Jenkins gets monthly salary of $3,200 as plea bargaining process begins
Monday, September 13, 2004 at 14:20 JST
TOKYO — A U.S. Army spokesman said Sunday that accused deserter Charles Robert Jenkins is entitled to get paid about $3,200 per month as a soldier based on the length of service before his alleged desertion. The amount of his past service totaled nine years and two months, the U.S. Army said.
After Jenkins turned himself in at Camp Zama on Saturday morning, Zama officials outfitted him in an Army Class B uniform, had him sign the standard paperwork and gave him an advance payment that's offered to soldiers in need of financial assistance.
Legal procedures to determine his fate are already under way, the U.S. Army in Japan said Monday. Maj John Amberg, the camp's chief spokesman, said the 64-year-old sergeant continued procedures Monday to return to active duty for the first time since the alleged desertion to North Korea in 1965.
Jenkins is staying at a temporary accommodation in the camp in Kanawaga Prefecture together with repatriated Japanese abductee Hitomi Soga, whom he met and married in North Korea, and their two North Korean-born daughters.
Jenkins will fully start jobs relating to personnel in the camp's administrative support unit after completing the procedures for registration, said Amberg, who serves as the public affairs chief of the camp.
On Saturday, Jenkins completed an emergency contact form and was offered enrollment in the Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance program. Identification cards were issued to him, his wife and their youngest daughter.
Jenkins is not under arrest and can act freely at Camp Zama as long as he is accompanied by aides appointed by the U.S. Army, Amberg said.
But he cannot leave the camp without the commander's permission, the army said. (Wire reports)
For better or for worse this man makes more money, has better benifits, has complete health and dental insurance, and may retire with a pension.
