United States v. Bruce Newton Coale

Coale was convicted of failure to report for induction into the armed forces in violation of 50 U.S.C.App. § 462(a), and he appeals. We affirm.

Shortly after registering with his Selective Service board on June 11, 1970, Coale indicated on Series XI of his Classification Questionnaire that he thought that he had a disqualifying mental condition, a “psychological problem.” The board classified him I-A on July 14, 1971. The board later ordered Coale to report for preinduction physicals on two different dates, but Coale failed to appear. Thereafter, in October 1971, Coale wrote the board a letter indicating that he had psychological problems and submitted two letters from psychologists in support of his claim for disqualification. In brief, the letters describe Coale as psychoneurotie with phobias and learning disabilities and as suffering from a hyperkinetic syndrome with psychological deficiencies which prevented him from performing normally in school.

On November 2, 1971, the clerk of the board forwarded these two letters to the board’s medical advisor. The medical advisor determined that Coale was not disqualified from military service under the standards set out in…