26 sLAde goRton: A hALf centuRy in poLitics
Gorton passed the bar and received a reserve commission in the Air
Force around mid-October of 1953, with orders to report to the JAG School
in Alabama during the first week of January. But his draft notice ordered
him back to active duty with the Army in late December. The choice be-
tween cloud counting as a private or lawyering as a lieutenant was instan-
taneous. He pleaded his case with the Air Force, which back-dated his
induction to Dec. 15.
At Polk Air Force Base near Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in 1954, Gor-
ton became the staff judge advocate as a first lieutenant, assisted by Sec-
ond Lieutenant Leonard A. Sheft, a Jewish kid from Brooklyn who went
to Yale. Sloppy, brash and brilliant, Lenny had a French wife who could
work wonders with leftovers. Slade and three other single officers were
living together off base. Monique, who had barely eluded the Nazis, be-
came their worldly ex-officio big sister.
Gorton’s most memorable case during those three years on active duty
was defending a homesick teenage airman. Stationed in Oklahoma, the kid
went home on leave to the mountains of North Carolina to see his girl and
failed to report back as prescribed. The Air Police cuffed him without resis-
tance and deposited him at Polk, the closest Air Force base, where he was
charged with desertion. AWOL, a lesser charge, is absence without official
leave. Desertion is absence without leave without the intent to return. “It’s
subjective,” Gorton explains. “To prove desertion, you’ve got to prove be-
yond a reasonable doubt that the guy did not intend to go back. With AWOL
they tap you on the wrist, maybe give you 30 days and put you back on duty.
For desertion, in those days, you got two or three years in the federal pen.”
Gorton’s client swore he was working at a gas station and saving for a
bus ticket. “I was going to go back.” Not much of a story, but a story nev-
ertheless. Lieutenant Gorton put the kid on the stand and he told his
story. The prosecutor obviously didn’t believe a word of it but shrugged
off cross examination. The lieutenant colonel who was president of the
court panel leaned over the bench and asked, “Airman, how much does a
bus ticket from Rockingham, North Carolina, to Oklahoma City cost?”
Gorton’s life flashed in front of his eyes in about a tenth of a second. “You
dumb schmuck,” he said to himself, “you never thought to ask him that
question.” But the airman, without hesitation, chirped, “27 dollars and 38
cents, sir.” Lieutenant Gorton smiled thinly. The court panel recessed,
but quickly returned with its verdict: “Guilty of AWOL. Not guilty of de-
sertion.” When he returned to his office, Slade called the bus station. A
ticket from Rockingham to Oklahoma City cost only 15 bucks. He laughed
out loud and said to himself, “That kid did really well!”