The Case of Pvt. Joshua Fry
Published July 06, 2009 @ 12:33AM PT
21-year-old Joshua Fry is a Marine. He is on the autism spectrum, and his recruiter knew this when he recruited Fry from a group home in Irving, California. After making it through 11 grueling weeks of boot camp, Fry was sent to Camp Pendleton for infantry training where "within weeks he was under arrest for desertion and possession of child pornography," today's LA Times reports. He has been court-martialed and imprisoned for the past year; his next court-martial hearing is July 27.
And he's not doing well, according to his grandmother, Mary Beth Fry of Newport Beach. When Fry was 18, she became his legal conservator meaning that "under the conservatorship, Fry is prohibited from signing contracts without his grandmother's approval." The recruiter ignored the fact that he needed Mary Beth Fry's legal approval to recruit Joshua Fry. According to court documents, Fry's life has not been easy:
A 35-page motion filed by Fry's lawyer details a troubled childhood: parents who were drug addicts, an evaluation of autism at age 8, multiple stays in foster homes, behavior problems at Newport Harbor High School, an arrest for stealing iPods and a court-ordered stay at a facility for psychologically disturbed youth that lasted 15 months.
And, as the LA Times notes:
Autism is not among the conditions that automatically bar a would-be recruit. But, if Navy doctors had known of the diagnosis, Fry would have been evaluated more skeptically during the pre-boot camp medical examination and most likely would have been rejected.
In 2006, a psychiatrist for the Orange County mental health agency wrote that, although Fry "is high-functioning for a child with autism, he exhibits the typical characteristics of anxiety, impulsive behavior, distractibility, very poor social skills and an inability to read social cues and interact appropriately in social situations."
Of course it is wrong that Joshua Fry was, as he has been charged with, in possession of child pornography. But it's very, deeply, disturbing to know that military recruiters are so pressured to get enough recruits that they (knowingly) overlook legal and ethical principles. It's Joshua Fry who is getting the shortest end of the proverbial stick. As Mary Beth Fry notes,
"He's had a lot of problems being locked up,......He's on psychotropic drugs. He's been diagnosed as bipolar and is having trouble holding it together."
More commentary on MilitaryPhotos.net (citing a June 1, 2009 San Diego Union-Tribune article with more details of Joshua Fry's childhood---"Fry still couldn't speak by age 3, when his grandmother adopted him. He struggled with behavioral problems – including violence, stealing and self-abuse – throughout childhood"---his mother was addicted to heroin when he was born and his father to crack). Also see Chantal Sicile-Kira in the Huffington Post.
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Comments (15)
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Author
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Kristina is a Classics professor in Jersey City, New Jersey, a blogger (formerly at AutismVox), a translator (of Virgil), and an advocate every day for her son, Charlie.
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End the Perpetuation of Pity
221 People
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End the Perpetuation of Pity
I Don't understand why in thethe recuiter look into John Fry more before signing John up just like that and why didn't the recuiter talk to John Grandma Legally or Not the recuiter should have talked to John Grandma one simple phone to John Grandma could have settled the issue.
Donnie McGinnis
Posted by Donnie McGinnis on 07/06/2009 @ 06:45AM PT
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Seems like a good time to mention that NCLB (Section 9528)requires that schiools give miltary recruiters contact information on all students UNLESS the student / family requests to "opt-out" in writing. Many schools will tell you that it isn't possible to opt-out, but it is.
You can find out more from the Quakers or the ACLU (both organizations will have forms you can use). Since our kids often tend to be, how shall I put this? gullible, and since Mr. Fry is not the only person on the autism spectrum who has been recruited who shouldn't have been, I think this is something all of us parents should consider.
Posted by Barbara Barbara on 07/06/2009 @ 07:48AM PT
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They probbaly would even take me in my wheelchair
Donnie
Posted by Donnie McGinnis on 07/06/2009 @ 08:06AM PT
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I've read about this recruiting before. The recruiters just want to make their quotas, and figure the ones that aren't suitable won't make it past the medical exam. Huh.
There's something odd about a country that is so keen on military might, and yet can't get enough people to join up.
Posted by Anemone Cerridwen on 07/06/2009 @ 07:51AM PT
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And I don't understand how they could be recruiting at a group home?
Posted by Kristina Chew on 07/06/2009 @ 09:27AM PT
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Good point
Donnie
Posted by Donnie McGinnis on 07/06/2009 @ 03:47PM PT
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It's not that uncommon, especially depending on the group home's population (i'm guessing he was in a group home for kids with emotional disturbances? that is usually where kids with aspergers are). The military is beginning to resort more and more to physically healthy "troubled teens", be it teens with a history of substance abuse, mental illness, incarcerations, whatever.
Posted by Erin Monk on 07/07/2009 @ 03:07AM PT
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Just for correctness' sake, "John" should be corrected to "Joshua" in both the post title and last paragraph.
Posted by Cody Boisclair on 07/06/2009 @ 11:32AM PT
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thanks! corrected.
Posted by Kristina Chew on 07/06/2009 @ 12:53PM PT
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I see that now I'm so, Sorry!!!!! buddy
Donnie
Posted by Donnie McGinnis on 07/06/2009 @ 03:50PM PT
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Good grief. Between the story and Chantal Sicile-Kira's recounting of her son being recruited, I am reminded of when I worked for a telephone solicitation company--"Numbers, baby; it's all about numbers". (As reported, there seemed like plenty of opportunities for the recruiter to check his moral and judgement barometer and to consider such facts as the grandmother's legal role in contractual obligations. Perhaps he was banking on Joshua not making it through boot camp, which, as an aside on its own, is really something.)
(As a child of a former military family, I am very disappointed by recruiters having to take these tactics. Not good for the people essentially shanghaied, because a dishonorable discharge on record is a major handicap on future life possibilities, and not good for the military.)
Barbara pointed out some very useful and apt info,
"Many schools will tell you that it isn't possible to opt-out, but it is."
We come from the kind of birkenstock-wearing town where they mail the opt-outs home and even nag you to return them, but not everyone does. Her point is absolutely correct.
Posted by Regina Claypool-Frey on 07/06/2009 @ 01:14PM PT
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odd... They won't even allow openly gay people in and yet they are so desparate... Don't even get me started on that issue.
Posted by Shondolyn (Synesthesia) Gibson on 07/06/2009 @ 05:03PM PT
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This person should have been accepted into the service with this mental illness. Why did they accept him? Now look what a mess this poor child has to deal with.
Posted by J B on 07/06/2009 @ 10:16PM PT
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Parsing words a bit here, but Aspergers Syndrome a developemental disability, not a mental illness :-) .
Posted by Erin Monk on 07/07/2009 @ 03:03AM PT
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http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/07/autistic-marine-pleads-guilty-to-desertion-and-child-pornography.html
From the LA Times:
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A 21-year-old Marine diagnosed with autism and bipolar disorder pleaded guilty today to desertion, possession of child pornography and fraudulent enlistment and received a three-year suspended sentence and a bad-conduct discharge.
A plea bargain approved by Maj. Gen. Michael Lehnert calls for Pvt. Joshua Fry to serve one year in the brig with credit for the 359 days already served while he was awaiting court martial. As a result, Fry is set to leave the brig at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base by the end of the week, officials said.
If Fry possesses any child pornography in the next three years, he will be sent back to the brig to serve three years under a sentence meted out by the judge, Col. John Ewers.
Fry could have been sentenced to 42 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge.
"I've been a troublemaker my whole life," Fry told Ewers in an unsworn statement. "I feel bad for what I did. I realize my actions were wrong and immoral."
Fry's grandmother, Mary Beth Fry, of Newport Beach, testified she has arranged for him to attend a 42-day treatment program at a mental hospital in Torrance and then an additional program in New Mexico geared toward sex offenders.
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Posted by Kristina Chew on 07/20/2009 @ 02:19PM PT
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