Earl David Worden Army Record P. 1 2019-04-07

[Theresa R]

Theresa R submitted a new resource:

Earl David Worden Army Record P. 1 - Earl David Worden's Army record

Army record for Earl David Worden

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[Theresa R]

Seems as though the great NAZI hunter went AWOL more than once. Not quite the honorable career he has described to everyone.

 

[observer]

The record also explains his employment as federal law enforcement. Being an MP is not quiet what he led many to believe. It is amazing how many of EDW’s stories and explanations have been proven to be lies or misstatement of the truth.

 

[Cassano]

Seems as though the great NAZI hunter went AWOL more than once. Not quite the honorable career he has described to everyone.

Seems as though the great NAZI hunter went AWOL more than once. Not quite the honorable career he has described to everyone.

He only went AWOL once for a period of 6 months. I obtained the documents you've got under FOIA and I'm sure somebody else forwarded them to you. Having been in the Army (in the 70's) I'm able to decipher the record. It may appear there were two AWOL incidents, but it was only one.

 

[Cassano]

I managed to obtain those documents through FOIA. I was going to upload them, but you got them in already.

EDW enlisted in the Army on 03-28-79 under DEP (delayed enlistment program). He was active duty on 09-19-79, three days after his 18th birthday. He got Basic Training and MP Training in Fort McLellan, Alabama from 09-20-79 until he was assigned to Fort Riley, Kansas on 01-31-80 after a 10 day leave that followed training. Notice all the entries marked "casual". This means the person is on annual leave.

He was an MP, but it appears he had gone AWOL (absent without leave) from 04-19-80 to 10-17-80 (6 months). Crossed out is his "casual" duty (en route to Germany) from 09-15-81 to 09-28-81. It is re-entered later with the same dates.

REFORGER (reinforcement of troops in Germany) is an annual campaign that troops out of Fort Riley, Kansas participated in. His unit did as well, and he was in Germany from 09-15-81 to 10-07-82, at which time he was assigned to St. Louis, Missouri until he was assigned to Pasadena, TX.

There is no specific ETS (end term of service) date, but I suspect it was 02-12-85. He did attain the rank of SP4 (E-4 Specialist grade), which is quite common for 4 years of service, but with nearly 6 years, he should have attained E-5 (SP5) by that time. I'm sure the AWOL slowed his advancement.

Therefore, EDW is telling the truth about being an MP in the Army and that he served in Germany, although it was for only a year, so I doubt he had the time to "develop contacts".

 

[FattMatt]

If his end of service date was December 85, he was already arrested and convicted by 84, and was a security guard for his parents company.
Earl was on active service until October 82, does that mean he had left the army at that time, but could be recalled until 85?

 

[Liz]

I managed to obtain those documents through FOIA. I was going to upload them, but you got them in already.

EDW enlisted in the Army on 03-28-79 under DEP (delayed enlistment program). He was active duty on 09-19-79, three days after his 18th birthday. He got Basic Training and MP Training in Fort McLellan, Alabama from 09-20-79 until he was assigned to Fort Riley, Kansas on 01-31-80 after a 10 day leave that followed training. Notice all the entries marked "casual". This means the person is on annual leave.

He was an MP, but it appears he had gone AWOL (absent without leave) from 04-19-80 to 10-17-80 (6 months). Crossed out is his "casual" duty (en route to Germany) from 09-15-81 to 09-28-81. It is re-entered later with the same dates.

REFORGER (reinforcement of troops in Germany) is an annual campaign that troops out of Fort Riley, Kansas participated in. His unit did as well, and he was in Germany from 09-15-81 to 10-07-82, at which time he was assigned to St. Louis, Missouri until he was assigned to Pasadena, TX.

There is no specific ETS (end term of service) date, but I suspect it was 02-12-85. He did attain the rank of SP4 (E-4 Specialist grade), which is quite common for 4 years of service, but with nearly 6 years, he should have attained E-5 (SP5) by that time. I'm sure the AWOL slowed his advancement.

Therefore, EDW is telling the truth about being an MP in the Army and that he served in Germany, although it was for only a year, so I doubt he had the time to "develop contacts".

Thank you for your work on this Cassano and for the explanation.

 

[Cassano]

If his end of service date was December 85, he was already arrested and convicted by 84, and was a security guard for his parents company.
Earl was on active service until October 82, does that mean he had left the army at that time, but could be recalled until 85?

Exactly. It's called Ready Reserve. As I indicated, the records don't provide his actual ETS date (end term of service - active duty). Normally, in the Army, at that time, a term of service would have been 3 years active followed by 3 years Ready Reserve, and subject to recall.

 

[Starrman72]

I concur with some of the description of the records above but think there are a couple of points. Where the records are marked “casual” doesn’t indicate annual leave, rather they show periods of time when the person was unattached from a formal unit. This frequently occurs when changing duty stations (transferring on orders). The record indicates this in both instances. The transfer between boot camp and Ft. Riley, the transfer between Ft. Riley and Germany and the transfer on orders between Germany and the continental U.S. at the End of Active Service (EAS). From what I can tell, the records indicate he was discharged directly from Germany and following the flight home his EAS was 10/8/82. The next day his records transferred to the Reserve Components Personnel and Administration Center and his inactive reserve obligation began. The 1985 Entry appears to be an Inactive Ready Reserve muster that probably occurred in one day so no additional entries appeared as there was no new “assignment” from there.

Also, on the topic of the AWOL. There appears to be 2 as suggested and not 1. By my read he was AWOL from 4/19/1980 to 5/8/1980. The timeline makes sense because on 4/28/1980 has was married in Harris county Texas (See Harris County Clerk file:620418 I’ve requested an electronic copy of the license itself). Upon his return on 5/8/1980 he was assigned a special duty of 71L - Clerk. Essentially, he was put on desk duty. The second AWOL was over a weekend 10/17/1980 - 10/20/1980. This indicates that he may have had his liberty restricted from the previous incident and was caught off base over the weekend. Either way it appears to be 2 separate incidents.

 

[FattMatt]

So looking at the timeline of Earl's career, he was took a two week training course to become a military MP, made contacts in Germany about Nazis in hiding in South America, left the Army in 82,which leaves a window of 83 to do his Nazi hunting, before opting to become a security guard of a car lot for his parents company in 84.
Perhaps his daughters could confirm Earl's fluency in German and Spanish to make his employment time line more rock solid.

 

[Starrman72]

So looking at the timeline of Earl's career, he was took a two week training course to become a military MP, made contacts in Germany about Nazis in hiding in South America, left the Army in 82,which leaves a window of 83 to do his Nazi hunting, before opting to become a security guard of a car lot for his parents company in 84.
Perhaps his daughters could confirm Earl's fluency in German and Spanish to make his employment time line more rock solid.

No need. There was no Nazi hunting. Immediately after arriving from Germany Earl proceeded to retrieve his family from where they were staying while he was oversees and immediately returned to the Houston area permanently. There was no Nazi Hunting in the cards for Earl. In 83 he was busy impregnating both his wife and girlfriend who both subsequently gave birth to his third and fourth children (of the kids we know about) in 1984. No time for Nazi Hunting with all that Baby making.

 

[Cassano]

I concur with some of the description of the records above but think there are a couple of points. Where the records are marked “casual” doesn’t indicate annual leave, rather they show periods of time when the person was unattached from a formal unit. This frequently occurs when changing duty stations (transferring on orders). The record indicates this in both instances. The transfer between boot camp and Ft. Riley, the transfer between Ft. Riley and Germany and the transfer on orders between Germany and the continental U.S. at the End of Active Service (EAS). From what I can tell, the records indicate he was discharged directly from Germany and following the flight home his EAS was 10/8/82. The next day his records transferred to the Reserve Components Personnel and Administration Center and his inactive reserve obligation began. The 1985 Entry appears to be an Inactive Ready Reserve muster that probably occurred in one day so no additional entries appeared as there was no new “assignment” from there.

Also, on the topic of the AWOL. There appears to be 2 as suggested and not 1. By my read he was AWOL from 4/19/1980 to 5/8/1980. The timeline makes sense because on 4/28/1980 has was married in Harris county Texas (See Harris County Clerk file:620418 I’ve requested an electronic copy of the license itself). Upon his return on 5/8/1980 he was assigned a special duty of 71L - Clerk. Essentially, he was put on desk duty. The second AWOL was over a weekend 10/17/1980 - 10/20/1980. This indicates that he may have had his liberty restricted from the previous incident and was caught off base over the weekend. Either way it appears to be 2 separate incidents.

Looking over it again, it appears you're correct. There were TWO situations of AWOL. I haven't examined these kinds of records for many, many, many, years, so I appreciate you breaking it down a bit better. On top of that I'm old. My eyes aren't what they used to be.

 

[Cassano]

I managed to obtain those documents through FOIA. I was going to upload them, but you got them in already.

EDW enlisted in the Army on 03-28-79 under DEP (delayed enlistment program). He was active duty on 09-19-79, three days after his 18th birthday. He got Basic Training and MP Training in Fort McLellan, Alabama from 09-20-79 until he was assigned to Fort Riley, Kansas on 01-31-80 after a 10 day leave that followed training. Notice all the entries marked "casual". This means the person is on annual leave.

He was an MP, but it appears he had gone AWOL (absent without leave) from 04-19-80 to 10-17-80 (6 months). Crossed out is his "casual" duty (en route to Germany) from 09-15-81 to 09-28-81. It is re-entered later with the same dates.

REFORGER (reinforcement of troops in Germany) is an annual campaign that troops out of Fort Riley, Kansas participated in. His unit did as well, and he was in Germany from 09-15-81 to 10-07-82, at which time he was assigned to St. Louis, Missouri until he was assigned to Pasadena, TX.

There is no specific ETS (end term of service) date, but I suspect it was 02-12-85. He did attain the rank of SP4 (E-4 Specialist grade), which is quite common for 4 years of service, but with nearly 6 years, he should have attained E-5 (SP5) by that time. I'm sure the AWOL slowed his advancement.

Therefore, EDW is telling the truth about being an MP in the Army and that he served in Germany, although it was for only a year, so I doubt he had the time to "develop contacts".

I WANT TO THANK STARRMAN for sifting through this a little closer. I did a cursory examination, so my assessment might be slightly off. I've also not examined these types of records for many years, so I appreciate Starrman's clarification. And, to point out, there actually WERE two AWOLS.

 

[Cassano]

Seems as though the great NAZI hunter went AWOL more than once. Not quite the honorable career he has described to everyone.

Actually, looking again, you're right. TWO AWOL incidents.

 

[Starrman72]

Looking over it again, it appears you're correct. There were TWO situations of AWOL. I haven't examined these kinds of records for many, many, many, years, so I appreciate you breaking it down a bit better. On top of that I'm old. My eyes aren't what they used to be.

I know the feeling ;-)

 

[Theresa R]

Actually, looking again, you're right. TWO AWOL incidents.

I had to write down the dates to try and figure it out but it looks like he went AWOL the second time when he was transferred to Germany. It appeared as though he didn't show up and was marked AWOL the day after he was supposed to report for duty.

Handwritten records are the worst but I'm thrilled to have them. Thank you so much!!