Some Truths about Desertion
Dude, sometimes this blogging this is so easy a Caveman can do it. Case in point….
Got an email from Raoul about this post. “Cliff Cornell was denied sanctuary in Canada. He will face general courts martial Tuesday, April 28 at Ft. Stewart, Georgia.” The money shot quote from me was some genius from Courage to Resist.
“This is outrageous,” said Jeff Paterson of Courage To Resist, a war resister support group that has established a legal defense fund for Cornell. “The U.S. war against the Iraqi people remains illegal today, just as when George Bush and Dick Cheney started it,” said Paterson. “President Obama should bring all our troops home now. And he should grant amnesty to Cliff Cornell and hundreds of GI’s who refused to take part in an occupation that has killed untold tens of thousands of men, women and children.”
Really? Is that why people are deserting? Well, not according to my new friend LTC Nathan Banks, hero, scholar, Dancing with the Stars winner and PAO:
(his email in full after the jump)
Bottom line. AWOL and Desertion are NOT a major problem in the Army. When all is said and done, less that 1% of all Soldiers do either. That includes Warriors who come home on mid-tour leave. So, if someone is feeding you a line that ‘more would desert if they weren’t deployed’ is simply uninformed; and the data show that to be absolutely false.
The attached Adobe documents [ed note: attached as .jpgs at the end of the email message] shows convictions for desertion from 1998 to 2007. As you will see, the rate of conviction for desertion has increased since 2002. We are more sincere about prosecuting deserters because it is a more serious offense during a time of war. A Soldier who deserts the Army, and thus, his or her fellow Soldiers, has a negative impact on unit readiness and morale. This is a serious matter when a unit is preparing for war. A Soldier who deserts will also cause the commander to focus attention away from the mission of preparing for war.
I don’t believe the increase in convictions has a significant affect on the rate of actual desertions. Although it may be a deterrent, I don’t have evidence to back that up so I really can’t connect the two.
However, as I mentioned during our interview, I think the decline in the rate of desertion can be attributed primarily to two things. First, the Soldiers who have volunteered to serve since 2001 have done so during a time of war. Those who are opposed to serving while we are at war are likely not joining the Army to begin with. Second, a large percentage of Soldiers who volunteer to serve during a time of war do so because they have a sense of duty to the nation. As they train for deployment, they develop an even greater sense of duty to the Soldiers in their unit. Soldiers who desert or go AWOL spend the rest of their lives looking over their shoulders. Because if they get caught speeding, or have a police background check done on them, they will be identified.
Lastly, we have found that most Soldiers who desert or go AWOL fit a similar profile: 1) First-term Soldiers with less than a year on AD, 2) financial problems, and 3) personal problems. Deserting or going AWOL is NOT a good option. We are finding in most cases that the Soldiers did not use their Chain of Command; and instead simply went from, ‘I have a problem and going AWOL or deserting is the solution.’
Currently since 2001 to the present, we had 23,261 deserters – 29,926 apprehended. Today we have only 2442 warrants issued for deserters.
Let me know if there is anything else you need or if you have any other questions.
LTC Nathan Banks
Army Spokesperson at the Pentagon
My gut instinct, purely gleaned from anecdotal evidence is that he’s exactly right. The ones who claim “Political Prisoner” type things generally left for some other reason, and trumped up their stuff later.
Category: Politics
I’m glad to see “OPERATION SMALLPOX BLANKET”, Darth Cheny’s plan to infect the millions of assault weapons being illegally smuggled by the NSA across the border, is finally bearing fruit.
Don’t you remember being briefed in the “We hate brown people” block of intsruction in basic training?
Sorry, posted in the wrong thread…
Blanket amnesty is being advocated by many left wing blogs and discussion forums. Saw a thread on DU this morning about it, in fact…they’re trying to lobby the White Hizzouse for it. Rots a ruck.
Good lord, I have to ask if not getting punished for going awol/desertion, where is the courage that they are claiming is there?
I mean just once, I would like to hear one of these groups say that a deserter went awol because he was scared to risk, life, limb and comfort and using the anti-war groups as a excuse to make his cowardliness seem some how brave.
Just once.
Yeah, it’s been what, 30 years, since the military had a deserter apprehension unit? Why waste time on them. The smart thing is to do just what the Army is doing, make them look over their shoulder. Turn the names over to Law Enforcement, and when they get pulled over, apply for a clearance or a background check for a job, their name will pop up and they’ll get scooped up.
Then they get a Big Chicken Dinner and the scorn of their former comrades for the rest of their lives.
respects,
Courtyard by Marriott, Oxford, Alabama. 3 Department of Defense employees (all military veterans), 3 rooms, 1 night, all checked in and paid with GSA Government Travel Cards. 2 pay regular rate, 1 pays government rate. Manager (Sam Mukherjee) refused on multiple occasions to correct this deficiency. We have to pay the difference out of our own pocket. When we made the reservation last Friday we asked for the government rate. Manager insists that we were told that we would not get the government rate. The damned hotel was practically empty. IF they informed us that we would NOT get the government rate we would have stayed somewhere else because we are NOT STUPID!!! We have the different bills to prove this. I am going to have a field day with this. I will start with the General Services Administration, who negotiates government rates for hotels nation wide. From there I will contact the Defense Travel Service personnel to try to have Marriott hotels deleted from their data base. I will also contact the commander of Anniston Army Depot and attempt to have your hotel in Oxford barred from Army use. From there, there is still the media and the Chamber of Commerce and that is just the beginning. We still have the power of the Internet. I see the Courtyard by Marriott decision as extremely unpatriotic and I will do something about it. Feel free to contact myself or Mr. Thomas Brame, the other affected individual. I have over 30 years of government experience and have travelled throughout the world in the performance of my military duties and I’ll be damned if I do not take action to correct this situation. PS, when the bill appears on my government credit card statement I will dispute this bill. Reply Help these men out please!! Good morning Mr. Brame and Mr. Kopsick, I am sorry you feel that way but as I had explained to you during our conversation, that we are very sure that it was mentioned to Mr. Finkley, at the time of making the reservations, that there were no… Read more »
Did you see this link on that website?
http://resisters.ca/AWOL_in_Canada.pdf
As a former Restriction Barracks Petty Officer at NAS Whidbey Island, the only deserter we saw was an AO2 who I actually bailiffed at Commanding Officer’s Non-Judicial Punishment. He was awarded a bust, a fine and restriction. This was on a Friday and he was allowed to get some personal affairs in order and report on Monday. On that Monday he did not show at his normal place of duty. His division/department carried him in a Article 86 status. It was well over a month later when he was apprehended by Local Law Enforcement in the Las Vegas area. He got caught on a traffic stop. The DOD notifies law enforcement of a service member’s absence so when the license is checked the name will indicate wanted by military authority. After he got back from San Diego, where Nevada sent him, he was given an Administative Separation(ADSEP) at the convenience of the government under Other Than Honorable conditions by the CO. He was considered in a deserter status having been absent for over 30 days but still in posession of his active duty identification card.
It’s easy, let the locals pick them up and we handle the paperwork. During the post Desert Storm RIF, it took about 72 hours for a CO to ADSEP an individual. And it results in “bad paper” That is a phrase for a bad discharge regardless of what kind, since there is more than one type. That means no GI bill, some student loans and working at a burger joint. Except for Hawker Beechcraft where having an OTH doesn’t matter.
The sentence is in. He got one year in prison, reduction to E-1 and a Bad Conduct Discahrge.
Great news. Hope he enjoys hearing the steel door close behind every night for 365 nights knowing that he has no freedom. None. Zero.
And day he gets out, he may have his freedom, but he has no honor. None. Zero. Ever.
I remember clearly a report on Deserters to North Korea. There have been about 10 who risked their lives to cross the DMZ, where they became Movie Stars and Celebrities. You might wish to highlight that trend to the IVAW types. The NorK’s are very quick to give US deserters red carpet treatment.
Oh, and all of those fit the profile you and the PAO laid out: some idiotic trouble that they thought they could get out of by running. Might wanna look those cases up, as a service to your page as well as those deserters today. 2442 deserters may thank you!
A BCD! Burger flipper/car wash attendant for life! couldn’t have happened to a “nicer” guy.
Famous quote from Jeff Paterson on CBS National Radio News January 21st 2007, “I can’t support the troops, they’re the ones killing people.”
Paterson is RCP.
Raoul, if this war with the crazies wasn’t taking place, I wonder what the gigantic brain of yours could have been used for. I wish I had helf the situational awareness you do on these clowns.