What Makes Someone Desert The Military?

[sabra]

http://cbs4denver.com/seenon/local_story_251095714.html

Family Says AWOL Soldier's Decision 'Went Deeper'
Tough Question: What Makes Someone Desert The Military?

<snip>

CBS4 asked the tough question: What makes someone desert the military?

"I think the public is looking at anyone who goes AWOL as cowards and it goes much deeper than that," Rebecca Barker said.

Barker is the mother of Mark Wilkerson. Wilkerson is a young Specialist from Colorado Springs who had actually talked his family into letting him join the Army.

...

"I am not willing to kill or be killed or do anything else I consider morally wrong for reasons I don't believe," Wilkerson said last month while standing side-by-side with anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan.

"When he came back at first, he wouldn't talk about what happened over there," Barker said "And he was very reserved about details and stuff and he was very angry."

...

"It was very tough for us because it's like, we don't raise quitters," Barker said. "And he's like, 'I can't. It's against everything I believe in. Going back there, how would you feel if I died for something that I did not believe in doing?'"

[porphyrian]

1. A coward is someone who does the wrong thing out of fear.

It takes a brave person to stand up to the entire military establishment, knowing the severity of the punishment in store, to do the right thing.

[BOSSHOG]

2. Back in the 80's I sat in on a courts-martial in Philadelphia

A young Sailor was charged with desertion. He had been gone for about two years. He said he fled the ship because he was being sexually harrassed below decks. He thought his only way out was to leave the ship.

Another Sailor deserted his ship because of drug dealing going on in his berthing area.

Most likely not answering your question except their are several reasons why one would make the decision.

[ThomWV]

3. Back When I Was In The Army I knew A Couple Of Guys Who Left

Mostly, and I'm not trying to be snide about this, they had something they thought was more important to do, generally on the domestic scene. No kidding. Usually a female (young) was involved somehow as well. Take it any way you want, that's just how it was.

[Imagevision]

4. What Makes Someone commit suicide once there...

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. "What if they gave a war and nobody came?"

Sounds like a helluva good idea to me.

When they asked me to extend my enlistment to go to Vietnam in 1965, I told them to shove it.

Killing people on the whim of politicians and/or generals is repugnant and insulting.