David Hemler, AF deserter has suffered enough
Marine 7002, Old Trooper and Chief Tango sent us a link to an article about some doofus Zoomie, David Hemler, who deserted from the military in 1984 who thinks he’s suffered enough and should be allowed to return to the US without any punishment.
Dagens Nyheter said David Hemler had deserted aged 21 while serving at a U.S. Air Force base in Germany, after getting involved with a pacifist church and becoming disillusioned with the policies of former President Ronald Reagan.
Yeah, Ronald Reagan, that was a reason to desert. Fiery rhetoric. Those pacifist churches are nothing but trouble.
Apparently, he’s still on the Air Force’s “Most Wanted” list
“My dream scenario is that the responsible authorities realize I have already been punished quite severely for my actions … I have been living 28 years in lies,” Hemler said.
Yeah, keep dreaming, gumball. Living the life of luxury in socialist Sweden isn’t prison time. And he works for the Swedish government under an assumed name, I’m sure the nanny state will like that. In 1984, we were cleansing the ranks because of the glut in the recruit pool, I’m pretty sure he could have got a discharge just by asking. But I guess it’s easier to just walk away and then beg forgiveness two decades later.
His douchebaggery almost reaches the level of Alex Bacon, the former executive director of IVAW who went AWOL from the Coast Guard in Hawaii to protest their patrols of the fisheries. Or something.
Category: Shitbags
The fact that he’s worked for the Swedish government for 28 years rather argues against that thesis, AV. I ain’t buying it. Particularly considering exactly where he was working in the USAF, and what his command (6913th ESS) did.
Unless he’s ruled criminally insane, it’s also irrelevant. If he’s not criminally insane, diminished capacity is a matter more appropriate for consideration as a mitigating/extenuating factor for sentencing.
What a tard to go AWOL from the Air Force. He probably read “Red Storm Raising” from Tom Clancy while in Germany and wet himself.
Hondo,
You don’t need to buy it. It’s a fact anyway. 🙂
I know, because I know the guy. Or, rather, thought I knew him. 🙂
But I’ve only known him for the past few years and it might be that 28 years on the run has changed him. He might have been a bright kid. Although I very much doubt it.
And I agree. It is a mitigating factor only, and not an excuse. But worthy to keep in mind before lamenting over his actions.
AV: don’t have any reason to dispute what you say about knowing the guy. But his former unit in the USAF argue strongly that he was indeed at one time a bright young man. You had to be to get assigned the specialties most common in those units.
Whether he still is “all there” today is a matter for the courts to decide – provided he truly wants to come home. If so, he can come home, take his medicine, and then go about his business. But he gets no free pass.
That’s particularly true given his duty assignment at the time of his desertion.
@53: I don’t care if he’s Forrest Gump, the punk went over the hill and for 28 years has lived without any consequences. Now he thinks he’s suffered enough? Screw him. However, what he deserves and what he’ll get are two totally different things. I would prefer he wasn’t allowed back in the US, ever, plus a Big Chicken Dinner, and that he have to repay the US for his time in the military. But that’s just me.
Can’t agree, Old Trooper. Given his last assignment before he deserted, I want him returned to US control so we can debrief him and find out what – if anything – he gave away after he deserted.
It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that he gave away something that cost us dearly, or even cost lives. Until we debrief him we won’t know.
Stake him spread-eagle on an ant hill in the desert,
while having to listen to Fran Drescher’s screeching.
Hondo,
It’s fully understandable that you’d want him debriefed.
But I am somewhat sceptical to you finding any information coming from him reliable. Firstly, he’s not all there. Secondly, he’s lived a 28 year lie and has to be a master of denial.
A debriefing under US control is not going to happen however. He will stay in Sweden until all is clear, even if that means until the day he dies.
And since the US can’t get him extradicted your best hope would be interrogations on Swedish soil and under Swedish supervision.
Sorry, AV–but he DOES need debriefed, although I’d suggest it not be on American soil. He needs handed a BCD or DD and never allowed to return to the US.
He hated it so much, he can stay the fuck out.
The fact that he doesn’t have the stones to come back until, as you put it, “all is clear” shows me that he’s “there enough” to know he’s fucked if he ever falls under US custody.
NHSparky,
He’s absolutely “there enough” to understand that.
Not sure if you guys know it be there’s an interview with him (in english) at http://www.dn.se/webbtv/nyheter/david-hemler-deserted-28-years-ago/
AV, insanity doesn’t necessarily mean he isn’t responsible for his actions. The key to the insanity defense in the US is not that they are incapable of empathy or guilt. It’s simply whether or not they were aware that what they did was against the law. Much to the chagrin of criminals this obviously isn’t applicable too often since it necessitates psychosis. As he took concerted effort to conceal his whereabouts for over 20 years then insanity isn’t the cause of it.
AV, I agree he’s never going to willingly leave. He spends almost thirty years letting his family believe one of the cruelest lies possible, has a career as a comfortably compensated civil servant, and still leaves his parents to foot the bill to go to him.
I hope the Swedes see him for the sociopath he is, and boot him out for the good of their country. The ones I’ve met all seemed to be nice upstanding people, and don’t deserve a shady little rat like Hemler running loose.
Vietnam was the last time the American military put any concerted effort into finding deserters who haven’t committed felonies. It’s a waste of money, and they almost always either can’t stand being a fugitive any more and turn themselves in or get snagged by police checking IDs or performing a traffic stop.
I still don’t buy his pacifist claims. The Air Force in the 80’s wasn’t exactly having a personnel shortage. A CO with no disciplinary issues would have managed no worse than a General Under Honorable discharge (which is an administrative discharge, not a punitive one.)
AV, what is the reaction in Sweden over all of this?
He seems quite lucid in the translated interview linked in comment 40 above, AV. According to that interview, he’s hoping for “no punishment, or a few weeks max”. Based on history, that’s probably what he’d be looking at – if all he did was simply desert.
The last US deserter to “come home” from North Korea got 30 days and a dishonorable discharge from the military. He’d been gone nearly 40 years. I’d guess Hemler would get roughly the same, or maybe slightly more time (living in Sweden probably wouldn’t be considered quite as bad as living in North Korea).
If his Swedish lawyer is worth a damn, they’ve told him this. The fact that he doesn’t want to come home and take his lumps convinces me he may well have taken something with him when he left, or divulged something after he deserted. Or that he may have been passing stuff to ideological “friends” before leaving.
He comes home and gets debriefed. Then we figure out whether he’s simply a deserter or something far worse.
Or he stays away permanently. His call.
Ann,
He’s absolutely responsible for his actions and he understood what he was doing when he walked away.
But if he was then, as he is now, then I have a hard time understanding what he was doing in the USAF in the first place.
He is far from rational and his reasoning is very loosely connected. On any subject.
He isn’t completely insane however and therefor any defense couldn’t claim insanity as an excuse. But I would say that it’s mitigating.
As a crazy person, Ann, pfew, I was
so relieved to read what you said.
Ann @ 63,
Most ppl seem sympathetic and feel sorry that he’s had to live a lie for so many years. Negative reactions are mostly related to his selfishnes in keeping his US family worried and in the dark for so long.
Very few are criticising him for deserting.
Some people think that they can join the service to gain credibility in thier philosophies later in life. they fail to realize that 4 years is a long long time and if you aren’t dedicated it can wear on you. Much like we see with Left Wing military fakes. They either fabricate whole military careers, or served in non-combat roles then fabricate tales of daring do.
This dude is rational…though we may not agree nor understand it. If he had a Clearence higher then Secret then clearly he passed some form of evaluation to get it. You really can’t fake those. What he hide was his motivations which is easy enough because at the time they were just gestating.
Then with the right exposure and manipulation his feelings came out. I can’t say what the trigger was but it could have been a combination of things. Death in the family, something shattered his belief, maybe he was found out early and left….who knows. The fact is this is more then just desertion based on politics.
Uh, AV . . . he was in the USAF because he voluntarily signed a contract to enlist. He was not forced to do that. And he was mentally competent to do so at the time.
Either Ann has this one nailed, or he’s dirty and fears further exposure. He’s either simply someone who regretted a decision, got scared, and used religion as an excuse to desert – or he disclosed protected military secrets to folks with an agenda and/or connections to a foreign government, either before or after he deserted.
If the former, history says he’ll get exactly what he says he can accept: a reasonably short incarceration followed by freedom. If the latter, he has a very good reason to worry if he ever comes back under US control.
It’s his call. The fact that he won’t take his chances tells me there’s quite possibly more to this story than we’ve heard so far.
He got tired of all the Swedish meatballs hitting his chin!
having served alongside the AF pukes in Field Station Augsburg in ’84 (I left later in the year) I can assure you that a)the worst thing they faced was a particularly crappy shift schedule (4 mids, then 4 evenings, then 4 days, no days off or breaks- but then they got 4 days off!) and having to live in the same town as a variety of Army intel pukes, mixed with some infantry and 3/63rd tankers. There were a few good ‘military’ mixed in amongst the Air Force, but there were a LOT of really spoiled children, too. His MOS was likely something like 208 or 202, the AF equivalents for 98G and 98C, or maybe whatever they called an 05H. He would have had a high security clearance, to be sure, but almost anything he ever knew is VERY outdated by now – hell, half the Warsaw Pact is in NATO nowadays. FS Augsburg is even gone – handed over to the German BnD years ago. By now, nothing this idiot knew is classified higher than New York Times. What’s he going to do, spill the beans on equipment less sophisticated than a modern cell phone?
I remember back in ’03 in Quantico. I went to go register my car at PMO and there was a PFC in his 60’s. I found out that he had deserted in the late 60’s and had turned himself in after living under an assumed name for 30 years. The rumormill went that it was because he had just had a kid and didn’t want to go to Vietnam although I don’t know that piece for a fact. Rather than throwing him in the brig, the Marines decided that he would instead be required to finish out his original contract. I say send this guy back to active duty…and maybe, Afghanistan 😉
Hondo @69,
Noone is claiming he was forced to anything. But, again, if he was then as he is now, and I was the USAF recruiter, then it should have been me that should get shot for taking him onboard.
@67 Av: I have to take issue with the feelings of people there that “Most ppl seem sympathetic and feel sorry that he’s had to live a lie for so many years.”
He did NOT HAVE to live a lie for so many years. He could have been up-front about his desire to leave the service when he was still on active duty, and given how things were going back then, he could have found a way out. He may not have liked the type of discharge he received, but at least he could have gotten out without becoming a deserter.
Even after that, he could have come out at any time, admitted his identity and his deserter status, and taken his licks like a man.
HE chose to stay hidden, NO one was twisting his arm to do that. It’s called being accountable for the choices he made. He took the easy way out, and now he’s paying the price.
Dave, see #56. As Hondo said, until he’s debriefed, who knows what he gave away.
Because the Cold War is over, should we release John Walker and his family?
He sounds so gay.
Dave: I’ve read that some parts of ESC worked missions other than the ones you obliquely reference above. Dunno if that’s true about 6913th ESS or not.
And I’m as concerned with seeing him debriefed in detail about the year or two before he deserted as with what he did after he left.
@73 Av: what do you specifically mean by “if he was then as he is now?” Are you implying that he had then, and has now some sort of mental, emotional, or other defects that should have disqualified him from entering the service? If so, what were those defects, and what test, exam, or other process do you propose should have detected any such defect?
My point: he may be (and was) immature, impulsive, naive, and/or more. Those personality traits are not in and of themselves reasons to disqualify people for military service; lots of people (including me) were like that when we entered the service, and we obviously grew up and fulfilled the obligations we freely agreed to fulfill.
He was (and still appears to be) intelligent and lucid enough to make choices and understand their consequences.
Unless you know something about him that we don’t, I see no reason that would have prevented him from finishing his enlistment and living up to the terms of his enlistment contract and the oath he took to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” and “bear true faith and allegiance to the same.”
Marine_7002 @74
I agree. Quite a few reactions have actually been that they feel that it was strong of him to come out at all.
@77
He lacks capacity for logical derivation to an extent that I would say constitutes a defect.
Maybe it’s recently acquired, I don’t know, but if he was like that during the enlisting process, then you guys need to do something about your tests. 🙂
NOT saying he does not need debrief or punishment!! What I am saying is that most likely whatever classified info from back then is obsolete by now. At that specific point in time, high capacity storage was on Winchester discs, for instance. The M-1 Abrams was relatively new and the M16A2 had not been released. Tactically, what he knew was equivalent to having the secret order of battle at Gettysburg.
This clown obviously is hiding MUCH more than simply walking away from his post. He did not need to do that, and he had to know that, so he ran in the first place for reasons other than not wanting to go to work that morning.
Don’t care if whatever info he passed to whomever back then is today outdated/unclassified. Does not matter because at the time he did whatever he did he knew it was illegal, immoral, illadvised, or worhty of his being conficted of all sorts of crimes.
Or maybe he got laid so much that it scrambled his brain and he had to turn to drugs to cope. And we have no way of knowing just how many drugs he has ingested since then to escape the harsh punishment of having to live with the consequences of his freely made life choices.
All we really know is just enough to make some educated guesses about what he did then and has never answered for to date. My best guess is that he has taken a bunch of drugs, perhaps beginning prior to his desertion.
CaptMustang, I think we can trust him to give the TCNs (who actually know what it means to work in difficult situations) a break by assuming some shit burning duties.
I think that this guy should be punished to the fullest extent of the UCMJ! Back in 1984 there wasn’t that much going on compared to what our Airmen are facing today in Afghanistan. There is NO statue of limitation on Desertion!
Does anyone know if the military still employs the lash? If so, I think one lash per year of desertion for his crimes is a good start to his punishment.
on a semi-related note – MSN has video today in which Swedish workers are having problems keeping up with their difficult 26 hour work week. Guess the combination of being a deserter and that tough work week finally wore him down.
#85 I so wish!
Also ESS would have been intel and ESC later became AIA which in turn has become AF Intel, Recon, Surveillance Agency
-Ish
Isnala is correct, 6913th ESS was an intel unit in Augsburg. As a former 6913th puke, I suggest a nice lengthy stay at a govt facility turning big rocks into little ones. I personally wasn’t in the unit until about 18 months after this numbnuts decided to run, but the 13th was a self contained unit; we had maintenance, security, linguists, code, and analysts all belonging to the unit of about 300 which manned the field station and separate mobile intel assets (I was an anal cyst on the mobile side).
“I have been living 28 years in lies.”
WHOSE lies ??
If the “punishment” is lies, then WHO is punishing WHOM ??
Ha !! — To this day still, he does not understand JUSTICE = CAUSE & EFFECT.
After having read the numerous hate mails wishing the worst on David Hemler, I have come to the conclusion that he must have more courage than most.
emeretia: No, he’d a damned coward. Or he’s hiding something else.
If he had courage – and actually had a bona fide “Damascene conversion” after signing up – he’d have stayed in and gone through the process of being declared a conscientious objector. If that wasn’t the case, the honorable way to handle this situation would have been to either apply for an authorized early release (the USAF was granting them fairly often) or serve the rest of his enlistment.
He did neither. He chose to run away from the situation instead.
Running away from one’s problems vice facing them is what a coward does.
The alternative is that he’s hiding other misbehavior involving unauthorized disclosure of secret information. Given his last duty assignments and specialty, that possibility cannot be discounted out of hand.
@90- it takes “courage” to desert your post, in the face of absolutely no danger at all? It takes courage to run out on your family, when you could have just recieved a normal discharge or a transfer by talking with your supervisor? It takes courage to let your mother think you’re dead for 28 years, while you go off and play house in Sweden? It takes courage to lie to your employer, wife, children, and a couple of different countries, just to avoid admitting a mistake?
Courage is not the ability to slink away from any problem with your dick tucked between your legs, leaving other people to deal with them. Pull your head out of your ass.
Also, debriefing time does not count as time served. Suffered enough? Good job,married and raiesed a fanily. Sounds more like the American Dream.
Lock him up for a long time. He deserted the USAF and should suffer the consequenses. A few posters obviously have no service at all.
@56: Ok Hondo, I’ll concede that point, but then once he’s been properly and thoroughly debriefed; can we do my part of the plan?
Old Trooper: works for me. But recent history (the last guy who came in from the cold after 20+ years, in 2005 or so) says he’ll probably get a short confinement and a DD instead.
That’s provided all he did was desert. If he was involved in providing secrets to outsiders, he could well have been involved in espionage. That’s a whole different ball game.
Joe Williams: if you read this, please see the last few comments on the Wittgenfeld thread ( http://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=29627 ).
@90–you have no idea what hate is. We’re just mildly pissed at this point.
@ #90 – What a hateful thing to say. Shame on you.
#100 – Yay!!!