Talk:Allen R. Schindler, Jr
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What I knew of Allen. I knew of Allen only after he was reduced in rank from E-4 to E-2 or 1 (can't remember). I was on the Belleau Wood at the time I worked as a night time mess deck cleaner. He would visit us (the other cleaners) because he was barred from leaving the ship. At the time, I didn't know, and didn't really care what he was busted for. It turns out he sent a radio message that pissed off the brass. At the time, I recalled seeing him in Hawaii with a flock of ladies around him. This was a day or two prior to the forced recall back to the ship due to Hurricane Iniki. I would of never imagine that he was gay. To this day, it doesn't seem plausible to me, but supposably his journal contained information about such. Since he was bored, he would visit nightly. I personally found him to be a very rude, sarcastic and used profanity like any good seasoned sailor to people he didn't know. He was fond of putting down other sailors' mothers and generally belittled and mocked people that he didn't know. I found this to be very odd. He didn't insult me, maybe he did, but I didn't really care. Making fun of other people's mothers is common place in Brooklyn, so such BS was a blow off. Due to his very brash nature, he didn't have to many friends, I didn't care, i was in the money loaning, tobacco business on board, so a connection was a connection After a while, I found him to be entertaining. I can candidly recall asking him why he didn't get a new work shirt (blue shirt). He was busted down from E-4, so he had a Eagle and a single chevron. He "X" out the eagle and wrote a "no" under the bird. I thought this was very funny. He was forced to buy new shirts. It turns out that Alan was probably an alcoholic, but this his hear say. This is nothing new in the Navy.
The night as i remember it.
The night mess deck cleaning crew works for the Master-At-Arms. As such we would occasionally do there bidding on other matters, besides cleaning. Which is why I found it strange that they told me to clean out his rack of his personal belongings. Carefully, i placed his stuff in one of those cheap Navy clear bag. If at the time I knew what explosive information that was in his journal...who knows?
The following information is hear-say, so I cannot attribute it to fact. 1. Alan was not beaten in the park. Instead, he was found partially alive in the park, by a group of off duty Master-at Arms from the ship. One of them told be personally that they had to move him to the bathroom for better lighting to resuscitate him . They could not revive him in the bathroom, where he was declared dead. (This is very contrary to the court documents, where we was killed in the bathroom). 2. The night he was killed, was the first night he was off the ship in many week. He was loaded according to other sailors at local bars that saw him. He taunted his killers that night using a wide assortment of profanity. He was heard by other people in the park that night. 3. He frequent taunted his killers for weeks prior to his death. He threatened to expose to everyone that the two guy that killed him were in fact gay lovers.
As for the Lifetime movie, Sasebo, Japan was depicted as a slutty, shitty sailor town, akin to any port town in the Philippines. The exact opposite was true. This town was very clean, and very boring. The people worked hard and where somewhat soulless. Such a murder embarrassed the town's population terribly. The movie depicted Alan as this super innocent angel, who happens to be gay. The 20/20 report was shown several times on the ships TV, to us, the crew. One of the guys (I forget his name, but he was a short black guy, who was a nice fellow), was interviewed on 20/20. His voice was scrambled, but we all knew who it was. The funny thing was, we also all knew he was gay, and nobody really cared. He was not obnoxious like Alan. I can personally say that Alan didn't deserve to be killed, but he was not liked by alot of people. The homophobic march, in my opinion, was media driven, and turned the cast of a big mouth ass, who need a good ass whipping, into the case of two gay hating sailors verses "the babe in the woods" (No pun intended...but it fits). It was sad that he died so young and tragically.
It is written as a personal account in the first person. Where did it come from and what should be do with it? - User 01:22, 23 April 2009 (EDT)
- Subpage it with a note saying it was plonked on us anonymously. Totnesmartin 04:27, 23 April 2009 (EDT)
The above info is misleading. I was there when he died. He died with his smashed head in my hands. We picked him up from the bathroom floor when he was trying to breathe. We carried him to a bridge nearby so that the medics could get him. Slowly his breathing and drowning of blood reduced until he passed. He also was not rude. He was just a sailor who drank like the rest of us. If you were not there, do not assume on hearsay. Regardless, he was a human, imperfect, simply expressing himself confidently as anyone should. — Unsigned, by: 63.235.13.63 / talk / contribs 06:37, 28 February 2013 (UTC)