From: wolda002@umn.edu
Date: Fri Jul 18 2008 - 04:35:16 EDT
Desertion Not As Fashionable As It Used To Be
July 17, 2008: In the last five years, the U.S. military has had about
30,000 deserters. A deserter is anyone on active duty that is away from
their unit, without permission, for more than 30 days. About half of them
were army. However, about half the troops on active duty during that period
were army. In the last year, the army lost nine soldiers per thousand to
desertion. That's twice as many soldiers as were lost to combat (dead and
seriously wounded). Desertion is the largest cause of losses in the
military, larger than combat, and non-combat, deaths and serious (resulting
in medical discharge) accident injuries.
The navy actually has a slightly higher desertion rate. While the navy has
suffered far fewer casualties than the army, the fleet has been at sea for
longer periods since September 11, 2001, and that tends to wear you down.
The marines have about the same desertion rate as the army, and the air
force has a much lower one. None of the combat, or time-at-sea stresses in
the air force.
All of the services see desertion as a failure of someone to adapt to
military life. For example, most of those who desert and say it's "because
of the war" have never been in combat or been exposed to combat stress.
They just don't want to be in the military anymore. It's long been a
problem, even after the U.S. went all-volunteer in the 1970s.
During the Vietnam war, there were years where the desertion rate was more
than three times what it is now. Part of that was due to the use of
conscription, mainly for the army. Since the end of the Vietnam war, only
volunteers are accepted for the military, and the main problem now is
people who have problems adapting to military life. The current war has
meant that about 60 percent of army personnel will end up in a combat zone.
That tends to be a high stress situation for some, and that often results
in desertion. But most deserters just don't like military life, and are not
smart enough to scam their way to an early discharge.
Another aspect of desertion is that, if you walk away, the military won't
come after you. It's not worth the effort. Of course, deserters are cut off
from veterans benefits (a substantial part of the overall compensation
package), and your name it put on the national fugitives list. If you
encounter the law and they run your name past this list, you will be
arrested for desertion. But even with that, only five percent of current
deserters are court martialed and officially thrown out of the military
each year. Back in the 1990s, only about two percent of deserters were
caught. But since September 11, 2001, national criminal databases have
gotten more thorough, and heavily used. So more deserters are being found.
When a deserter is caught, he (it's usually a he) is turned over to
military police. The deserter is then returned to their unit, where the
punishment ranges from loss of rank and dishonorable discharge, to that,
plus up to five years in prison. The most common punishments are at the low
end, although in the last few years, there have been more cases of
deserters being shown leniency, and given another chance to complete their
enlistment.
Those arrest warrants for deserters never expire, and some Vietnam era
deserters are still getting picked up. They get the same treatment as
deserters of more recent vintage. Fleeing the country does little good.
Nearly all foreign countries, including Canada, refuse asylum to those who
volunteered for military service, and then just walked away. Canada, for
example, has a volunteer military as well, and understands that there other
ways to get out of the military besides just walking away. Canada has begun
returning U.S. military deserters who were unable to obtain legal immigrant
status up north, and had claimed political asylum because they were
deserters.
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htatrit/articles/20080717.aspxSP
--
Million.
Mpls MN
***HeGeRey ZBeLet LBe GhiDN'u Kt'ReKeBi AsBei***
AWET N'HAFASH!!!
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----