Soldier who fled to Canada returns to U.S.

[unhappycamper]

Spc. Cliff Cornell steps outside his hotel room Feb. 9 in Savannah, Ga., after traveling three days by bus from Canada. Cornell plans to turn himself in to military police at nearby Fort Stewart, where he'll likely face criminal charges for abandoning his unit before it deployed to Iraq in January 2005.


Soldier who fled to Canada returns to U.S.
By Russ Bynum - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Feb 10, 2009 5:47:40 EST

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Sporting a dragon tattoo on his forearm and skulls on both biceps, Cliff Cornell’s tough exterior dissolves into tears as he reflects on his return to the Army four years after he fled to Canada to avoid the war in Iraq.

“I’m nervous, scared,” Cornell said, wiping puffy eyes beneath his sunglasses Monday at a Savannah hotel after a three-day bus ride from Seattle. “I’m just not a fighter. I know it sounds funny, but I have a really soft heart.”

Cornell, 29, of Mountain Home, Ark., planned to turn himself in to military police Tuesday at nearby Fort Stewart, where he’ll likely face criminal charges for abandoning his unit before it deployed to Iraq in January 2005.

He said he fled because he doesn’t think the war has improved the lives of Iraqis, and he couldn’t stomach the thought of killing.

“During my training, I was ordered that, if anyone came within so many feet of my vehicle, I was to shoot to kill,” said Cornell, who enlisted in 2002 but never deployed to war. “I didn’t join the military to kill innocents.”


Rest of article at: http://armytimes.com/news/2009/02/ap_cornell_army_021109/%2e