City, Tenn.; and Sgt. Annette Eccleston, 22 of Connecticut, hometown
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unavailable.
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