I was introduced to Scott through another inmate. According to the inmate, Scott was a Korean War veteran who needed help typing up legal documents for a clemency appeal. Suffice to say, I felt compelled to help him, especially because he was a fellow Ranger-tabbed veteran.
When I approached Scott and offered my assistance, he told me his story. For the last 10 years, Scott had been incarcerated. Currently over 70 years old and with over a decade left on his sentence, Scott was trying everything he could for a chance to see his wife and kids outside of a visitation room.
When I asked what led him to being incarcerated, Scott informed me of his long history of mental illness and his status as a retired Army Major. It was during a manic episode that he had an altercation with a police officer that led to a shoot-out. During his trial, Scott attests that his public defender had failed to mention neither his long history of mental illness nor his veteran status.
After typing up Scott’s request for clemency, I told him about how I advocate for the incarcerated through my blog. Simply put, I believed Scott’s story should be told to the world; not only to honor a man who served our country for over 20 years, but also to advocate for his potential reunion with his family. Scott agreed. So after specifying a time to get together, we sat down, and I began interviewing him.
From Guam to the Pacific Northwest
The son of a Naval surgeon, Scott spent his first 6 years of life on the island of Guam. After his father received transfer orders, Scott moved to the Kitsap Peninsula in Washington State. There, in the bountiful temperate rainforests of the Northwest, Scott grew to love hunting, fishing and boating.
“If it has ‘outdoor’ in it, we pretty much did it,” Scott told me as he recalled times spent in the Pacific Northwest wilderness.
He went on to elaborate that he grew up in the “real world” side of western Washington. In fact, Scott’s school was full of children of loggers and fishermen. When he graduated in 1967, his class consisted of only 400 students.
ROTC at WSU
After graduating high school, Scott enrolled in Washington State University, majoring in Economics. Additionally, Scott joined WSU’s ROTC program. Looking back, Scott stated that WSU was a “good college with a good campus and good professors.” He emphasized that although he enjoyed college, he “seriously enjoyed ROTC.”
When I asked him what it was like growing up in the 60s, he told me “It was wild and crazy…there was also a lot of unrest due to the war in Vietnam.”
During college, Scott witnessed plenty of student unrest directed at the government’s involvement in Vietnam. In fact, he told me that there was so much campus unrest that the ROTC cadets had to train and drill miles off campus as not to be harassed or distracted by the student body. At one point, the WSU campus got so volatile that a riot broke out and the stadium got burned down. Scott felt angry about America’s involvement in Vietnam. Despite his anger he emphasized he didn’t agree with the way the students were going about protesting.
Just before graduating, Scott took a road trip to Seattle to see Jimi Hendrix live. Amazed that Scott got to see such a legendary artist perform literally a few feet from him, I asked him what Jimi was like.
“He was pretty amazing…He could really put on a show,” he stated nonchalantly, “I’m a blue grass guy, but the way Jimi could handle that guitar made me appreciate rock.”
The Army
Upon earning his degree from WSU, Scott received his commission in the regular army as a Second Lieutenant. Promptly, Scott was sent to Ranger School as a part of his officer training. Upon earning his Ranger Tab, Scott was sent to Ft. Knox to become an Armor Officer. He told me there was really no choice and that if it had been his way, he would’ve been a pilot. Despite not getting the job he really wanted, he loved driving tanks around. “It turned out great,” he said.
Off to Korea
After training, Scott was “sent off to Korea,” stating again that he didn’t really have a choice in the matter and that there wasn’t much room in Vietnam for tanks. As an officer in the 2nd Infantry Division, Scott patrolled the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.
“We’d go out for two weeks to improve gun emplacements and then come back a week…the Koreans did the land-mining.”
According to Scott, Korea had “its ups and downs.” There was a lot of recreation, beautiful historic sites, and great scenery. The Koreans appreciated the American’s involvement in helping protect them from the Communist north.
“The [South] Koreans were some pretty heavy-duty soldiers…they weren’t a joke and had really hardcore training.”
Flight School in Alabama
After Scott was promoted to Captain, he returned to the United States. At this time, the war in Vietnam was winding down and the army had kicked out a bunch of pilots for a RIF (Reduction in Force). Essentially, the army halved the number of pilots and, because of that, there was more open positions for volunteers.
Scott jumped on the opportunity to fly helicopters. He put in his request and was soon on his way to Ft. Rucker, Alabama for training. According to Scott, his favorite part of flight school was flying. For 9 months, Scott learned the ins and outs of aviation. The first half of his days were spent in the classroom whereas the latter half was on the flight line.
"The training helicopters were hell to fly. It was a small bell, a real tiny helicopter like the one you see on M*A*S*H but smaller…if you can fly that, you can fly anything."
He admitted to me that the first time he flew he was nervous. After the first flight he realized "flying is something that has a feel to it…a feel that has to be learned…Eventually it snaps in your head how it works. After that it's like riding a bicycle."
Aviation in Alaska and Germany
Upon graduating flight school, Scott was transferred to Ft. Waynewright in Fairbanks, Alaska as an Aviation Officer.
“Alaska was an incredible place to be. The base was 100 miles north of Anchorage…we never had any more than 16 pilots. With 27 helicopters in the unit, we had all of interior Alaska to play with…It was beautiful. After the first year you get used to living there.”
After four years of flying full time above the Alaskan wilderness, Scott was assigned to Germany. According to Scott “Germany was fun” and most of the exercises he did were to prepare for war against the Russians. There was always the worry of nuclear war and a lot of training Scott received was in the event of a Soviet invasion. In all, Scott spent 3 years in Germany warding Western Europe from the Iron Curtain that was the Soviet expansion.
Aviation Command
Scott was shipped home from Germany and assigned as an Aviation instructor at Ft. Eustis, Virginia. There, it was his job to train 2nd Lieutenants in aviation subjects in a classroom. During his 2-year tenure, Scott earned the rank of Major. His next assignment was to Aviation Command.
At Aviation Command, Scott kept the army and our allies supplied with helicopter parts (among other things). His position was by no means a desk job. Scott was assigned all over the world.
I was astounded to learn that Scott actually walked into Afghanistan in order to sell Stinger missiles to the Taliban who were, at the time, fighting the Soviets. He sold helicopters to El Salvador, the Philippines, and others. It was during these travels that he first met his wife.
On assignment to U.A.E., Scott was invited to a powerful local’s residence after helping the man pull his boat out of a jam. At the local’s residence, Scott could not help but be attracted to a particularly beautiful woman—the man’s daughter. According to Scott, he tried to court her, but had to navigate many traditional steps and laws in order to move forward. In the end, the father of the woman was very supportive of their relationship and pulled all the strings necessary to allow their marriage to legally take place.
One of Scott’s last military assignments before he retired was during the Gulf War. During the war, Scott was stationed in Kuwait. There he helped deliver replacement parts to Apaches and Blackhawks.
Back Home in Washington
After the conflict, Scott decided to retire and travel back to the place of his upbringing: Western Washington. There, he went to work as a computer technician for his local high school.
Once settled down, Scott and his wife decided to have children. Their first daughter was born in ’91 and their second in ’93.
Happily married and raising his kids, Scott enjoyed a good lifestyle for about a decade. Unfortunately, after that his mental state began to deteriorate.
“Ideas began spinning in my head…I began giving my wife and kids all kinds of problems.”
Scott told me how he began to become aggressive over minor things. Anxiety and paranoia became his daily life. He began to find himself driven to “hide in the woods” and started taking day to week-long journeys into Washington’s national forests without telling anyone how long he’d be gone or where he was going. This was around the time he stopped going to work. Soon, Scott’s life fell apart.
“Money didn’t matter anymore,” he told me, “I began spending money on expensive things I didn’t need. I spent my children’s college savings on motorhomes, motorcycles and guns. The craziest thing I purchased was a salt water reef tank for $10,000.”
In one of his worst manic episodes, Scott decided to get on a plane to Indonesia for the simple reason he “wanted to go snorkeling.” He again told no one where he was going. Days later the Indonesian police picked him up on the side of the highway. He “came to” a little while later in an Indonesian mental hospital and was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder.
“I would just have these spells…the Bipolar comes on slowly. I couldn’t and can’t stop it. I had a number of spells before I got into the mental institution.”
Another Breakdown
Upon being sent home, Scott again began venturing into the national forests of Western Washington, using a beat-up truck as his only shelter. After months of wandering, Scott experienced another breakdown which led to the confrontation with the police officer. As it happened, Scott was seeking shelter due to a rainstorm and broke into a cabin he found. After a period of time, a patrolling police officer noticed his truck outside of the cabin.
Scott awoke, face to face with the police officer. When the officer began questioning him, he became belligerent. During the argument, the officer pulled out his taser and proceeded to shoot Scott in the chest.
“My perception was that he shot me with a gun, so I pulled mine out and shot back…we had a rip-roaring gun fight. He shot me through the abdomen and the forearm. I shot a total of 8 times; he shot a total of 18 times.”
A Failed Justice System
When Scott was arrested, he was patched up and then eventually put on trial. Scott told me that his public defender completely failed to mention his psychological condition during the offense. Furthermore, his attorney didn’t bring up anything about Scott’s documented mental health history of Bipolar Disorder.
It goes without saying that due to ineffective counsel, Scott received a harsh sentence that took neither his mental condition nor his Korean War Veteran service record, including a bronze star for heroic or meritorious achievement or service in a combat zone, into account.
“That was the beginning of my DOC experience,” he told me half-heartedly, “I’ve done 10 years so far. I’ve got 12 more to go…I hope to get clemency so I can take care of my wife and see my kids again.”
Hope for Clemency
Personally, I am very touched by Scott’s story. I sincerely hope he is granted the clemency he seeks and gets another chance to take care of his wife and kids.
In my opinion, Scott needed (and still needs) treatment for his bipolar disorder. I cannot emphasize enough that American prisons are not designed – nor budgeted – to treat mental illness effectively. In our prison, Scott must wait months on end to see 1 of 3 providers who each have a caseload of over 300 patients. I guess what I’m getting at is, because Scott was a law-abiding defender of our nation for over 20 years, I believe he deserves a second chance.
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