Veto Huapili Baker
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| Veto Huapili Baker | |
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| Born | 1948-09-14 Hawaii |
| Known for | Went AWOL in Vietnam, so he could live with the Vietnamese woman he loved |
Veto Huapili Baker is an American, from Hawaii, who went Absent without leave in 1972, when the US Army was going to send him back to the United States.[1] He was the returning individual to have spent the longest time classified as Missing In Action.[2]
He had fallen in love with a Vietnamese woman, and the Army would not permit him to marry her, or sponsor her to return to the United States with him.[1]
Because Baker's ethnic heritage was Hawaiain, it was not obvious he was an American.[1] He was able to pass for several years, but Vietnamese authorities finally expelled him in April 1975.
Upon his return to the USA he was initially processed as a deserter.[1][2] But, his parting from the Army was reclassified as AWOL, permitting him to have a general discharge. Baker's wife Mai, and their children, accompanied him on his return to the USA.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Nigel Cawthorne (2013). The Bamboo Cage: The True Story of American P.O.W.'s in Vietnam. Garrett County Press. ISBN 9781939430021. Retrieved on 2020-01-16.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Notes on People, The New York Times, 1976-01-06, p. 22. Retrieved on 2020-01-16. “An Army deserter, the last known G.I. to leave South Vietnam, is now a civilian in Honolulu—without the disgrace of a dishonorable discharge.”
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