OCALA, Fla. – A man who had been living under a fake name since going AWOL from the Air Force in 1972 during the Vietnam War was found Tuesday in Ocala, the Marion County Sheriff's Office said.
Linley Benson Lemburg, 75, had been living under the alias William Michael Robertson and had listed his birthday as Aug. 29, 1951, which is a decade after he was actually born.
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The U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations asked deputies to help find Lemburg.
Once he was tracked down at his home on SW 5th Place, he was taken to the sheriff's office's evidence division.
"He then gave fingerprints to our latent print examiner, and they compared those fingerprints that he gave today to the fingerprints that he gave when he enlisted in the Air Force, and they did match," Sheriff's Office spokesperson Lauren Lettelier said.
Lemburg was taken to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.
News4Jax sister station WKMG stopped at Lemburg's house in Ocala, and a man outside said that Lemburg was one of the nicest people he's ever known.
WKMG also uncovered several government documents that Lemburg was able to obtain with the fake name, including information on the Marion County Property Appraiser's website that says Lemburg's property was re-registered under the name William Robertson.
Under military law, a person who has been AWOL for more than 30 days is considered to be a deserter.
The maximum punishment for desertion during wartime is death, but that penalty hasn't been applied since 1945, according to the military newspaper Stars and Stripes.
More common punishments include dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of pay and confinement.