The Case of Pvt. Joshua Fry

21-year-old Joshua Fry is a Marine. He is on the autism spectrum, and his recruiter knew this when he recruited Fry from a group home in Irving, California. After making it through 11 grueling weeks of boot camp, Fry was sent to Camp Pendleton for infantry training where "within weeks he was under arrest for desertion and possession of child pornography," today's LA Times reports. He has been court-martialed and imprisoned for the past year; his next court-martial hearing is July 27.

And he's not doing well, according to his grandmother, Mary Beth Fry of Newport Beach. When Fry was 18, she became his legal conservator meaning that "under the conservatorship, Fry is prohibited from signing contracts without his grandmother's approval." The recruiter ignored the fact that he needed Mary Beth Fry's legal approval to recruit Joshua Fry. According to court documents, Fry's life has not been easy:

A 35-page motion filed by Fry's lawyer details a troubled childhood: parents who were drug addicts, an evaluation of autism at age 8, multiple stays in foster homes, behavior problems at Newport Harbor High School, an arrest for stealing iPods and a court-ordered stay at a facility for psychologically disturbed youth that lasted 15 months.

And, as the LA Times notes:

Autism is not among the conditions that automatically bar a would-be recruit. But, if Navy doctors had known of the diagnosis, Fry would have been evaluated more skeptically during the pre-boot camp medical examination and most likely would have been rejected.

In 2006, a psychiatrist for the Orange County mental health agency wrote that, although Fry "is high-functioning for a child with autism, he exhibits the typical characteristics of anxiety, impulsive behavior, distractibility, very poor social skills and an inability to read social cues and interact appropriately in social situations."

Of course it is wrong that Joshua Fry was, as he has been charged with, in possession of child pornography. But it's very, deeply, disturbing to know that military recruiters are so pressured to get enough recruits that they (knowingly) overlook legal and ethical principles. It's Joshua Fry who is getting the shortest end of the proverbial stick. As Mary Beth Fry notes,

"He's had a lot of problems being locked up,......He's on psychotropic drugs. He's been diagnosed as bipolar and is having trouble holding it together."

More commentary on MilitaryPhotos.net (citing a June 1, 2009 San Diego Union-Tribune article with more details of Joshua Fry's childhood---"Fry still couldn't speak by age 3, when his grandmother adopted him. He struggled with behavioral problems – including violence, stealing and self-abuse – throughout childhood"---his mother was addicted to heroin when he was born and his father to crack). Also see Chantal Sicile-Kira in the Huffington Post.