COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Leaving Military: AWOL
Army desertion rate highest since 1980
LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press
Nov 16, 2007
WASHINGTON
- Soldiers strained by six years at war are deserting their posts at
the highest rate since 1980, with the number of Army deserters this
year showing an 80 percent increase since the United States invaded
Iraq in 2003.
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While the totals are still far lower than they were during the Vietnam
war, when the draft was in effect, they show a steady increase over the
past four years and a 42 percent jump since last year.
According to the Army, about nine in every 1,000 soldiers deserted in
fiscal year 2007, which ended Sept. 30, compared to nearly seven per
1,000 a year earlier. Overall, 4,698 soldiers deserted this year,
compared to 3,301 last year.
The increase comes as the Army continues to bear the brunt of the war
demands with many soldiers serving repeated, lengthy tours in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Military leaders — including Army Chief
of Staff Gen. George Casey — have acknowledged that
the Army has been stretched nearly to the breaking point by the combat.
And efforts are under way to increase the size of the Army and Marine
Corps to lessen the burden and give troops more time off between
deployments.
Despite the continued increase in desertions, however, an Associated
Press examination of Pentagon figures earlier this year showed that the
military does little to find those who bolt, and rarely prosecutes the
ones they get. Some are allowed to simply return to their units, while
most are given less-than-honorable discharges.
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