A court is set to decide whether a young man with autism and a low IQ who enlisted in the Marines three years ago should have been allowed to do so in the first place.
Joshua Fry, was living in a Los Angeles, Calif. group home for people with disabilities when he was recruited to join the Marine Corps at age 20. He struggled in the military, however, and was ultimately court-martialed on child pornography charges. Now a court will decide whether or not the military can hold Fry responsible.
Fry’s attorney is set to argue before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces on Thursday that the young man lacked the mental capacity to enter into an enlistment contract with the Marines, citing his IQ of 70. Accordingly, Fry’s defense believes that he cannot be held accountable by the military if he was never truly enlisted.
For their part, military officials contend that Fry knew what he was doing when he joined the Marines and failed to reveal his autism diagnosis, reports McClatchy Newspapers. To read more click here.
I find this story very odd and with som questionable information in it. It is my understanding, from my autistic son’s experience, you have to be able to pass the ASVAB (?) a fairly difficult test to be admitted. This story says nothing about that, and then the writer cites the reason he was kicked out as child porn which has NOTHING to do with autism whatsoever. It seems to me he is trying to draw some sort of link to the two…if you are autistic, your like child porn. Ridiculous.