No Prints on Record for Alleged Navy Deserter

Although they never took his fingerprints, Navy officials insisted Monday that they have their man in an Army veteran from Lancaster who they say enlisted for sea duty 11 years ago and then deserted.

Guiles L. Gadsby, 38, who spent a year as a soldier in Vietnam and was honorably discharged, continues to insist that he never joined the Navy and that his arrest last week is a case of mistaken identity or bureaucratic bungling.

But Gadsby, a reservoir operator for the Las Virgines Water District, remains in the Navy’s San Diego brig, wearing sailor’s dungarees and a Navy haircut--and awaiting a court-martial.

Gadsby is scheduled to go before a Navy hearing officer this afternoon to determine if he should be confined to the brig’s medium-security section, where he is assigned to a general labor detail, according to Julie Swan, a civilian spokeswoman for the San Diego Naval Station. The hearing is closed to the public.

Man Disappeared

Navy officials have said that on Oct. 21, 1976, a man with Gadsby’s name, appearance, signature, Social Security number and military history entered a Navy recruiting office in Colorado and enlisted for a two-year hitch. That man was inducted, given a one-way plane ticket to San Diego to report for further orders and disappeared.

Last week, after Gadsby was located through California Department of Motor Vehicle records and taken to San Diego, Navy authorities requested fingerprints that they promised would prove conclusively he had signed up in 1976.

But on Monday, a Navy spokesman in Washington conceded that no fingerprints were taken when Gadsby allegedly enlisted in the Navy a year after being discharged from the Army Reserve.

“The fingerprints were to have been taken in San Diego and he never got there,” Lt. Cmdr. Scott Wilson said.

He noted that the lack of such crucial evidence could have a “reasonable impact” on the Navy’s effort to prosecute Gadsby. Even so, the Navy remained certain of Gadsby’s alleged enlistment based primarily upon matching signatures and Social Security numbers, Wilson said.

Was Enrolled in Class

Meanwhile, Gadsby’s wife of three years, Vickie, said Monday that her husband has told her that he was enrolled in classes at Glendale Community College on the day he is alleged to have enlisted in a Navy recruiting office more than 1,000 miles away.

An admissions official at the college said Monday that records show Gadsby was, indeed, registered for classes that began Sept. 13, 1976. However, records show that Gadsby withdrew from classes at an unspecified date before the end of the term.