Soldier says he’s not AWOL, Army says he is AWOL
So, this guy, Kevin Shakley (sp) claims he was discharged but the Army says, nope, he’s a deserter. The Army says he went AWOL in 2004 years before he told the news crew that he was discharged. He claims that no one ever mailed him his discharge. Well, if the Army told me that they’d mail me a discharge, and they hadn’t done it in seven years, I’d have been on the phone long before now.
The Army also says that they apprehended him once and he fled again. Of course, now he’s telling the story to the media because he got picked up again by local authorities.
Video below the jump autostarts.
Yeah, I’m calling BS on Kev.
Category: Shitbags
Sure, he got picked up once, fled, and didn’t pursue his true paperwork… And I have oceanfront property for sale in Kansas.
Gee, I thought it was only NPRC that mailed your DDs to you. What did I know? I had to wait around in Personnel for mine.
AWOL.
Turd.
Is there a connection…..
I look forward to the monday update
Seems legit. Hey, I can also make change for your $18 bill too. You want three $6’s or two $9’s?
Where’s the dd214? I know they’re supposed to give you a 214 before you get out.
YO! Big Army, hire me to fetch his ass up for you. 100k check will do the trick.
Meh… Unless they can come up with proof he jumped the fence, I am going to stay middle on this.
PAC Screwed my discharge papers, had me down for the wrong MOS title, and had my enlistment date 3 years AFTER my discharge date. Then Finance screwed up and short changed me… twice.
It does happen.
Policy regarding mailing of DD214s has varied over the years. My first 2 were indeed mailed to me, as I was taking some terminal leave and/or authorized travel time in each case and policy at the time didn’t allow them to be given to the individual prior to the effective date of discharge. My last two were given to me during outprocessing, before their effective date, as policy had changed by then.
My second DD214 was mailed to me in late 2003.
Based on my experience, I have to say that this guy’s story of “they said they’d mail me a DD214” is at least theoretically possible. However, if he’s telling the truth he should also have a DA31 for terminal leave plus authorized travel time back to his HOR. If he didn’t have a DA31, he should have outprocessed on his date of discharge – and thus would have been given his DD214 during outprocessing.
I’m guessing the guy’s story is BS.
Looks like he flashed a bunch of non-descript paperwork for the news camera.
I’m in agreement, if you get picked up for supposedly being a deserter you don’t fly the coop if you know you were discharged.
Seems like he’d flash some in-country photos of himself in Iraq and Afghanistan for good measure if he had went.
Betting he lied about being deployed twice too.
Aren’t you supposed to walk out of the transition office with some kind of paperwork that says you’re done? If the Army didn’t “mail” him his stuff, shouldn’t he have records that shows he’s bugged them for it?
even if you take a whole bunch of terminal leave, you still get what I believe they call a “working” 214 that is missing a few blocks, then when your ETS date rolls around you get your final copy sent to you. when I ETSed in the late 90s the first time, I signed both copies at my final out, left with my working copy, and 40 days later when my terminal leave was done I mailed my ID card back to Ft Hood and got my final 214 in the mail. The second time I got out I didn’t take terminal, I cashed in all my saved leave and got my final 214 at my final out, 2 days later I was home and my ID card expired. How this guy could of left without even a working copy of his 214 is beyond me.
I’m not buying it. Every time he’s been discharged his 214 was mailed to him? How the hell many times was he discharged? Along with others here, I doubt he served in either Iraq or Afghanistan either. I’m willing to bet he split after basic and never attended AIT.
When I left, I had my DD 214 in hand, however, that fancy wall hanging discharge thingy…………..never got one.
“Every time I get discharged…”
The only way to get discharged more than once is to reenlist. The discharge is handed to you at the reenlistment.
If you enlist again vice reenlist, after broken service, you must provide your DD214 in order for that to occur.
Let’s assume that he is telling the truth about them saying that they would mail it to him (yeah, I know it’s a stretch, but theoretically possible), he wants us to believe that he didn’t think to follow up on that when he did not get one? OK. Let’s say that perhaps that is possible. What are the odds that after getting arrested the first time for being AWOL that you would not follow up and get the paperwork straightened out?
My favorite part of his interview is the part about 7 years being enough to have to live with being AWOL. Fine with me, kid – go turn yourself in! Evidently he expects to be forgiven for his lack of responsible behavior after some time less than 7 years.
Just another special snowflake who demands that the rest of us treat him with respect and honor that he has not earned.
I doubt if the military said he ‘defected,’ (probably said deserted).
Part of the MSM’s requirement for inaccuracy and misquotes.
Andy: you could be right about the “working copy” bit – it’s been nearly a decade since the last 214 was mailed to me.
However, any such “working copy” would have been a photocopy of an unsigned DD214 (I specifically remember being told in 2003 they could not let me have the signed copy until the effective date). Without some type of actual, valid official document backing it (such as a DA31 for terminal leave), such an unsigned copy by itself would have no legal standing whatsoever.
As I said earlier: the guy’s story may be theoretically possible – but I ain’t buying it without a whole lot more proof than his say-so. My guess is that the guy went AWOL, stayed on the lam for a while, got caught, and now is trying desperately to wiggle out of trouble with a BS story.
I wouldn’t be too surprised to find out the guy went AWOL during outprocessing thinking no one would care, and later found out the hard way that someone actually did.
#18 –
“I wouldn’t be too surprised to find out the guy went AWOL during outprocessing thinking no one would care, and later found out the hard way that someone actually did.”
I’m thinkin’ you’re on the right track – maybe went home on terminal leave, and said screw it, I’m done. What would have helped is if the guy the news babe spoke to had given a date this guy went AWOL.
Mike
My favorite line was “I have discharge papers, but every time I get discharged, something happens to them” So how many times have you been discharged? You have the papers, but you don’t have them?
I agree, at some point in the last seven years I would have made a phone call. After being discharged several times with out any papers.
Yes, problems do happen, In 2005 I got notified that I had retired, got my “thank you for 17 years of service” certificate, and my pay got stopped. I was on deployment at the time. It was fixed pretty quick and the best guess was someone fat fingered the wrong SSN in. At that point the computers took over and used my deployment address to sent me stuff.
Funny now, annoying as hell then.
@20, retired in the middle of deployment? lol, I would of been like where’s my ticket home?
Mike K: I’d guess before terminal leave. If he’d signed out on terminal leave, he’d almost certainly be OK here.
I’m thinking he started his outprocessing, then said “eff it” and decided to get an “early start” on his terminal leave – and ended up getting reported AWOL by his unit. Not positive, but I believe that would have stopped the transfer point from separating him and hence from issuing his DD214.
@ 13 If he was in the guard it’s possible. I was in the guard and have 11 differant DD-214. Every time I changed orders or finished a deployment I was discharged from active duty to traditional guard status. However unlike him I have all my paperwork saying I did my time.
I think the guy may not have even finished basic training or fled after basic, not attending AIT. A close look at the video appears to show that he enlisted in the National Guard in 2004. If he followed a normal enlistment, he wouldn’t have ETS’d until around 2007. So his timeline doesn’t pan out. I would bet that he never deployed.
from what I could tell, the paperwork he showed looked like an enlistment contract……never have I seen the Army let you go without discharge paperwork, “in the mail…” total BS!
Bullshit.
Clown.
A reporter tells us that this dude is a-mouldering in a cell at Lewis-McChord on eight charges. Three for desertion and five related to the news report.
I loved the finger tattoos … they exude confidence and truth!
@27. Jonn……. AWESOME!
Gee, Jonn . . . that’s . . . just . . . too . . . bad.
Enjoy your stay in the crossbar hotel, fool.
After all of the sacrifices he made, this is how you treat him?
Yes.
After all the years that have passed?
Yes.
Oh. Okay, Thanks for answering my questions.
Just talked to the reporter and he says that the Army intends to make an example of him in regards to his lies about his service.
“Karma, she can be a vengeful beyotch, no?”
So can Big Green when it wants to. I think this guy’s about to find that out.
Checking my Giveadamnometer on this boy,… NOPE, it still registers a ZERO!! do the crime, do the time, EVERY LEO I know tells me how next to EVERY perp they arrest has excuses out the wazoo like this little assclown does, let Bubba & Thor straighten his ass out for a while!
Good outcome.
Trying to freeze frame the video. It looks like he was flipping through a combination of a police report (military or civilian I couldn’t tell) from one of his arrests and his original enlistment documents. Neither would have anything to do with the circumstances of his discharge. Going back to what’s already been said – if he’s been arrested for desertion this many times he should have a massive log of phone calls made and be pounding on the door of some HRC office to get his DD214. At least at the end of the segment the reporter was willing to consider he’s full of shit.
Polish a Turd and its still a Turd !
This is my daughters dad, he’s not only a deserter of the Army, but also a deserter of our almost 5 year old daughter. Piece of shit!! Sorry for the language but he pisses me off. I started dating him in 2007 until late 2009 and none of his stories ever matched up. Karma is a bitch, Kevin!!