{"id":10162,"date":"2009-04-28T13:06:48","date_gmt":"2009-04-28T18:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=10162"},"modified":"2009-04-28T13:59:24","modified_gmt":"2009-04-28T18:59:24","slug":"some-truths-about-desertion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=10162","title":{"rendered":"Some Truths about Desertion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dude, sometimes this blogging this is so easy a Caveman can do it. Case in point….<\/p>\n

Got an email from Raoul about this post<\/a>. “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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is outrageous,\u201d said Jeff Paterson of Courage To Resist, a war resister support group that has established a legal defense fund for Cornell. \u201cThe U.S. war against the Iraqi people remains illegal today, just as when George Bush and Dick Cheney started it,\u201d said Paterson. \u201cPresident Obama should bring all our troops home now. And he should grant amnesty to Cliff Cornell and hundreds of GI\u2019s who refused to take part in an occupation that has killed untold tens of thousands of men, women and children.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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:<\/p>\n

(his email in full after the jump)
\n<\/p>\n

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.<\/em><\/p>\n

The attached Adobe documents [ed note<\/strong>: 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.<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/em><\/p>\n

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. <\/em><\/p>\n

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.’<\/em><\/p>\n

Currently since 2001 to the present, we had 23,261 deserters – 29,926 apprehended. Today we have only 2442 warrants issued for deserters. <\/em><\/p>\n

Let me know if there is anything else you need or if you have any other questions.<\/em><\/p>\n

LTC Nathan Banks
\nArmy Spokesperson at the Pentagon<\/em><\/p>\n

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.
\n\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dude, sometimes this blogging this is so easy a Caveman can do it. Case in point…. … Some Truths about Desertion<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}